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Devil's Gateway
Vicky had only herself to blame. Agreeing so hastily to the proposal by Conrad de Jungh for a marriage of convenience was, in retrospect, foolish. Yet, what else could she have done? Only when they reached her new home on the remote South African veldt did Vicky fully reallize the extent of her attraction to this tall, dominating stranger. Now he was her husband. And she was obliged to hide her growing love!
187 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published June 1, 1977
2 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Yvonne Whittal
56 books81 followersYvonne Whittal was born and raised in South Africa, the setting of most of her romances. She started writing stories at a young age, but didn't really get serious about writing until after she married and had children. She got many rejection letters from publishers, until a friend who loved romances gave her to encouragement to continue.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
December 14, 2016
OMG The pipe smoking in this one was EPIC.
The hero of Yvonne Whittal's Devil's Gateway, Conrad Stephanus Lodewickus De Jhong, is a South African sheep farmer who drives a station-wagon and smokes a pipe. I thought I had died and gone to heaven at his description early in the story.
The heroine is a typical HPlandia imbecile who lets herself be bamboozled into a marriage of convenience to save her even more idiotic brother from going to jail for fraud. There is also an absolutely worthless, horseback riding OW next door with gleaming jodhpurs and red lips who makes the heroine's life miserable until even she gets bored with it because it's just too easy.
The real star of the show however was the industrial-sized amount of pipe smoke attacking the reader from all angles. From the hero's shirt pocket to his trouser pocket, the stale odour of his clothes to his car upholstery and bedsheets. Everywhere the heroine turns, she is sniffing his masculine pipey scent and she loves it! She even gets him a pipe holder that can hold six pipes at a time for Christmas, for which he plants a slow, languorous, tobacco-flavored kiss on her lips. The best friend and the neighbor also get in on all the pipe action.
I didn't do a word count but I bet the word "pipe" was used at least 1,136 times in the book. It is all in all a glorious ode to pipe smoking.
The hero of Yvonne Whittal's Devil's Gateway, Conrad Stephanus Lodewickus De Jhong, is a South African sheep farmer who drives a station-wagon and smokes a pipe. I thought I had died and gone to heaven at his description early in the story.
The heroine is a typical HPlandia imbecile who lets herself be bamboozled into a marriage of convenience to save her even more idiotic brother from going to jail for fraud. There is also an absolutely worthless, horseback riding OW next door with gleaming jodhpurs and red lips who makes the heroine's life miserable until even she gets bored with it because it's just too easy.
The real star of the show however was the industrial-sized amount of pipe smoke attacking the reader from all angles. From the hero's shirt pocket to his trouser pocket, the stale odour of his clothes to his car upholstery and bedsheets. Everywhere the heroine turns, she is sniffing his masculine pipey scent and she loves it! She even gets him a pipe holder that can hold six pipes at a time for Christmas, for which he plants a slow, languorous, tobacco-flavored kiss on her lips. The best friend and the neighbor also get in on all the pipe action.
I didn't do a word count but I bet the word "pipe" was used at least 1,136 times in the book. It is all in all a glorious ode to pipe smoking.
February 4, 2021
Naksed's review covers the epic pipe smoking (And it is epic - heroine gifts him with a pipe stand for Christmas and no Gift of the Magi stuff going on - he's delighted to use it.) This is a marriage of convenience story of a smitten hero who fell in love at first sight with the heroine and used the fact that her brother was arrested for fraud and embezzling to cover his gambling debts as leverage. He has to hurry the heroine along because he has a vast estate to run and he doesn't have time to waste in the city watching her blush over her dinner.
So he brings the sulky brother and the wide-eyed heroine home to the South African countryside. The heroine is immediately jealous of the sultry siren next door and is alarmed at the feelings in her swimsuit area whenever the hero gets too close.
This goes on for months. There's drama with the heroine leaving the gates open and the hero losing an expensive ram. The brother rebels, but comes to an understanding with the hero after he reveals he too had gambling debts while in university and had to learn to straighten up and fly right on the farm.
