Essie SummersRezensionen

Her retreat led her back to square one!

Priscilla loved her boss, P.B. Lockhart. Since he was engaged to someone else, running away seemed a good idea.

She didn't run far enough. She stopped unexpectedly to come to the aid of the elderly Rosina Claremont at her country estate. Rosina was preparing to look after three children in spite of what her domineering nephew, Barnabas, would say.

Who could have foreseen that the formidable Barnabas was P.B. Lockhart?

She, a MacDonald, love a Campbell?

Edward Campbell had a totally unjustified reason for despising Fiona MacDonald, but she was certainly not going to explain her actions to a "stuffy colonial" she'd never see again!

Unfortunately, Fiona did meet him again--as the uncle of her four young charges on a remote New Zealand sheep station. And it seemed the ancient feud between the clans was being revived.

Too late then to wish they'd started out differently . .

After the unwelcome publicity aroused by a television interview, Marilla St. John decided to retreat to the country for a while until the fuss had died down. She was not prepared for the encounter with Rufus Sinclair, a confirmed bachelor who had heard that Marilla St. John was a determined husband-hunter. How could she convince him he was wrong?

After Stephen had let her down, it was certainly a fillip to Elizabeth Stirling's ego to have the attractive Jeremy Ffoulkes paying court to her. But Jeremy had a wild past and a background of a broken marriage. Was he any more trustworthy than Stephen had been?
Stirling #2

It was love at first sight for Reverend Dougal MacNab when he met Elspeth Cameron and he lost no time in trying to persuade her to marry him. Elspeth, however, was convinced she would never make a suitable wife for a minister. Dougal didn't agree -- but he didn't know of the scandal that lay like a shadow over her past

Hers was a small secret mission

Juliana's father had been born and raised on the alpine sheep station of Thor's Hill, but he had left it under mysterious circumstances and never returned to New Zealand.

Now, as private-duty nurse at Thor's Hill, Juliana was determined to discover the reason.

Something had driven her father away from this beautiful country, but what? And would its shadow always fall between herself and station manager Tulloch MacNair, destroying any chance of their happiness?

They were look alike cousins but Rebecca was the sensible, capable one whilst Becky was flighty and selfish. When one visits the other's fiance's family on their high country sheep station, the trouble begins.
Harlequin 2322

Henrietta and Johnny at cross purposes. Henrietta returns to Dragonshill as governess to Penny and Charles' children. Johnny's old love shows up to spoil things...again.

Johnny Carruthers had broken Henrietta's heart once, when he got engaged to another woman.

Now that engagement was over, and Johnny had come back into her life, offering her a second-best love. Would Henrietta have the courage to refuse, or would she decide anyway that half a loaf was better than no bread?

The woman Johnny broke Henrietta's heart for returns and everyone falls all over her again.

The best Essie Summers...Penny and Charles. Penny gets an unconscious Charles down off a mountain.

Book 1 of Dragonshill

Following the death of her cheating fiance, journalist Greta Mountford moves to a New Zealand sheep and deer farm. The return of farm owner Caleb Armstrong heralds the end of her new found peace of mind. For his presence, and her attraction to him, is far too disturbing for comfort.

This is the story of Dane Inglethorpe, a New Zealand thriller writer who meets Chloe in her grandmother's antique shop while on a book tour of Britain. There is a New Zealand connection between her family and his but only her grandmother, Leonora is aware of it. However she encourages Chloe to travel to Dane's home to renovate the family homestead into a restaurant.

The instant attraction between them is viewed suspiciously by Chloe, especially when the stunning Merle appears on their arrival in New Zealand. She and Dane are obviously close and Chloe can only assume Dane is philandering. When she discovers he eavesdropped on her angry refusal of a proposal from a very unromantic follower, she is confirmed in her belief.

The usual complications ensue, there are cute children, lovely scenery, scads of New Zealand history and Scott of the Antarctic and altogether and enjoyable read. Like her other Severn House book this is longer than her usual M&B books but it doesn't drag.

