REVIEW: For Ever and Ever by Mary Burchell
A glittering holiday romance set in the 1950s!
Can Leonie reach the end of her voyage without losing her heart…?
England, 1956
As a hardworking secretary and former nurse, Leonie Creighton has had little opportunity for adventure. So when her employer pays her to watch over his daughter, Claire Elstone, on a luxurious sea voyage, Leonie jumps at the chance to see more of the world.
Having recently been ill — and forcibly separated from an inappropriate suitor — Claire is still in delicate health. Leonie therefore resolves to keep a close eye on her and steer her away from any further romantic mishaps.
However, to Leonie’s dismay, it soon becomes apparent that Claire’s untrustworthy beau is also on board the ship. What’s more, the ship’s senior surgeon is Leonie’s handsome former boss, Simon Pembridge — a man she both fears and admires.
No longer under the stern eye of her father, Claire seems set to resume her clandestine love affair — and it’s up to Leonie to rescue her from heartbreak.
But can Leonie fulfil her responsibilities without getting drawn into a romance of her own…?
For Ever and Ever is a gorgeous, nostalgic holiday romance, set on board a ship in the 1950s!
Review
This is one of the recent reissues of Mary Burchell’s Harlequin novels. Let yourself be swept back to the 1950s when long shipboard voyages were the norm and air travel was mainly for the rich and even then not an everyday occurrence. Oh, and toss in a mysterious malady for a secondary passenger – you know, the type that gives them odd symptoms and for which a senior surgeon would prescribe lots of rest and perhaps a romance.
Let’s discuss the plot. For once, it actually does a pretty good job of covering the main points of the story. I’ll only add that Leonie is one of those Burchell/Neels Englishwomen who had to give up her career of nursing – a career that she found she rather enjoyed – because father died and of course money was needed to maintain the household and a secretary paid more and more quickly then having Leonie finish her training and work in a hospital.
When she’s offered the chance at this luxurious cruise with only light duties, Leonie does as most young women would do. First class cruise and money to outfit herself plus expenses plus her regular salary would still be paid to her mother? And a chance to see something of the world? Yes, please! Australia here she comes! But she confirms the praise that her superior – one of Sir James’s two personal secretaries – had said of her to Sir James when, before she accepts anything, Leonie stops and asks Sir James for a bit more information about just exactly why he wants this whole scenario set up as he does.
Leonie rises to the occasion when she discovers that Claire’s beau is on board. While Leonie doesn’t immediately think the man is a complete bounder, she’s well on her way towards that belief. Why? Well, he’d flirted with her a bit first and got her caught smiling back by the one man Leonie never thought to see again, much less on board this long cruise to the Antipodes. Mr. Simon Pembridge (remember in the UK, surgeons aren’t called Dr. but Mr.). Mr. Pembridge, a senior surgeon at the hospital where Leonie had been training, had done this and dressed her along with the man with whom she was flirting down a bit. This time Leonie is free to snap back at him a bit.
But of course fate just will throw them all together in various permutations. And usually at times when things can be misinterpreted or misunderstood. Sometimes there was a bit of willfulness to the characters refusing to believe the best of a situation but then the book would have been over sooner. I was impressed by how Burchell managed to make all these events seem reasonable despite the fact that this is a romance and we all know to expect plot contrivances.
The romance is one that slowly builds itself to the final crescendo although we have to wait until the bitter end before both MCs are on the same page about it. We can see them interacting and beginning to change their views about each other, talk together, want to spend time together, and then – on Leonie’s part as hers is the only POV – do the misunderstanding mentioned above. Though just as obviously Pembridge sees a few things in ways other than they are for good reasons.
Another delight about the book is that when Pembridge and Leonie are working as professionals, they are both competent. Plus Leonie also gets some fun time seeing Gibraltar, Naples, Colombo, and the beauty of Australia as she sails halfway around it. Bonus points because when she offers some advice at the end, the person to whom she offers it has the wit and intelligence to accept what she says and actually do it. Now that must have been heady stuff for women to read in 1956. B
~Jayne
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Hmm. I so disliked the one Burchell title I read that despite your intriguing reviews I haven’t read another. Perhaps this is the one I should try.
@LML: Hmmm, Burchell – from what I’ve read so far – has a style and type of book she writes. Just as does Neels or D.E. Stevenson. If you disliked something about her style then she just might not work for you. Open Library has a few of her titles that can be borrowed or you could try reading kindle samples. I’d try those before laying out any money.
@LML: But if you want to give one a go, this one is only 0.99 now.
@Jayne happily, it isn’t the small cost, but time. Lately I find myself grouchy when I don’t enjoy a book. Beloved husband has reminded me a time or two recently that I’m not going to reach 120 years of age and whoo, the list of books I want to read approaches 1000.
I read Stevenson’s Miss Buncle, and while I admired the plot, I didn’t care for the character enough to read further.
Betty Neels, flaws and all, I unreservedly love. They are the only books I re-read, I think of them as fairy tales for adults.
This week I read two Joan Smith Regencies, and quite disliked one or more main characters, despite enjoying other of Smith’s Regencies and greatly enjoying her straight mysteries. Perhaps the problem is with me, not the books…
@LML: I hear you on living to be 120 to finish all the books I already have. Agree about Betty serving up fairy tales. And though she usually works for me, some Joan Smith books have been disasters for me, too. Not many but some.
This is a fascinating topic—mortality and reading. I’m in my fifties now and starting to feel some urgency to read good books and not waste my time on bad ones. I’ve been putting down books unfinished since my thirties but now I put them down faster than ever.
On another note, I read a page or two of a Burchell book once and it didn’t grab me but I have been wanting to try another. Her books have been highly recommended by multiple people who have steered me toward other good books in the past.
I’m not sure why I haven’t read Neels. It’s a hole in my romance reading.
@Janine: What’s the rule? 100 – your age = the page number where you can put down a book that’s not working for you.
@Jayne, I’ve put down books after two pages, and I am not 98! Once in a while, I’ll give a book a second try, but an author generally has to catch my attention quickly.
I’m with Kareni, I can tell within a few pages whether or not I’m going to enjoy a book. That’s why I DNF as many books each year as I read. “Nope, next” is my tagline.
Me three, I often quit within a couple of pages, if that counts as quitting (I think of it more as trying a sample and deciding to read something else). However there are exceptions. I’m reading a book now that I almost quit and but it’s gotten a lot better and I’m going to stick with it a while longer and see if it keeps improving or if it gets disappointing enough to return to the library.