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The Widow's Mite
There goes the neighborhood!
Lucy Borden has problems enough--namely a house that's falling down around her. She doesn't need the aggravation of her rude, impatient neighbor, despite the fact she likes his precocious little daughter, Maude. Bullies, Lucy knows, must be challenged head-on. But all she gets for her bravado is a long, hard kiss.
And suddenly, Jim Proctor isn't so bad after all. In fact, he's rather gorgeous, if a little headstrong. He's shopping for a wife and a mother for Maude ... but in Lucy's opinion, his first choice is nothing but a money-grabbing schemer. And being agood neighbor, Lucy just has to do something... .
Lucy Borden has problems enough--namely a house that's falling down around her. She doesn't need the aggravation of her rude, impatient neighbor, despite the fact she likes his precocious little daughter, Maude. Bullies, Lucy knows, must be challenged head-on. But all she gets for her bravado is a long, hard kiss.
And suddenly, Jim Proctor isn't so bad after all. In fact, he's rather gorgeous, if a little headstrong. He's shopping for a wife and a mother for Maude ... but in Lucy's opinion, his first choice is nothing but a money-grabbing schemer. And being agood neighbor, Lucy just has to do something... .
- GenresRomance
Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
2 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Emma Goldrick
149 books33 followersEmma Goldrick is the penname used by the marriage formed by Emma Elizabeth Jean Sutcliffe, borned 7 February 1923 in Puerto Rico, and Robert N. Goldrick, borned on 22 March 1919 in Massachusetts, USA. They met in Puerto Rico, where married. She was a licensed practical nurse, volunteered with American Red Cross and she taught American Sign Language and he was a career USA military man. Thirty years and 4 children later they retired, and in 1980 they started to write in collaboration, and their first novel was accepted and published in 1983 by Mills & Boon. They continued publishing 40 novels until Robert passed away at 76, in 22 January 1996. After her husband death, she published her last novel and retired. Emma Goldrick passed away at 85, in 20 November 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 22, 2018
Re The Widow's Mite - Emma Goldrick is back with another campy, snarktastic romance with the usual suspects, the larger but curvy h, the plot moppet daughter and the boisterous Alpha H, who is a banker in this case.
Just for reference I include the biblical story of the Widow's Mite - this is what the title is based on, tho in a pretty non religious way.
'AND THERE CAME A CERTAIN POOR WIDOW, AND SHE THREW IN TWO MITES, WHICH MAKE A FARTHING.
AND HE CALLED UNTO HIM HIS DISCIPLES, AND SAITH UNTO THEM, VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU,
THAT THIS POOR WIDOW HATH CAST MORE IN, THAN ALL THEY WHICH HAVE CAST INTO THE TREASURY:
FOR ALL THEY DID CAST IN OF THEIR ABUNDANCE; BUT SHE OF HER WANT DID CAST IN ALL THAT SHE HAD, EVEN ALL HER LIVING. –GOSPEL OF MARK, 12:42-44' KJVB
So this one starts with the h living in a seaport town on the coast of Massachusetts in a big old house that needs a new roof. She is the descended from the Mayflower families, so we know she is a die-hard Yankee that probably says Ayuh. She is also one of the nicest ladies in town.
Her father and her fiance both died together in the war, and since it was a draft issue, I am assuming Vietnam. (HPlandia has a slightly different time line for things.) There is also a current banking crisis in the book and I am assuming it is the S&L crisis in the US between 1986 and 1995, the savings and loan crisis was very similar to the banking implosion in 2008. So although it is 1993 in real time HP publishing - this book is a little earlier than that.
The h is contemplating her lack of finances for the summer, she is a substitute teacher during the fall and winter school term, when the book opens. She needs to do some repairs on her house and she isn't quite sure how she is going to manage it.