Everything is rounded out nicely when the siren and the brother get together, so there's no need for jealousy. However, the hero is overcome with lust and there is a forced seduction. The heroine thinks it's just sex and her worries are confirmed when the hero guiltily offers to let the heroine go back to the city. Luckily the hero is gored by a bull and they are finally forced to talk. HEA
This is a typical outing with YW. The heroine is super-naive and the hero is obviously smitten.
So he brings the sulky brother and the wide-eyed heroine home to the South African countryside. The heroine is immediately jealous of the sultry siren next door and is alarmed at the feelings in her swimsuit area whenever the hero gets too close.
This goes on for months. There's drama with the heroine leaving the gates open and the hero losing an expensive ram. The brother rebels, but comes to an understanding with the hero after he reveals he too had gambling debts while in university and had to learn to straighten up and fly right on the farm.
Everything is rounded out nicely when the siren and the brother get together, so there's no need for jealousy. However, the hero is overcome with lust and there is a forced seduction. The heroine thinks it's just sex and her worries are confirmed when the hero guiltily offers to let the heroine go back to the city. Luckily the hero is gored by a bull and they are finally forced to talk. HEA
This is a typical outing with YW. The heroine is super-naive and the hero is obviously smitten.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 5, 2017
Damn you Naksed, I can not un-see your frickin' image of Will Ferrell.
Review
You would be better off reading Naksed and StMargaret's review for better writing and entertainment.
All I can say is thank goodness this was written in 1977 as it shows. These two raise the concept of Failure to Communicate to its bitter end.
The heroine's enabled little brother has been spoiled and has finally upped his game to committing fraud. Theenabler heroine asks the hero to help about 5 minutes after meeting him. Okay, I exaggerate, about two hours. MOC of course.
Off to the wilds of South Africa with a surly spoiled little brother and the H and h. Then nothing happens. There is is some benevolent head patting on the blackslaves servants and a beautifully annoying other woman. And the romance front, not a lot going on. We finally get a punishing kiss and all I could think was FINALLY.
Ho hum.
Review
You would be better off reading Naksed and StMargaret's review for better writing and entertainment.
All I can say is thank goodness this was written in 1977 as it shows. These two raise the concept of Failure to Communicate to its bitter end.
The heroine's enabled little brother has been spoiled and has finally upped his game to committing fraud. The
Off to the wilds of South Africa with a surly spoiled little brother and the H and h. Then nothing happens. There is is some benevolent head patting on the black
Ho hum.
October 14, 2020
The GR reviews and accompanying pics were so much better than the book. A familiar plot from YW--ridiculously naive Mary Sue heroine marries bullying hero to save some idiot member of her family from ruin. The hero and heroine have known one another maybe half a day before he issues his marriage ultimatum. It's supposed to be an MoC for a year, but we know how that goes. 70s South African setting guarantees cringey racist moments. The hero is very into punishing kisses and hard bruising grips and a shaking now and again (so yeah, typical Whittal). The seduction is forced but the heroine definitely has blushing, trembling, breathless treacherous body syndrome throughout, so she only minds that he doesn't love her. No spoiler to reveal that it was Twue Wuv all along! Vintage in the extreme with some shaking-my-head moments but an amusing and silly way to pass a couple of hours.
July 31, 2021
I love this cover—another one by Gerry Sevier, apparently Gerry wasn't informed about all the smoking.
The story was just okay, not Whittal's best, though in fact I've probably read less of hers than most of HQN's major vintage writers. I realize HQN policy was to ignore the politics, and in theory I don't even disagree with the policy, but studious avoidance is political as well—I don't even hold the writers accountable—but it's never sat well with me so I just find myself avoiding them.
The story was just okay, not Whittal's best, though in fact I've probably read less of hers than most of HQN's major vintage writers. I realize HQN policy was to ignore the politics, and in theory I don't even disagree with the policy, but studious avoidance is political as well—I don't even hold the writers accountable—but it's never sat well with me so I just find myself avoiding them.
April 27, 2020
Stupid, boring, & insipid -- the worst kind of HQN.
To be fair, I didn't mind Conrad (the hero) except for his only-in-HQN-is-this-logical plan to blackmail Vicky (the heroine) into marriage -- not because he did, but because there was no point to it. He could've used the dippy criminal brother's antics as an excuse to interact with Vicky in a normal way. But nope. Instead they know each other for 36 hours before he hauls her away to his farm. Supposedly this is to show how besotted he is, but I don't buy into that...
Because Vicky is a fucking MORON. She's 26 years old, but speaks & interacts like a teenager who's never even talked to a male outside her family. She blushes on EVERY PAGE, & not even at lewdness or swearing -- she blushes when he says good morning or holds the door, ffs. (Of course her absurd naïveté is 'so refreshing' to Conrad, because modern women don't blush anymore. Wtf.) She wrings her hands, stammers, & won't look anyone in the eye when speaking. Even worse, the author obsesses over how 'small & fair' she is compared to Conrad's massive masculinity. And hey, speaking as a tall brunette, I agree that it's nice to feel feminine beside a manly-male type, but does it have to be such a blatant Tiny Doll of Womanhood(tm) fetish?
Combine that with Vicky's remarks about 'the Coloureds' who work on his farm...o.O This is 1970s South Africa, y'all -- is it blatantly racist or just a product of its time? Either way, it's cringey. And the OW has no oomph (or even pagetime), so there's nothing to fill the pages outside of Vicky's blushing & hand-wringing.
Overall: really blah & dated. The Michael Palin cover is the best part.
PRE-READING REVIEW:
Is it just me, or does that guy look like Michael Palin? Whatever. Henceforth, this shall be known as the Michael Palin Romance.
To be fair, I didn't mind Conrad (the hero) except for his only-in-HQN-is-this-logical plan to blackmail Vicky (the heroine) into marriage -- not because he did, but because there was no point to it. He could've used the dippy criminal brother's antics as an excuse to interact with Vicky in a normal way. But nope. Instead they know each other for 36 hours before he hauls her away to his farm. Supposedly this is to show how besotted he is, but I don't buy into that...
Because Vicky is a fucking MORON. She's 26 years old, but speaks & interacts like a teenager who's never even talked to a male outside her family. She blushes on EVERY PAGE, & not even at lewdness or swearing -- she blushes when he says good morning or holds the door, ffs. (Of course her absurd naïveté is 'so refreshing' to Conrad, because modern women don't blush anymore. Wtf.) She wrings her hands, stammers, & won't look anyone in the eye when speaking. Even worse, the author obsesses over how 'small & fair' she is compared to Conrad's massive masculinity. And hey, speaking as a tall brunette, I agree that it's nice to feel feminine beside a manly-male type, but does it have to be such a blatant Tiny Doll of Womanhood(tm) fetish?
Combine that with Vicky's remarks about 'the Coloureds' who work on his farm...o.O This is 1970s South Africa, y'all -- is it blatantly racist or just a product of its time? Either way, it's cringey. And the OW has no oomph (or even pagetime), so there's nothing to fill the pages outside of Vicky's blushing & hand-wringing.
Overall: really blah & dated. The Michael Palin cover is the best part.
PRE-READING REVIEW:
Is it just me, or does that guy look like Michael Palin? Whatever. Henceforth, this shall be known as the Michael Palin Romance.
October 18, 2018
YW wrote better books with crueler heroes. Lol
October 11, 2025
Let me start with: I like Yvonne Whittal's writing and heroes. I also like her heroines -sometimes. This books setting reminded me of The Lion of La Roche Why I don't know. Young girl, marries older guy on brief acquaintance cause she wants to borrow money from him. And we're done with the similarities there because while Caroline from La Roche is one of my favourite heroines with a brain, Vicky made it to my pantheon of morons.
I CANT EVEN!
Conrad says: Lets get married -no sex- and we discuss after a year.