This is one of the last books published by Essie Summers. It is linked with Not by Appointment as Magnus and Jocelyn are neighbours of the hero Guthrie Chisholm. He and Brodie Nicols knew each other as children and when they met in London two years ago they fell in love and became engaged.

Unfortunately Brodie overheard something that cast doubt on Guthrie's moral's and integrity and she flees without explaining why she was breaking up with him.

Now they are thrown together again and nothing has changed. When they let down their guard they are just as much kindred spirits as before but the dark secret Brodie believed Guthrie carries is still between them.

In spite of the years between this and the linked books from the sixties and seventies it is still very much in the traditional style with a charming cast of characters and star-crossed lovers. The addition of mobile phones and word processors was amusing but otherwise it was Essieland at its most pleasant.

Georgina Innes is a family history researcher and writer on the Isle of Wight in the UK and she is thrilled to meet two older women from the part of New Zealand her ancestors came from. They are in fact, related to her though the connection is unknown to the New Zealanders. When they want her to write the family history, it seems a perfect opportunity to go there and see the places her great-grandmother had talked about to her beloved grandmother.

The complication is of course, our hero, Seth Oliphant, who now owns the property through his stepfather. He has his own secrets and they are just right to cast Georgina into disarray.

There is the usual cast of family members, both old and young and a nice dose of New Zealand country life and scenery that makes you want to visit. No wonder the NZ tourist board considered Essie an asset when her books are so popular.

Overall a lovely sweet read and satisfying ending.

At Tawhai, Rowena Melisande Ainsley Fotheringham felt she had successfully severed the links with her old life and was well on the road to solving her problem. But deceiving the impossibly arrogant Forrest Beechington brought complications into both their lives.

Annabel Lee had been brought up in an orphanage, but had always longed to be able to trace her father, and at last she decided to follow the few slender clues she had to her real identity. They led her to the most beautiful place in the world - where Annabel not only found what she was seeking, but met Gideon Darroch, the most wonderful man in the world, too! How would he feel if he knew the reason she had come?

Glamorous Serena Smith vowed to never again become personally involved with a male employer - her blonde good looks had brought her more trouble than success - so she dyed her hair mouse-colour to make herself appear less glamorous. Then William Durbridge came thundering into her life and Serena was trapped in her new role! She promptly fell in love with him who appeared to be interested only in glamour-girls!

A strong, efficent, independent heroine.

It was a series of mishaps that had brought Joanna to Heronscrag, Matthew Greenwood's New Zealand sheep station, in the depths of winter, and she soon knew that she would give anything to be there in summer as well. But chance would be a fine thing ... A unique twist in the ending that, though happy, jarred a bit.

Summers was New Zealand's Queen of Romance, selling 19 million copies around the world. This book, first published in 1965, has been reissued on Kindle. It is set in a small country town near Dunedin, a city proud of its Scottish heritage. The heroine, Elspeth, buys a cottage near the Presbyterian manse and leaves her job in Dunedin to write full-time. Her neighbour Dougal, the minister, is a youngish man who falls instantly in love with Elspeth, but she has had a bad experience with a minister and has given them up. Despite herself, she falls in love with Dougal, but won't agree to marry him because of a dreadful incident that destroyed her reputation. I had to keep reading to find out what it was.

There's a big dose of religion and morality in this book, and both Dougal and Elspeth are almost too good to be true. Lots of descriptions of beautiful scenery, which make me want to go to New Zealand again and spend more time in Central Otago. Sweet Are the Ways wasn't my cup of tea, but I'm wondering if it would appeal to fans of Amish romances.½

The April 2022 #TBRChallenge is “Location Location Location.” I didn’t think I’d have a chance to participate this month, but I managed to slide in at the last minute with a book from the top of my stack of vintage Harlequins.

This is exactly what it says on the tin: Julia Merrill believes the best way to help her brother get over the loss of his late fiancée is to move in with him and serve as his housekeeper. He has a farm at Castlepoint on the north island of New Zealand, with only other single men around to help. Noel, the brother, turns Julia down firmly, telling her that she’s always been the family caretaker (having nursed their parents through various ailments), and this is her time to go off and be an independent young woman, as if vogue in 1972 when this novel was originally published. Their parents are now in Canada, and Julia has a bustling life in Wellington.

Julia decides that she knows her brother’s mind better than he does, and decides to stowaway in his car, not revealing herself until they arrive at his remote farmhouse, where he’ll be more or less forced to let her stay because of proximity. He’s attending a big farming conference in Wellington, so she steals back to her apartment, packs an overnight bag, and stuffs herself in the backseat of his car, hiding under a blanket. She’s bound and determined to serve as his housekeeper, dammit, and she’s not going to let a little thing like his feelings get in the way!

Julia hides out for hours waiting for the meeting to break up. She can hear her brother talking outside the car, and his grateful when he finally gets in and they start to move. Then they stop suddenly, and noises tell her that they’re on a ferry. This isn’t the way to his farm! What’s going on??

It slowly dawns on her that she’s stowed away in a stranger’s car, one that’s identical to her brother’s, right down to the blanket slung over the backseat. She’s terrified of the scandal that is sure to be released when this unknown man discovers her in the backseat of his car. She realizes that they’re traveling to the south island of New Zealand, far away from everything she’s ever known. It’s an agonizing overnight trip, with no way for her to sneak out of her hiding place and high tail it back to Wellington.

Of course, Julia is discovered at the worst possible moment, right when the man and his fiancée are having a terrific row. The fiancée, Miriam, accuses the man, Adam Dare, of knowingly smuggling a girl home on the basis that they’re having an illicit affair. She completely blows her top, accepting no excuses, and flounces off to Picton, the nearest city.

Julia is mortified; Adam is furious. A landslide has trapped them on Adam’s farm for at least a week, so they have no choice but to put up together until the road clears. Adam lives in the family homestead with his grandfather, Nathaniel, his nephew, Luke, and his nieces, the twins Susanna and Esther. Everyone else is quite bemused by the situation, and decide in their own good-natured way to make the best of things. It’s lambing time, and an extra set of hands will come in handy, especially since Granny Lydia is in hospital with a broken leg.

Julia absolutely falls in love with the tiny, self-contained property on the bay; she considers it a little garden of Eden, just breathtakingly gorgeous. She can’t understand how anyone would want to displace a single blade of grass, much less pull down the old homestead and rebuild, as Miriam had demanded. The Dare family start to tell Julia the history of their family, starting with Captain Ephraim and his lady love, Camilla, who were apparently the first white people to land on that particular piece of property in the 1840s.

Julia proves herself to be an excellent farmhand and a good housekeeper. The Dares are absolutely enchanted by the sweet girl who magically fits into Camilla’s old clothes and seems to love the land just as much as she did. Julia, meanwhile, is bound and determined to patch up Adam’s relationship with Miriam, even though the two of them have no desire to see each other again.

This is a very pleasant read, especially if you like pioneer or small-town stories. It was also rather odd, in that other than the mention of cars and TV, this could easily pass as historical fiction, of the American Western variety, only its set in New Zealand with the requisite history stuck in. There’s a lot of pretty cringy White Savior stuff going on with all the ancestor worship, though the author does at least acknowledge that the native Maori had every right not to be happy with the white people trying to settle their land.

There’s also a lot of Christianity springing up: all of the Dares have Biblical names (and one of the reasons Julia believes Adam and Miriam are meant to be is that Miriam is a name that appears in the Good Book). There’s quite a bit of praying going on, lots of Biblical references in general, and of course smoothing the rough edges of white settlement by saying it was divinely ordained to happen. Sigh.

The end is a bit much – a big rescue scene where Adam plucks Julia from the rising tide in her underwear, after she’d belted herself to Captain Ephraim’s long-lost cutlass, just to bring the romances full circle. Adam confesses his love to Julia in the middle of the raging storm, with little Luke whining about being cold and hungry nearby. The Dare family is absolutely delighted, of course; they all hated Miriam (how dare she be modern in 1972!) but no one wanted to speak up because of Adam’s initial adoration of her. Julia feels herself less than in comparison with the glamorous Miriam, but is secretly glad that she’s so much better at keeping house for her man than the woman who teaches domestic science in the big city.

This is probably the best of the original vintage Harlequin romances that I’ve read thus far, but romance writing has improved by leaps and bounds in the last 50 years. I’m in no hurry to seek out more of this author’s work.½

This is the second book by Essie Summers (the first being Bay of the Nightingales) in which a young woman goes to Akaroa in search of long-lost relatives and incidentally discovers a lot of antiques. It almost begins to sound like a dangerous place for losing family members. I've got to stop binge reading Essie Summers books.

Seriously, it's a lovely story about a young woman getting out from under a selfish family and following her dreams.

It seems that employer-employee relationships of the mid-20th century must have been fraught, with male bosses insisting upon the highest standards of behaviour from their female employees and then asking them out on dates and kissing them randomly. I'm getting the oddest ideas from Essie Summers. Perhaps it's all a misunderstanding like the one between Mattieu McQueen, so conveniently called Hugh by his up-country friends and family to mislead readers and heroine, and Rosamond whats-her-name.

Bay of the Nightingales is a lovely story with all the adventure you might expect from a novel set in the land of earthquakes, and the excellent supporting cast that Essie Summers is so consistently able to muster. However (my own fault for starting an Essie Summers reading binge) this is the second ES book I've read in which a young woman searches for long-lost family in Akaroa, which is giving me a rather odd impression of the place! Also, the fact that the merest smattering of French (such as Anglo Canadians pick up in our schooldays and maintain by reading to backs of cereal boxes) would completely dispel the mystery has given me some doubts about educational standards in 1960s England. Still an enjoyable read.

The Flowering December is another take on the Horrible First Impressions trope that Essie Summers loved to write. Fiona's fiance arrives back in Edinburgh, from Africa, just a few days before the wedding... and tells her that he has married her best friend that very morning. In utter shock, Fiona is persuaded by a girlfriend to go out for a hectic night on the town... and is rescued from a drunken swain by a very disapproving and overbearing man. Who turns out, when Fiona decides to escape her memories by taking a position as an up-country governess in New Zealand, to be her employer. Eliot Campbell spends most of the book looking askance upon a young woman whom he is quite sure is no fit person to be in the care of children, except of course that there are no nightclubs and Bright Young Things in the back of beyond, and perhaps beyond the reach of temptation she'll really be all right. Especially since he really hasn't the time to start advertising and interviewing all over again. A pleasant story with lots of New Zealand flavour.

South to Forget is a well-crafted romance with all the vivid descriptions of New Zealand's wild scenery that Essie Summers is known for, as well as characters with depth and individuality. They need that depth, because Summers is leaving herself the option of turning to the secondary characters again for future stories. The ubiquitous Harlequin trope of the mid-20th century, "couple misinterprets what they overhear, misunderstands each others' motives", is adroitly handled, as the plot rushes along with barely time for the protagonists to ask themselves, "Now what did s/he mean by that?" The only thing I wish the author (or editor) would have changed is the title (it was, I learn, also published as Nurse Mary's Engagement, which I think is better). The female protagonist, being Canadian, could have been confused as I was by the fact that there is no place in New Zealand called Forget and pronounced "forzhay"; on the other hand, near the southern border of Canada, Forget, Saskatchewan does exist, named after a Governor-General of the province. Even after realizing that it's an English verb not a French place name, every time I look at the title, my mind misreads it!

Sorry this wasn't for me - didn't enjoy it half as much as the other one of hers i read. Got half way through this one - then skipped to the last chapter.½