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The Stars of San Cecilio
She had waited all her life for him....
This was Lisa's last night on romantic Costa Brava. Tomorrow it was back to London to search for work. And then a miracle happened. The man of her dreams spoke to her.
Actually, he was Senor Julio Fernandez, and he offered her a job as governess to his small daughter.
But even a Spanish paradise contained a serpent. For Dona Beatriz de Camponelli made it very clear to Lisa that she intended to be the second Senora Fernandez.
This was Lisa's last night on romantic Costa Brava. Tomorrow it was back to London to search for work. And then a miracle happened. The man of her dreams spoke to her.
Actually, he was Senor Julio Fernandez, and he offered her a job as governess to his small daughter.
But even a Spanish paradise contained a serpent. For Dona Beatriz de Camponelli made it very clear to Lisa that she intended to be the second Senora Fernandez.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
About the author
Susan Barrie
43 books7 followersOne of many pseudonyms used by Ida Julia Pollock, née Crowe.
Mrs. Pollack was a British writer of several short-stories and 125 romance novels that were published under her married name and under a number of different pseudonyms: Joan M. Allen; Susan Barrie, Pamela Kent, Averil Ives, Anita Charles, Barbara Rowan, Jane Beaufort, Rose Burghley, Mary Whistler and Marguerite Bell. She has sold millions of copies over her 90-year career. She has been referred to as the "world's oldest novelist" who was still active at 105 and continued writing until her death.
Ida and her husband, Lt Colonel Hugh Alexander Pollock, DSO (1888–1971), a veteran of war and Winston Churchill's collaborator and editor, had a daughter, Rosemary Pollock, who is also a romance writer.
Mrs. Pollack was a British writer of several short-stories and 125 romance novels that were published under her married name and under a number of different pseudonyms: Joan M. Allen; Susan Barrie, Pamela Kent, Averil Ives, Anita Charles, Barbara Rowan, Jane Beaufort, Rose Burghley, Mary Whistler and Marguerite Bell. She has sold millions of copies over her 90-year career. She has been referred to as the "world's oldest novelist" who was still active at 105 and continued writing until her death.
Ida and her husband, Lt Colonel Hugh Alexander Pollock, DSO (1888–1971), a veteran of war and Winston Churchill's collaborator and editor, had a daughter, Rosemary Pollock, who is also a romance writer.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 19, 2024
It was really hard for me to enjoy this novel. Even taking into consideration when it was written, the heroine just seemed insipid and rather....shallow. It was like reading a book about a kid's crush.
It goes something like this:
She falls madly in love with a man she sees in a restaurant while on vacation in a foreign country...who never notices her. He eventually notices her on her last day in Spain because her shoe gets caught in some cobbles and she spills her life story to this stranger who hires her to take care of the daughter he resents because her mother (his dead wife) was wild and (basically) kills herself because she didn't want kids or her arranged marriage. Not only does he hire this stranger from a foreign land to take care of his recovering daughter, he doesn't check her references and leaves them in a villa with only servants for company while he goes back to Madrid and doesn't call to check on them. Great guy. Somehow this pinnacle of manhood manages to fall in love with our insipid heroine on a few general spaced out conversations about "picking the one rose" and how arranged marriages usually work. 0_0. Wait, there's a monkey in the wrench. This upstanding guy who is busy and has no time to deal with a pesky daughter actually has a widow "connection" of his hated wife who does most of the dealing with the daughter...but really she doesn't like the daughter and wants to send her away to school and is just using her as an excuse to marry said busy (and rich) doctor dad. Naturally the two women don't like each other with the heroine feeling helplessly the Spanish couple will marry and the designing Spanish hussy sure the hero is paying way too much attention to the little nobody governess. Naturally a fellow countrymen of our heroine shows up around now, the brother or her former employers who had done her wrong. Having never noticed her before she is suddenly hot stuff. The mean incumbent fiancée sees this as an opportunity to get rid of Ms. Insipid and throws them together but no, our heroine can only hopeless love the one man, the one rose, our selfless hero. 0_0. So Mr. Countryman wants to introduce our heroine to his aunt, his very rich aunt, which convinces our hero he has designs on her since she's meeting the family. Wicked stepmom to be whisks our charge off the the big city to get some alone time with dad while fairy god aunt also rushes us to the same big city for pampering and a chance to matchmake with her nephew. We go to a posh party where the young Spanish lord of the manor flirts madly with us, Mr. Countryman is jealous, and suddenly wicked stepmom and our hero show up. Naturally he asks us to dance and we whirl in a dreamy fantasy on the dance floor leaning into the hero until he says something realistic causing us to stumble and twist our ankle. He insists on leaving the party to take us home, is overcome by sudden passion at our door and kisses us senseless before leaving. Naturally our heroine decides there is nothing for it but to quit her job immediately as he is likely to marrying someone else and we can never be. She goes to his house where the wicked stepmom to be is fondling a red rose (what else) and tells us off for coming so early and embarrassing our hero with our cloying attentions. The heroine is deeply upset by this, never considers her rival could say this out of spite, and decides to quit immediately without seeing the hero OR his daughter who she just loves to pieces but abandons. She runs to fairy god aunt's cottage in England where eventually she heads down a steep cliff path to the beach because hey its a beach like Spain and freezes cause she hasn't been eating and doesn't like heights. Suddenly a voice calls out and its none other than our hero who guides us up the cliff, tells us he loves us and we have tortured him and he was never going to marry that hussy in Spain...the rose she was fondling was for us all along. The heroine admits she went down the path wishing she could throw herself in the ocean because she couldn't have him and he would be her one and only love forever. The hero admits his marriage was a disaster, that his wife would have been happier with a career and did everything she could to get rid of her child culminating in a car accident where she died after childbirth. "You won't find many Spanish women like her" he says then adds of course she was half English. The heroine reminds him she is all English and he replies it won't matter because she is Lisa, his Lisa. They are meant to be together form the beginning. They will live happily ever after: him, the heroine, and the formerly resented daughter. Presumably the Spanish widow he was using to manage his daughter and social life will be kicked to curb, her long cherished hopes dashed. They kiss and the end.
How shallow.
Problems:
She falls for a stranger she never met, talked to, has anything in common with. 0_0
He falls in love with a stranger he has barely talked to, is much younger, has nothing in common with.
He thinks its okay to resent his daughter because he resented his dead wife who his daughter never met.
He thinks its okay to use his wife's "connection" to manage his daughter despite the fact he knows she wants to marry him and he has no intentions of having a romantic relationship with her and has essentially strung her along for years.
She is so naive she takes a job in a foreign country with a man she knows nothing about.
He is so irresponsible he hires a governess from a foreign county for a sickly child without making any enquires about her resume.
She admits she thought about suicide because they weren't together...after just one kiss.
He thought his wife had such difficulty adjusting to her situation because she is part English so he therefore intends to marry someone entirely English and presumably have part English children who will have difficultly adjusting to the Spanish way. 0_0
And so on. I spent most of the book wanting to shake them and say grow up and get some common sense.
It goes something like this:
She falls madly in love with a man she sees in a restaurant while on vacation in a foreign country...who never notices her. He eventually notices her on her last day in Spain because her shoe gets caught in some cobbles and she spills her life story to this stranger who hires her to take care of the daughter he resents because her mother (his dead wife) was wild and (basically) kills herself because she didn't want kids or her arranged marriage. Not only does he hire this stranger from a foreign land to take care of his recovering daughter, he doesn't check her references and leaves them in a villa with only servants for company while he goes back to Madrid and doesn't call to check on them. Great guy. Somehow this pinnacle of manhood manages to fall in love with our insipid heroine on a few general spaced out conversations about "picking the one rose" and how arranged marriages usually work. 0_0. Wait, there's a monkey in the wrench. This upstanding guy who is busy and has no time to deal with a pesky daughter actually has a widow "connection" of his hated wife who does most of the dealing with the daughter...but really she doesn't like the daughter and wants to send her away to school and is just using her as an excuse to marry said busy (and rich) doctor dad. Naturally the two women don't like each other with the heroine feeling helplessly the Spanish couple will marry and the designing Spanish hussy sure the hero is paying way too much attention to the little nobody governess. Naturally a fellow countrymen of our heroine shows up around now, the brother or her former employers who had done her wrong. Having never noticed her before she is suddenly hot stuff. The mean incumbent fiancée sees this as an opportunity to get rid of Ms. Insipid and throws them together but no, our heroine can only hopeless love the one man, the one rose, our selfless hero. 0_0. So Mr. Countryman wants to introduce our heroine to his aunt, his very rich aunt, which convinces our hero he has designs on her since she's meeting the family. Wicked stepmom to be whisks our charge off the the big city to get some alone time with dad while fairy god aunt also rushes us to the same big city for pampering and a chance to matchmake with her nephew. We go to a posh party where the young Spanish lord of the manor flirts madly with us, Mr. Countryman is jealous, and suddenly wicked stepmom and our hero show up. Naturally he asks us to dance and we whirl in a dreamy fantasy on the dance floor leaning into the hero until he says something realistic causing us to stumble and twist our ankle. He insists on leaving the party to take us home, is overcome by sudden passion at our door and kisses us senseless before leaving. Naturally our heroine decides there is nothing for it but to quit her job immediately as he is likely to marrying someone else and we can never be. She goes to his house where the wicked stepmom to be is fondling a red rose (what else) and tells us off for coming so early and embarrassing our hero with our cloying attentions. The heroine is deeply upset by this, never considers her rival could say this out of spite, and decides to quit immediately without seeing the hero OR his daughter who she just loves to pieces but abandons. She runs to fairy god aunt's cottage in England where eventually she heads down a steep cliff path to the beach because hey its a beach like Spain and freezes cause she hasn't been eating and doesn't like heights. Suddenly a voice calls out and its none other than our hero who guides us up the cliff, tells us he loves us and we have tortured him and he was never going to marry that hussy in Spain...the rose she was fondling was for us all along. The heroine admits she went down the path wishing she could throw herself in the ocean because she couldn't have him and he would be her one and only love forever. The hero admits his marriage was a disaster, that his wife would have been happier with a career and did everything she could to get rid of her child culminating in a car accident where she died after childbirth. "You won't find many Spanish women like her" he says then adds of course she was half English. The heroine reminds him she is all English and he replies it won't matter because she is Lisa, his Lisa. They are meant to be together form the beginning. They will live happily ever after: him, the heroine, and the formerly resented daughter. Presumably the Spanish widow he was using to manage his daughter and social life will be kicked to curb, her long cherished hopes dashed. They kiss and the end.
How shallow.
Problems:
She falls for a stranger she never met, talked to, has anything in common with. 0_0
He falls in love with a stranger he has barely talked to, is much younger, has nothing in common with.
He thinks its okay to resent his daughter because he resented his dead wife who his daughter never met.
He thinks its okay to use his wife's "connection" to manage his daughter despite the fact he knows she wants to marry him and he has no intentions of having a romantic relationship with her and has essentially strung her along for years.
She is so naive she takes a job in a foreign country with a man she knows nothing about.
He is so irresponsible he hires a governess from a foreign county for a sickly child without making any enquires about her resume.
She admits she thought about suicide because they weren't together...after just one kiss.
He thought his wife had such difficulty adjusting to her situation because she is part English so he therefore intends to marry someone entirely English and presumably have part English children who will have difficultly adjusting to the Spanish way. 0_0
And so on. I spent most of the book wanting to shake them and say grow up and get some common sense.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 16, 2015
The heroine is too needy and helpless.
May 4, 2020
Originally published in 1958 and part of my mum's collection of Mills & Boon classic romances
SYNOPSIS:
This was Lisa's last night on romantic Costa Brava. Tomorrow it was back to London to search for work. And then a miracle happened. The man of her dreams spoke to her.
Actually, he was Senor Julio Fernandez, and he offered her a job as governess to his small daughter.
But even a Spanish paradise contained a serpent. For Dona Beatriz de Camponelli made it very clear to Lisa that she intended to be the second Senora Fernandez.
SYNOPSIS:
This was Lisa's last night on romantic Costa Brava. Tomorrow it was back to London to search for work. And then a miracle happened. The man of her dreams spoke to her.
Actually, he was Senor Julio Fernandez, and he offered her a job as governess to his small daughter.
But even a Spanish paradise contained a serpent. For Dona Beatriz de Camponelli made it very clear to Lisa that she intended to be the second Senora Fernandez.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews