I just got back from a quick trip down to Portland (a weekend with Betty Keira and our dad - can construction projects and sewing be far behind? No. No, they can't). I had thrown a couple of Neels in my bag for reading along the way. Unfortunately, An Ordinary Girl was not one of them, but I did have a lovely time re-reading Discovering Daisy. The two books do have something in common. They both feature a hero that is already engaged to an unfeeling sociopath. Both heroes fall deeply in love and then have a moral dilemma. I love both books, but let's talk about Discovering Daisy. Oh my goodness, I love that book! It's not that it's the best one in the cannon - it will never be able to rise to the heights of, say, Cassandra by Chance or Caroline's Waterloo, but I just adore it anyway. Watching Jules navigate his way out of the treacherous shoals of his ill-advised engagement to Helene because he is head-over-flipping-heels in love with Daisy was so much fun!
My one Very Small Quibble about this book is that it is slapped into a two-fer called The Engagement Effect with a non-Neels author. The name has nothing to do with either story and must have been chosen strictly on alliterative merits. That's okay, though, because the hero depicted on the cover is pretty hunky in a business-casual sort of way and you stop noticing the title pretty quickly... Also, mine is in large print which I adore. Here's my review, ripped from the fevered scribblings of our over-wrought villainess:
Dear Diary,
I had a simply ghastly time at that engagement party out in the wilds over the weekend. James got lost (which is so unlike him!) and we ended up detouring through this poky little village in the back of beyond. I didn't mind being lost--personally the last engagement party I eked any amount of fun out of was our own...but then, being the center of attention is always more agreeable than being the 'So-and-so and guest' on someone's invitation list.
So there we were in the middle of nowhere when James stops and asks for directions. This perfectly wretched-looking rustic leaned into the car and dumped her shopping on my lap (Sausages!) and poked her red, chapped hands at the map and then had a moment with MY FIANCE!
Don't ask me to explain it. I don't even know if it happened but they both sort of looked up at each other and suddenly the lyrics of 'Some Enchanted Evening' are blaring through my brain and I'm imagining all his fabulous millions slipping through my fingers. And then he said, 'I shall remember' in what I privately term his Lion King tone. I don't know what to make of it.
No matter. We shan't see her again,
Sybil
Dear Diary,
That horrible blight on the English countryside (Nether Waddle, Nether Ducky...Nether Ditchling!--they ought to petition the Council to get that changed) ruined another perfectly unexceptional day. I (and by I, I mean James) had to run a wedding present down to Coralie's house and it's not as though James was doing anything fun anyway--just those awful paediatric cases--common ones, too. I tell him over and over again that he should restrict himself a bit he's not ready to listen. I'm putting it on my To Be Changed list for after the wedding. What with all his home furnishings, cook and rather stodgy taste in neck ties, that list is getting long...
We got caught in the snow (It's almost April! How was I to know?) and were forced to lay up at the Vicarage--you know, one of those drafty old monstrosities built when having babies was what you did for a living. That Rustic was there--the one with the sausages. They call her Philly and she isn't even that young. She looked worse than I remembered, all swathed in snow gear--I'm sure I imagined that thing that I thought I saw...
And then they made us have porridge for breakfast. (Gah! Poor people food!) Strangely, James didn't look very happy to leave--shoveling show was probably a serious cardio workout...I wouldn't know, I didn't touch the stuff.
I think I'm going to make him sell his country cottage. That's going on the List too. And get rid of his old Nanny who caretakes it. That's going on the List too! And his icky dog...
Sybil
Dear Diary,
He slowed down, I swear it.
We were driving out to Coralie's wedding and you know how James always tears up the road (in the best possible taste, of course). Well, we were coming through the village and he slowed down (well you have to a bit, naturally, but NOT THAT MUCH) and his eyes...he looked like one of those Sunday rubber-neckers! We picked up Philly (who looked plain (doesn't she always?)) who had to babysit for the family. I was so glad to be wearing a simply magnificent hat and outfit--Coralie was livid with jealousy!
We took Philly home later and the car reeked of barf and baby powder. She looked like the hired help. Of course James couldn't help but compare us...
