Oranges and Lemons.

by Isobel Chace

Karen was sent to Seville to discover why her firm's citrus, business was going downhill. Don Rafael Valenti y Garcia was a good friend -- but as he appeared to be the firm's biggest rival, Karen couldn't help wondering about his motives...

188 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Elizabeth Mary Teresa de Guise, née Hunter on 24 October 1934 in Nairobi, Kenya. She spent much of her years in Kenya and South Africa, and studied at the Open University. Her brother Alexander also wrote Western novels. After their parents' divorce, she and her sister, decided change their surname by de Guise.

Elizabeth wrote under the pseudonym of Isobel Chace, and under her real names: Elizabeth Hunter and Elizabeth de Guise. She was a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association.

Elizabeth passed away in May 2005, at 70.

Reviews

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Widowed and pregnant at 21, Karen has worked hard to make a good life for her son. Using her talents for languages, she becomes a translator for an English marmalade maker. When there appears to be issues with the contracts for citrus fruit from Spain, her boss decides it's time to send Karen to investigate. When she arrives, she discovers the owner of the citrus company, Luis, truly has no desire to run it and would rather sell it to his competitor, whom he wishes to marry off his sister to. The competitor, Rafael, wants the company but it's unclear if he wants the sister. All Karen wants is a chance to give now ten year old, Timothy, a life experience in Spain, which means keeping her job, which means not selling to the competitor.

While the romance to the story is rather tame, I enjoyed Karen and Rafael's journey to HEA.

[Nidhi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read as a kid. First and only romance novel. Made me fall in love with Seville and Spain (which I recently had the luck of visiting)