Duffus doesn't wonder WHY he'd pay her brothers debt, give her brother a job and marry her.
She just goes around, lamenting that brother dearest (the embezzler) has to work poor boy, giving Conrad the cold shoulder, yelling 'I hate you!' and other things that we women use to express our love... I mean Conrad said 'lets live together for a year and then we see'. So of course she tries to make sure that by the end of that year he feels she hates the sigh of him. That's how you get your man. When before the year is up Conrad, having despaired, tells her she's free to go... OHHH! Her heart is breaking!
As I said. I can't even. There is no reason in her thinking.
Just read it.
And prepare for your brain to die sloooooooooowly.
I CANT EVEN!
Conrad says: Lets get married -no sex- and we discuss after a year.
Duffus doesn't wonder WHY he'd pay her brothers debt, give her brother a job and marry her.
She just goes around, lamenting that brother dearest (the embezzler) has to work poor boy, giving Conrad the cold shoulder, yelling 'I hate you!' and other things that we women use to express our love... I mean Conrad said 'lets live together for a year and then we see'. So of course she tries to make sure that by the end of that year he feels she hates the sigh of him. That's how you get your man. When before the year is up Conrad, having despaired, tells her she's free to go... OHHH! Her heart is breaking!
As I said. I can't even. There is no reason in her thinking.
Just read it.
And prepare for your brain to die sloooooooooowly.
June 17, 2020
Every good author has one or two bad books.
This is a bad book from my favorite author.
But no regrets.
This is a bad book from my favorite author.
But no regrets.
June 27, 2020
Vicky had only herself to blame. Agreeing so hastily to the proposal by Conrad de Jungh for a marriage of convenience was, in retrospect, foolish. Yet, what else could she have done? Only when they reached her new home on the remote South African veldt did Vicky fully reallize the extent of her attraction to this tall, dominating stranger. Now he was her husband. And she was obliged to hide her growing love
June 16, 2020
I love this author. She is just amazing.
But this one was not at the level.
The H is supposed to be smitten by the h. But his behaviors showed otherwise.
He was just unlikable.
The H forcefully makes love to the h, she gets angry and then he says,
“You don't possess the type of beauty that would ever have the power to drive a man to the brink of passion.”
I don’t know how a person who loves someone could say such harsh word. I just couldn’t buy his love. Also I didn’t found him a possessive guy. He lets another man hang with her. And of course he has his own ow to hang with.
So the H and h just let each other hang with other people.
What irritated me the most was the amount of time the H spent with the ow. Later while clearing the misunderstanding to the h, he says that the ow was just young and practicing her claws on him because she knew that H will never take advantage of her.
Wow.
So the H let her flirt with her. Amazing.
Sorry but this was a big turn off.
But this one was not at the level.
The H is supposed to be smitten by the h. But his behaviors showed otherwise.
He was just unlikable.
The H forcefully makes love to the h, she gets angry and then he says,
“You don't possess the type of beauty that would ever have the power to drive a man to the brink of passion.”
I don’t know how a person who loves someone could say such harsh word. I just couldn’t buy his love. Also I didn’t found him a possessive guy. He lets another man hang with her. And of course he has his own ow to hang with.
So the H and h just let each other hang with other people.
What irritated me the most was the amount of time the H spent with the ow. Later while clearing the misunderstanding to the h, he says that the ow was just young and practicing her claws on him because she knew that H will never take advantage of her.
Wow.
So the H let her flirt with her. Amazing.
Sorry but this was a big turn off.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 1, 2021
DNF.
The 26-year old h meets the H. She can hardly say a word, she trembles and shakes and blushes. The next day he asks her to marry him. Wtf.
I skimmed the book to look if there were maybe some steamy scenes coming. Nothing happens. The marriage is and stays platonic, as far as I could see with skimming the book.
Even when she goes swimming naked after months of being married to him, she asks him to turn around so he can’t see her naked body. And he is such a nice H that he does so. He is much too nice. So nice that it becomes boring.