Ah well, I can brush my hands of that problem!
Sybil
Dear Diary,
What!? Are they handing our charitable scholarships now for country bumpkins to visit London?!--and not just any London, my London! Little Miss Direct and Demure was at that china exhibition I dragged James to. I was wearing one of my best suits--the slinky one with the plunging back (I can tell James loves it--he doesn't know where to look first!)--when I saw her reading the placard next to some porcelain.
Reading it!
A girlfriend told me that he offered Philly a ride after handing me some excuse about paediatric thrombo...blahblahblah...
What is going on?
Sybil
Dear Diary,
There was a village fete. No, not in London! At that beastly place in the hinterlands and Coralie (who has been wanting to get back at me for outshining her at her wedding, I swear) rung me up (on the pretense of asking me the name of my milliner) and told me that her postman told her cook who then told her that James showed up to it with his Nanny and spent the whole time mooning about after Philly the Charming Provincial and her homespun attractions. He manned the bran bucket (???) and drank beer and grinned like a yokel the entire day.
I am thoroughly put out and have coerced my creepy little cousin to do a spot of 'Love's Young Dream' blighting. He is to hang around in the village and attempt to woo Philly (though who knows what will work on her bucolic sensibilities). I'll drive James by at just the right time...and bingo! I'll be Mrs. Professor James Forsyth by summer.
Sybil
Dear Diary,
It didn't work.
But it's okay. I'm pretty philosophical about it now.
They got married, like, the week after I changed my Facebook status to 'single'. Whatevs. Everybody is talking about it and I just want to shout at them, 'But she couldn't carry off a flowered lime green hat, now could she?!'...I have jumped back into the dating pool and am on the verge of landing an American oil tycoon named Billy Bob William. We just have to get him past his physical and mental health screening and then we sign the pre-nup! Cross your fingers he doesn't need any defibrillation! LOL He's just the sort of man to appreciate a girl like me. His kids are kind of being pills...
I saw Philly and James driving out to the country (shudder) the other day and wanted to siphon their gas tank but they'd probably end by hopping on a bicycle built for two and peddling into the sunset. Ick.
The moral of the story is to not to let yourself be swept off your feet by blue eyes, glossy black hair, youth and original teeth.
Sybil
Rating: I kept getting interrupted while reading this (mostly by a two-year-old whose body is somehow made entirely out of elbows and knees) so the short and wonderful read took longer than it should. Holy Hanna, I loved this one! For the children's village fete alone it deserves lashings of whipped cream--it's a lovely golden day. But then toss in truly hiss-worthy villains, getting our hero's perspective a ton, and the kind of I-love-you-but-can't-tell-you-so-we'll-just-devour-each-other-with-our-eyes-like-the-principles-in-a-cheap-Mexican-novella heat that is just what the doctor ordered...Fab.U.Los.
James is one of those heroes who is going to spend every day of his life getting on his knees and thanking the good Lord for getting lost in Nether Ditchling. I will whet your appetite with the moment that the bottom drops out of his life: He...watched her coming along the wide corridor to the ward. He saw her cheerful face too, damping down a strong feeling that he wanted to go and meet her and wrap his arms around her and tell her how beautiful she was.
And that's not even the best part.
Food:Braised steak casserole, sausages (that get dumped in Sybil's lap), egg custard, stewed beef and dumplings, porridge, bacon and egg pie with a thick potato crust to disguise the too few eggs for too many people, pork roast and applesauce, egg sandwiches, macaroni cheese and (on their halcyon day) cheese, pickles, rolls and beer.
Fashion: She is 'extinguished' by a long cape to keep out the snow, he wears her father's old sweater and wellies to dig a path to the chickens, he wants to scoop her up and tell her how gorgeous she is while she's wearing a too-large short jacket and last year's tweed skirt. He wears a morning coat and top hat to a wedding, Sybil wears colorfully atrocious headwear (that seems to underline all her worst qualities (vanity, selfishness, poor taste, etc...)) comprising green straw, an enormous brim and a multi-colored flowered crown, and Philly is garbed in a simply cut blue dress that gets baby barf on it. Also, Susan's parents give Philly a T-shirt emblazoned with American logos that she doesn't feel would go over well in the village (which is a shame, really, because this American would love that village to pieces).
