Life After Betty: Summer of Summers (Part 2)

Alright. So, here's a few titles from the very first Essie Summers omnibus I came across and despite the two people tediously cavorting in a field on the cover, I enjoyed it very much:


Bride in Flight I love this one. Kirsty flees her fiance on the day of her wedding because she finds out he's already married...or is he? No matter. He's a fink either way. Simon, a desperate bridge engineer looking for temporary homehelp for his three unruly young relatives, employs the recently widowed Mrs. Brown (who else but Kirsty hiding from the notoriety of fleeing her wedding?) after he helps her from flaking out on their flight from Australia to New Zealand. Highlights include the supposition that a 'bride in flight' would make international new for weeks on end, a Mary Poppins-like approach to getting a little tyke to eat his veggies, harrowing rescues and massive miscommunication. It's darling.

Meet On My Ground Due to my regrettable habit of skipping around if I'm deciding whether or not to put a book down for the night, I didn't read the middle of this book until, like, the fifth reading. The beginning is charming (He's interviewing her for a position in his draper's offices) but then it spirals a little bit into class warfare and it loses me when the heroine is bawling out the hero for trying to give her a frock at cost. The end is pisado (a very handy word which is Spanish for 'trod upon' but van Voorhees for 'heavy in an irritating way'--use: When you trip over my purchases and invariably say, 'Where did we get that thing?' you're being slightly pisado. (note: Must be used with hand gestures.)) in that she travels to Hong Kong to come to terms with her former sister-in-law who many years before caused her brother to commit suicide because of class issues. Eek. Suicide. Essie was clearly swimming into deeper water than usual. But when I did finally read it from end to end I liked it quite well. He gets to call her all kinds of things at the end, he practically empties his shop of wedding dresses to bring her and she'll take whatever he has a mind to give her and like it.

Postscript to Yesterday Another misunderstanding, this time involving genealogy, false engagements and a pie-bald beard. Nicola travels to NZ to celebrate the 100 anniversary of a branch of her family's emigration from England. Why is her 'cousin' Forbes warning her off? Why does he look like a homeless tramp when she meets him? Why am I putting scare quotes around 'cousin'? This one has a really wonderful century-old love story tied up with the modern one, several engagements (seriously, everyone including the old grandfather finds a bride) and some great NZ history in it. When the beard is shaved all is smooth sailing. This was the book that decided me on collecting all of the Essie Summers books out there.