The 26-year old h meets the H. She can hardly say a word, she trembles and shakes and blushes. The next day he asks her to marry him. Wtf.
I skimmed the book to look if there were maybe some steamy scenes coming. Nothing happens. The marriage is and stays platonic, as far as I could see with skimming the book.
Even when she goes swimming naked after months of being married to him, she asks him to turn around so he can’t see her naked body. And he is such a nice H that he does so. He is much too nice. So nice that it becomes boring.
March 21, 2025
2 Stars
There was a time when I used to really enjoy books like this, but unfortunately, my taste has shifted. The stoic and reserved hero (H) was one of the few redeeming qualities, but the heroine (h) completely ruined the experience for me. I found her incredibly frustrating—immature, entitled, and honestly, I couldn’t connect with her at all. The hero was far better off with the other woman (OW), at least she genuinely liked him. In contrast, the heroine was constantly on the receiving end of his kindness, but still acted like she was owed more. I honestly couldn’t see what he saw in her. Leading another man on just because she was lonely? That was hard to stomach. And the way she kept enabling her obnoxious brother was just infuriating.
The misunderstanding galore and both of them refused to talk clearly just talking in circles.
Then the H turns into a rapist!!!
The irritating h continues behaving the same and the cycle continues.
There was a time when I used to really enjoy books like this, but unfortunately, my taste has shifted. The stoic and reserved hero (H) was one of the few redeeming qualities, but the heroine (h) completely ruined the experience for me. I found her incredibly frustrating—immature, entitled, and honestly, I couldn’t connect with her at all. The hero was far better off with the other woman (OW), at least she genuinely liked him. In contrast, the heroine was constantly on the receiving end of his kindness, but still acted like she was owed more. I honestly couldn’t see what he saw in her. Leading another man on just because she was lonely? That was hard to stomach. And the way she kept enabling her obnoxious brother was just infuriating.
The misunderstanding galore and both of them refused to talk clearly just talking in circles.
Then the H turns into a rapist!!!
The irritating h continues behaving the same and the cycle continues.
July 15, 2025
"Devil's Gateway" is the story of Vicky and Conrad.
The heroine is a do-gooder who lives a pleasant, tame life. When her brother commits fraud, she is forced to ask a stranger, our hero for a loan. He agrees to give it- on the condition that she would marry him and she and her brother would leave their city life and move to his sheep farm.
Thus begins a marriage of convenience between a docile, confused heroine and a brooding hero. Some OW/ OM drama, jealousy, temper tantrums and outbursts of emotions, loads of push and pull, a non con sex scene, a mandatory heroine-nursing-a-hurt-hero montage, with a confession of feelings and happy ending.
Not the worst, but not the best, and the is always a bummer because the heroines in such books are so forgiving even if the hero is repentant.
Safe
3/5
The heroine is a do-gooder who lives a pleasant, tame life. When her brother commits fraud, she is forced to ask a stranger, our hero for a loan. He agrees to give it- on the condition that she would marry him and she and her brother would leave their city life and move to his sheep farm.
Thus begins a marriage of convenience between a docile, confused heroine and a brooding hero. Some OW/ OM drama, jealousy, temper tantrums and outbursts of emotions, loads of push and pull, a non con sex scene, a mandatory heroine-nursing-a-hurt-hero montage, with a confession of feelings and happy ending.
Not the worst, but not the best, and the is always a bummer because the heroines in such books are so forgiving even if the hero is repentant.
Safe
3/5
December 9, 2021
Predictable but enjoyable. It was good to see minor characters get attention too. It's grating to see the servants call them master this or miss that, but recall that servants do use Mr. and Mrs. today. At least the characters treated servants as people and with respect.
May 17, 2022
Really well written but I couldn't get over the casual racism peppered throughout. I know it's of its time - I can usually read books in that context but not this one. Maybe because it comes from the H and h (who I want to like when I'm reading a book) instead of an evil OW/family member who get their comeuppance. It needed to be called out for me to enjoy the book.
April 27, 2016
What a difference in times between then and now...
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews