By Jane Fraser

I went ahead and purchased this hard-to-find early Rosamunde Pilcher title when it came my way at a good price. It was part of Harlequin’s Golden Library collection. It was her second to the last book she wrote under “Jane Fraser”, the name she used to publish her Mills and Boon romances. It would be 4 years before she published The Sleeping Tiger, the first book I read by one of my favorite authors and still a favorite of her “little” books. When I first started reading, I had high hopes that this would turn out to be one of the best of the Jane Frasers I have read. I liked our “not pretty” heroine pretty well, and I liked the hero too, thanks to his being introduced with a good bit of his backstory, before the heart of the novel started. The book turned out to be a pretty good one, but a bit below my favorites. I did feel that it was very close in quality to many of her Pilcher titles. In a few cases, better, as far as the character of the heroine. Some of her young ladies can be very weak, lazy, and not too bright.

The book opens with 20-year-old Amabel on the last day of a ski vacation in Europe. She meets Jeremy, a Major, and a former underling of her retired military father there by chance, whom we know from his description is not destined to be her love interest though he is a perfectly nice guy. He has a bristly blonde mustache and a receding chin. As usual, Pilcher’s leisurely pace is full of background and detail which established an atmosphere that drew me right in. As with her more acclaimed novels, the smallest detail conveys atmosphere, nuance of character and paints a whole picture. She makes everything interesting no matter how seemingly inconsequential.

Unfortunately, upon Amabel’s return home to England she is met with the devastating news of her 49 year-old single father’s death. She, her two young siblings, Emma and Adrian, and their Nanny are forced to move from their large farm to a much smaller cottage on the property, the Keeper’s House. Their former estate has been rented for two years to Bill Hopper, a very rich Canadian rancher. We met 26-year-old Bill in New York City in the process of his being dumped by his beautiful model fiance. Because of this abrupt change in his plans he has decided to turn a quick purchase of a prize bull into an extended stay in Scotland. He hears about Kilgenny being available and rents it for two years, planning to spend his time raising cattle for his father’s huge cattle concern.

Although Amabel takes a dislike to Bill thanks to her resentment of his occupation of her beloved home and his amusement of catching her in an embarrassing situation (under the piano with flour on her face) at their first meeting, she pretty much behaves herself. She is not rude or petulant, and though they have a few unpleasant run-ins after their initial meeting, she even apologizes for her fractious behavior. Bill is a very likable guy, making friends with whomever he meets, besides being very large, tall, and very good looking. He takes fatherless young Emma and Adrian under his wing and they make themselves right at home at Kilgenny, spending most of their time there “helping” him with the farm. It isn’t long before Bill and Amabel also make friends and are well on their way to falling in love with each other. Things eventually come to a head when Jeremy makes a re-appearance and Bill goes rushing off to London after an unexpected phone call from his ex-fiancé.

I liked this one quite well. The plot did kind of flag in the middle once Bill and Amabel became friends and started to fall for each other. Everything was proceeding a little too predictably with seemingly no trouble on the horizon to shake things up a bit. When things did start to perk up, Amabel behaved like a really stupid idiot, actually putting her and her family’s whole future happiness on the line by a knee jerk reaction. Luckily she ran into a brick wall (rather amusingly). Also, a highly anticipated confrontation on another front happened off stage which is one of my pet peeves. One aspect which was distracting and bothersome was Bill’s constant smoking. It seemed like he was buying a carton of “Players” at every opportunity. I know, it was usual for the times, but I don’t have to like it. It’s one of those old-fashioned aspects of vintage novels that is not a bit charming. As far as the happy ending, thank goodness for Nanny, who pokes her nose in and saves the day. Those crazy kids.