A. M. Williamson (1869–1933)

This had all the elements of the normal Williamsons' book: someone is in disguise, people are taking a road-trip and waxing poetic about the sights they see, and there are a couple of sort of cartoon-y villains. But for me it somehow didn't have as much sparkle.
John Winston, a wealthy young British gentleman with an automobile, catches a couple of glimpses of Molly Randolph, an American girl who is just starting on her first-ever automobile trip, with her old maiden aunt. He falls instantly in love with her. Because she's having no end of trouble with her car and because her chauffeur is a villain, John offers himself as a chauffeur in order to get to spend more time with her. She hires him, and they proceed to drive around rural France/Spain/Italy, having various car-related mishaps along the way.
It felt like there was even more travelogue stuff in this book than in some of the others, which can make the pace pretty slow. Also, I didn't like the way that John (or "Brown" as he is called when in his chauffeur role) has to force himself to be fairly subservient to Molly and the way she talks about how it's a pity that he's a chauffeur instead of a gentleman. A hundred years ago it was considered an unchanging truth that people didn't really get to escape their social class and that you were in the circumstances in which God wanted you, and that theory pops up in many novels of the period, but in this book for some reason that viewpoint grated on my nerves a bit more.… (mehr)

Pretty heavy atmosphere. A woman named Anita, about age 30, is living in a state of near isolation for reasons that go unstated for the majority of the book. She has a faithful servant named Sarah who mothers her and tries to make some sort of life for the two of them. Pretty soon Sarah decides that they have enough money and should go live in Spain, a place Anita has longed to see. Once there they are able to rent a house with a dream garden. It's right next to the Alhambra, and Anita feels pretty certain she can live out the rest of her life in satisfaction inside the garden walls. However, a random meeting with a man shakes her complacency, especially when he seeks her out and confesses love at first sight (yeah, the handling there was kind of clumsy, but well within the usual for a turn-of-the-century romance).

Why is Anita struggling so hard against the chance to be happy? The answer, which lies in her past, is not nearly so disturbing as the solution that lies in her future. Kind of sad and just too heavy. Although it did make me curious about the Alhambra.… (mehr)

It feels like if I describe more than about 10 pages of this book I am getting into spoilers, because there were a few unpredictable things right near the beginning, so be warned....
Sandy, a young American heiress, is about to take a trip to England with her aunt and cousin. She toys with the idea of somehow running into her childhood hero, a soldier and generally famous man named Sir Miles Culver, but knows it won't happen. Before she leaves America, a new, slightly mischievous, acquaintance gives her a letter of introduction to a friend in England. Sandy seeks out this lady once she arrives, and finds out that she is one of the closest, oldest friends of......you guessed it, Sir Miles Culver. He himself makes an appearance that same afternoon, with.....his brand new fiancee. Sandy is a little shaken by this unpredictable first meeting, and gets out of there as fast as she can.
Fast-forward some days, and there is an awful automobile accident. The fiancee is killed, and Sir Miles' younger brother is crippled. Sir Miles hasn't the funds to provide the necessary medical care and comfort his brother needs.
The new friend, Lady Melton, knows that Sandy likes Sir Miles. She cooks up a plot, whereby Sir Miles and Sandy will get married and Sandy's money will be available for the care of the younger brother. There's just one catch: Sir Miles might agree to this for the sake of his beloved brother, but only if he thinks that it is a straightforward business arrangement and that Sandy is a calculating husband-hunter who wants a title, social class, and nothing else. So she can't let him see that she cares, or else, in fairness to her, he would call it off.
Decent story, though the melodramatic resolution at the end felt like it didn't quite belong to the same story.… (mehr)