Ooooh, what a gorgeous little outfit! Christening robe? Lovely!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! It's a blessing dress ( http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080805193857AApZWEA ). I won't be doing the fastenings until I see what size baby I get.
DeleteBetty Debbie is a crazy-awesome sister who sewed the dress for my oldest daughter and another outfit for a son. Only now has she squeezed enough knowledge into my brain to have me finally do my own. Still, her biggest asset this time was giving me the moral courage to cut into the silk.
It is bee-YOO-tee-ful. Does this mean you know you're having a daughter? And are you *sure* you sewed the dress? Because that doesn't look like you showing it off...
DeleteTrue confession: not only would I not dare to cut into white (or off-white) silk dupioni, I would not dare touch it. Even after washing my hands three times, I'd be sure to have a smidge of cocoa or blood on my fingers somewhere.
Congratulations. What a wonderful gift to offer your baby.
Started re-reading this little gem Sunday night and rushed towards its end this morning. Its rushed end. Its almost wordless end with its unworded declaration. I felt a bit rushed, it was over so fast. But what a lovely little story. I loved how the Professor neatly disengaged himself from the evil Sybil's clutches (pun intended). (One might argue that she was in her rights to try and stop Philly from catching her man. After all, James was her fiancé, not Philly's.)
ReplyDeleteOoo I loved how you guys wrote the diary from Sybill's pov.
ReplyDeleteThank you!!!!!
Fabulous review!
Betty Francesca
I haven't read this one yet (want to, now!) but I wanted to tell you I loved the review -- the reviews are one of my favorite things about this site!
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I like about this book is that we get a lot of the hero's POV (point of view) – which reminds me – where is Betty Magdalen? Are you very busy, Betty Magdalen?
ReplyDeleteHi -- Sorry, I'm writing Book Two of The Blackjack Quartet and I have a deadline of February 1, so I've been padlocked to the keyboard.
DeleteAnyway, yes, The Great Betty did go in for a lot more of the hero's POV in later books. I guess she figured out that even with RDDs (or REDs or any hero, really) you can be in their head, they can know they want to marry the heroine, and STILL the romance stubs its toe along the line!
I think she might have gotten a little bored in the later years and penning in the RDD POV is a bit of shortcut....
DeleteI think "penning in the RDD POV" is showing more of the hero's softer side. A nice change from the RDDs/RBDs playing it cool — you knowm taking the girl out and being thoroughly nice to her and perhaps even kissing her, and then the next time they meet they act as if they hardly know her, their manner austere...
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ReplyDeleteDear Betty Padlocked-to-the-Keyboard, so you are busy! Really, really busy. Keep your nose to the grindstone! Keeping a bowl of brainfood at hand...
ReplyDeleteI have a T-shirt I made that reads, "Betty Neels was 59 when she published her first romance novel." Underneath, it read, "I still have time."
DeleteSo I've published my first...only 133 more to go!
Yeah, back to the keyboard...
Betty Becky in Maastricht (audio), I don’t know if they have any books you still need but if you order directly from amazon.de (not from marketplace dealers) there will be no extra charge for shipping to the Netherlands (Kostenlose Lieferung möglich = Free delivery possible). Most paperbacks are € 3.99. Delivery takes 2-3 business days. Just thought I'd mention it.
ReplyDeleteI stumbled onto this site today and I think I'm in love. I absolutely adore Betty Neels. Lashings of cream indeed. The food, the frequent meals full of calories rich food. Sane stable heroes whose only issue might be a jealous girlfriend who can easily be dispatched by a plain face and lovely eyes.
ReplyDeleteSybil's diary was a treat.
Easily dispatched by a plain face and lovely eyes – great line!
ReplyDeleteLove it that you can see from his point-of-view that he's deliberately taking the lo-o-o-ong way while driving her from the porcelain exhibit back to her friend's house in London. First time I ever remember anything like this -- wonder if any of the other RDDs/REDs have done this in other books...
ReplyDelete