Life After Betty: Summer of Summers (Part 3)

A few more Essie Summers titles to explore:

Season of Forgetfulness: Valancy Adam-Smith, fleeing the recent jilting by the boy next door, is hired as a personal secretary in the back of beyond (with, nonetheless, adequate chaperonage) to established author Godfrey Carmichael. She gets a nasty upset when she finds out he meant to hire a man. My favorite bits are financial juggling, architectural renovations, painting the garden sheds and making that boy next door (who Summers has the delicacy to make a thoroughly likable fellow if utterly wrong for Valancy) matter less than nothing. One of my all time favorites.

A Place Called Paradise: Annabel Lee doesn't know who she really is. Her family was lost in the bombings of World War II and she was found wandering around (age 2?) holding a tartan bag and a picture of herself with a rhyme. This sends her to the other side of the world as she hopes to find her identity. Again, several love stories accompany the central one. It's okay for me but I like others better.

His Serene Miss Smith: This book single-handedly converted me to an enjoyment of 'first-person' perspectives. Serena is a classic blonde forced into assumed mousiness because she's lost jobs and suffered a fracture with her sister over it. Why then, if she's gone to all the trouble to dye her hair nondescript brown, does her new boss still insist on making passes? They clash royally. One of my favorite side stories is Mr. William's grandmother. She returns from the States having eloped with a Texas businessman. Unlike The Mighty Betty, Essie Summers always describes Americans nicely.

The Master of Tawhai: Usually protagonists in the world of Summers are well-off but, as farmers, drapers and engineers, they don't exactly have it easy. The heroine of this one, however, comes from the landed gentry and is living incognito on a prosperous New Zealand farm. How irritating it is then to be accused of being a fortune hunter. This isn't in my top five but I like it well enough even if I want to smack around the lovers at the end. Their misunderstandings trip them up one too many times for my taste.