Journey Into Spring

by Jean S. MacLeod

Old Mrs Abercrombie was a darling, and Elizabeth was delighted to land the job of escorting her from Australia around the world to Scotland. But the old lady's stern grandson Charles was another matter: first Elizabeth crossed swords with him, then she fell in love with him. But Charles, she knew, was going to marry someone else....

Genres: Harlequin Romance

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 1976

About the author

Jean Sutherland MacLeod was born in 20 January 1908 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. She was the daughter of Elizabeth Allen and John MacLeod. Her father, who was a civil engineer, moved with jobs. Her education began at Bearsden Academy, continued in Swansea and ended in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. She moved to North Yorkshire, England to marry with Lionel Walton on 1 January 1935, an electricity board executive, who died in 1995. They had a son, David Walton, who died two years before her. She passed away on 11 April 2011 at 103 years.

Jean S. MacLeod started writing stories for the magazine The People's Friend, before sold her first romance novel in 1936. She wrote contemporary romances, most of them were set in her native Scotland, or in exotic places like Spain or Caribbean, places that she normally visited for documented. From 1948 to 1965, she also published under the pseudonym of Catherine Airlie. She published her last novel in 1996, a year after her husband death. She was member of the Romantic Novelists' Association, where she met the mediatic writer Barbara Cartland, who was not too friendly.

Reviews

[Naksed · Rating 2 out of 5]

Australian heroine's Great Dream is to move to Scotland, the wonderful, amazing land where her mother was born and that she pined for all her life since she became an expat in Australia.

She gets a job as the paid companion to a wealthy, mischievous, French-Scottish grandma who hires her to have a luxurious, all-expenses paid trip around to world, with stops in Honolulu, San Francisco, New York and finally to ye olde family Fairy Tale Castle in Scotland. In exchange for all this, heroine types a few letters for Grandma and spends the rest of her time sightseeing, being wined and dined and kissed by her employer's very eligible grandson, and riding horses. Wow, why can't I get a job like that?

Despite said kiss under a romantic Hawaiian moon, the hero remains cold and aloof for the entire duration of the story, dropping big hints that he can't wait to see the door slam into heroine's posterior on her way out, pointedly referring to the end of her stay at the family castle in Scotland, and mentioning future plans that obviously don't include her. Heroine is naturally in insta-love *sigh*

There are two extremely entitled, rude, and possibly homicidal OW sisters to spice things up a bit. Grandma is fostering these two OWs at the family castle out of a sense of duty and compassion. The OWs' third sister had been the hero's fiance 2 years before and on the verge of marrying him before a car accident claimed her life.

Younger OW was severely injured in that same car accident and since it was hero's younger brother who was at the wheel, she seems to think the hero should now marry her to compensate her for her damages lol.

The other OW just wants to guilt the hero into financing her dream of running a riding school. We know she is a real witch because she doesn't really care for the cute ponies that she is raising, all she can see are dollar signs. There are hints throughout that she treats the horses harshly and doesn't properly care for their health cause she is stingy on vet bills and all about profit.

And of course, the final act of the story has her whipping a noble stallion viciously in order to set him off and knock the heroine off her saddle. Really, OWs who are cruel to animals should be whipped back with the same crop they wield over those poor, defenseless creatures!

Anyhoo, when the heroine shows up at the Scottish castle as grandma's "companion," both sisters are extremely hostile and suspicious that heroine is going to ruin the good thing they have going with the hero and grandma. Heroine has to smile politely at their barbs, keep track of the delightful but flighty grandma, and desperately pine for the hero, who continues to ignore her.

All this changes when the heroine saves grandma from drowning and catches pneumonia as a result. The younger OW is now all friendly and the hero comes to the rescue and seems to care that she not die.
Still, it takes the older OW viciously whipping the horse that the heroine is riding and almost killing the heroine for the hero to do his abrupt ILY-WYMM declaration.

Older homicidal OW is fired off the page and will go on to open a riding school somewhere in a Dario Argento movie. Younger OW's injury miraculously heals and she wants to reunite with the hero's younger brother, who she never stopped loving but thought she had no chance with because of her disability. And heroine will fulfill her dream of living in Scotland with a real-life Scottish laird.

Well, all the elements were there for a charming vintage read but I found it all to be boring and predictable. Plus, I didn't buy that abrupt conclusion. Hero was consistently a cold fish and heroine had the personality of a dim lamp. No chemistry whatsoever between them, and no softening of the hero towards her except that one kiss. In fact, they hardly spent anytime together cause he was always off on business.

The only character to come alive was the feisty, French-by-birth, Scottish-by-marriage grandma. Her background story, which was alluded to several times, seemed the most interesting one. She even had a dramatic reunion on a Hawaiian plantation with an old beau who she had jilted as a young girl in favor of the Scotsman who swept her off her feet. Old beau romantically and tragically dies in her arms, avowing the same, ardent unrequited love for her with his dying breath. I mean wow! Why couldn't we have read grandma's memoirs instead of this?

I will remember this one for the heroine losing the pineapple she had personally plucked at a Hawaiian pineapple farm while on a sightseeing tour, prompting the hero to offer to buy her another one lol. And also for the extremely odd tidbit about the heroine's friend who had advertised for a roommate but only if they could prove they were "100% Australian." Just thought that was an awkwardly racistish thing to throw in there when it didn't even really have anything to do with the plot :~{

[Margo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a pretty good book, but when it boiled down to it, I didn't feel the connection between the h and H -- at least not on his end.

[Holly Jolly]

I'VE BEEN TOO BUSY TO READ. STILL HAS THE BOOKMARK IN IT. SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO MY LAMP IN MY ROOM.