Along comes an unknown little girl and it is clear that she belongs to one of the new pricey houses that have sprung up along side the old colonials that the long timers have built right off the beach. There is interesting girl/h conversation about both ladies losing their mum's at a very young age and then a big, cranky Most Horrible Man in the World shows up, looking for his kid. There are WORDS, as the h thinks he is being neglectful and off the MHMitW goes, with his young daughter.
The next bit is the h deciding to run a girl's summer swim camp on her beach and visiting her dear elderly grandmother's BFF -who also helped raise her. The GBFF promises to leave the h her 'widow's mite', which the h assumes doesn't amount to much as the lady likes bet on horses and never has much cash. The h doesn't care tho, she has been more than blessed with the GBFF's love and care.
The little girl shows up visiting and the h gets to meet her horrible dad again. We find out he is a banker and the h is not keen on bankers. (There is a lot of anti-banking sentiment in this one, one attitude that was prevalent at the time.) He asks the h to watch his daughter because he is trying to convince the sister of his dead wife to marry him. The little girl is excited to stay with the h, but very reluctant to encourage the H's pursuit of her aunt.
The h wonders about things, but lets it go while she tries to figure out how to pay for repairs to her roof when it starts leaking. The little miss comes up with the plan to take the h to her daddy's bank and borrow some cash. Which the h does, but she doesn't understand why they loan her the money.
(What happened is that the h's GBBF is known to be rich and she was overheard promising the h all her money, so the loan officer knows the h will be inheriting soon and lends her what she needs based on her "expectations".)
The h happily gets her house repairs started and her swimming camp for girls going too. Then the H comes over when a policeman shows up with a complaint about the swimming camp, it seems the h's neighborhood isn't zoned for businesses unless there is a special exemption. So the h has a problem, but it eventually goes away.
She has an even bigger one that evening. The H is entertaining his sister in law and a whole big crowd she brought with her. The h and the little girl are on the h's porch watching the stars, when the sister in law stumbles up naked to the h's house and other couples are frolicking obscenely on the beach. The h chases the woman off her land and then gets really angry when the H shows up, because she had to send the little girl into the house and he is exposing his child to bad behavior.
Things get even worse a few days later, the H has decided to marry the sister in law, but then the h finds the little girl hiding in her shower. The OW threw brandy all over the girl, multiple times and the little girl gave the OW a black eye. Except the h thinks the H did it, so she storms over to his house and wants to call the police for child abuse.
The situation is quickly sorted when the OW shows up and the H has her hauled off. He has a wedding all arranged, so he tells the h he will be marrying her. The h firmly refuses. She goes to visit her GBFF and finds that the care home is being foreclosed on and so the h takes her GBFF home.
We have some happy h/little girl/GBFF bonding scenes and a attempt at date by the H. He takes the h and his daughter out in a row boat in the fog and it goes very badly. (Which is another reason HP H's don't date, they make horrible outing choices.)
The h is starting to like the H and his roofie kisses more and more, she is coming around to marrying him and she loves the little girl. Then the bank auditors show up and the loan officer has moved to Arizona. The H finds out about the h's loan and he has a big conniption and takes his daughter and moves back to Boston.
Then the h's GBFF dies. The h is left bereft and alone until the funeral. Where the H shows up and the h cries all over him and then collapses. When she wakes up, we find the H has sold his banking shares for around a million dollars, the H and h marry with the little girl as a wedding attendant and the H plans to become a lawyer after he, the h and the little girl take a trip around the world.
The h wants to know what he thinks they will live on and the H tells her that the GBFF's 'widow's mite' totaled up to over four million dollars, so they will have enough to be going on with for the big HEA.
This one was pretty cute, the campy whacky banter was there, but it is a LOT tamer than many EG stories. This one also won the RT HP Plus 1994 reviewer award. So don't be afraid to give it a spin for a pretty funny and entertaining HPlandia outing if you stumble over it.
Just for reference I include the biblical story of the Widow's Mite - this is what the title is based on, tho in a pretty non religious way.
'AND THERE CAME A CERTAIN POOR WIDOW, AND SHE THREW IN TWO MITES, WHICH MAKE A FARTHING.
AND HE CALLED UNTO HIM HIS DISCIPLES, AND SAITH UNTO THEM, VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU,
THAT THIS POOR WIDOW HATH CAST MORE IN, THAN ALL THEY WHICH HAVE CAST INTO THE TREASURY:
FOR ALL THEY DID CAST IN OF THEIR ABUNDANCE; BUT SHE OF HER WANT DID CAST IN ALL THAT SHE HAD, EVEN ALL HER LIVING. –GOSPEL OF MARK, 12:42-44' KJVB
So this one starts with the h living in a seaport town on the coast of Massachusetts in a big old house that needs a new roof. She is the descended from the Mayflower families, so we know she is a die-hard Yankee that probably says Ayuh. She is also one of the nicest ladies in town.
Her father and her fiance both died together in the war, and since it was a draft issue, I am assuming Vietnam. (HPlandia has a slightly different time line for things.) There is also a current banking crisis in the book and I am assuming it is the S&L crisis in the US between 1986 and 1995, the savings and loan crisis was very similar to the banking implosion in 2008. So although it is 1993 in real time HP publishing - this book is a little earlier than that.
The h is contemplating her lack of finances for the summer, she is a substitute teacher during the fall and winter school term, when the book opens. She needs to do some repairs on her house and she isn't quite sure how she is going to manage it.
Along comes an unknown little girl and it is clear that she belongs to one of the new pricey houses that have sprung up along side the old colonials that the long timers have built right off the beach. There is interesting girl/h conversation about both ladies losing their mum's at a very young age and then a big, cranky Most Horrible Man in the World shows up, looking for his kid. There are WORDS, as the h thinks he is being neglectful and off the MHMitW goes, with his young daughter.
The next bit is the h deciding to run a girl's summer swim camp on her beach and visiting her dear elderly grandmother's BFF -who also helped raise her. The GBFF promises to leave the h her 'widow's mite', which the h assumes doesn't amount to much as the lady likes bet on horses and never has much cash. The h doesn't care tho, she has been more than blessed with the GBFF's love and care.
The little girl shows up visiting and the h gets to meet her horrible dad again. We find out he is a banker and the h is not keen on bankers. (There is a lot of anti-banking sentiment in this one, one attitude that was prevalent at the time.) He asks the h to watch his daughter because he is trying to convince the sister of his dead wife to marry him. The little girl is excited to stay with the h, but very reluctant to encourage the H's pursuit of her aunt.
The h wonders about things, but lets it go while she tries to figure out how to pay for repairs to her roof when it starts leaking. The little miss comes up with the plan to take the h to her daddy's bank and borrow some cash. Which the h does, but she doesn't understand why they loan her the money.
(What happened is that the h's GBBF is known to be rich and she was overheard promising the h all her money, so the loan officer knows the h will be inheriting soon and lends her what she needs based on her "expectations".)
The h happily gets her house repairs started and her swimming camp for girls going too. Then the H comes over when a policeman shows up with a complaint about the swimming camp, it seems the h's neighborhood isn't zoned for businesses unless there is a special exemption. So the h has a problem, but it eventually goes away.
She has an even bigger one that evening. The H is entertaining his sister in law and a whole big crowd she brought with her. The h and the little girl are on the h's porch watching the stars, when the sister in law stumbles up naked to the h's house and other couples are frolicking obscenely on the beach. The h chases the woman off her land and then gets really angry when the H shows up, because she had to send the little girl into the house and he is exposing his child to bad behavior.
Things get even worse a few days later, the H has decided to marry the sister in law, but then the h finds the little girl hiding in her shower. The OW threw brandy all over the girl, multiple times and the little girl gave the OW a black eye. Except the h thinks the H did it, so she storms over to his house and wants to call the police for child abuse.
The situation is quickly sorted when the OW shows up and the H has her hauled off. He has a wedding all arranged, so he tells the h he will be marrying her. The h firmly refuses. She goes to visit her GBFF and finds that the care home is being foreclosed on and so the h takes her GBFF home.
We have some happy h/little girl/GBFF bonding scenes and a attempt at date by the H. He takes the h and his daughter out in a row boat in the fog and it goes very badly. (Which is another reason HP H's don't date, they make horrible outing choices.)
The h is starting to like the H and his roofie kisses more and more, she is coming around to marrying him and she loves the little girl. Then the bank auditors show up and the loan officer has moved to Arizona. The H finds out about the h's loan and he has a big conniption and takes his daughter and moves back to Boston.
Then the h's GBFF dies. The h is left bereft and alone until the funeral. Where the H shows up and the h cries all over him and then collapses. When she wakes up, we find the H has sold his banking shares for around a million dollars, the H and h marry with the little girl as a wedding attendant and the H plans to become a lawyer after he, the h and the little girl take a trip around the world.
The h wants to know what he thinks they will live on and the H tells her that the GBFF's 'widow's mite' totaled up to over four million dollars, so they will have enough to be going on with for the big HEA.
This one was pretty cute, the campy whacky banter was there, but it is a LOT tamer than many EG stories. This one also won the RT HP Plus 1994 reviewer award. So don't be afraid to give it a spin for a pretty funny and entertaining HPlandia outing if you stumble over it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 24, 2019
"The Widow's Mite" is the story of Lucy and Jim.
In this tale, an out-of-work school-teacher, and bank owner embark in a war of both words, and love. They meet when the H's 8 year old daughter escapes her father's staff to meet the h, and strikes an unlikely friendship. The hero bursts onto her porch full of anger and accusations, and the heroine gives them right back to him.
Soon they are involved in multiple intermingled webs, which involve the hero's potential second wife, the heroine's financial needs, a disabled old friend, a runaway child, attraction, drama, tears and HEA.
The only words I can use to describe this book is a hot mess. The plot was all over the place, and jumped from one incident to the next really quick. No character was given enough page-space to develop properly, hence most came off in the end as very indecisive and cooky. But it did certainly give me a couple of laughs.
Just left me with a weird feeling at the end.
Safe
2.5/5
In this tale, an out-of-work school-teacher, and bank owner embark in a war of both words, and love. They meet when the H's 8 year old daughter escapes her father's staff to meet the h, and strikes an unlikely friendship. The hero bursts onto her porch full of anger and accusations, and the heroine gives them right back to him.
Soon they are involved in multiple intermingled webs, which involve the hero's potential second wife, the heroine's financial needs, a disabled old friend, a runaway child, attraction, drama, tears and HEA.
The only words I can use to describe this book is a hot mess. The plot was all over the place, and jumped from one incident to the next really quick. No character was given enough page-space to develop properly, hence most came off in the end as very indecisive and cooky. But it did certainly give me a couple of laughs.
Just left me with a weird feeling at the end.
Safe
2.5/5
June 21, 2025
Fun, quirky, cute, heartwarming. This is a classic Harlequin read with one of my favorite tropes — the cute little matchmaking kiddo :)
The title has a biblical reference but the story is not likely to be shelved under Christian fiction.
The title has a biblical reference but the story is not likely to be shelved under Christian fiction.
June 27, 2013
Lucy meets Jim, the most attractive man in the world as she thinks at first, and who becomes the most horrible man in the world later.
December 16, 2025
This is, not too surprisingly from the blurb, a lighthearted, rompy, heartwarming book that honestly feels a lot like it should have been written in the 1950s for some reason I can't quite pin down. I think the sort of idealism and the way the banks are going about lending money even in small communities is part of it lol.
**************************************************************************************************
Edit: So I'm continuing this from last night when I forgot to finish it lol.
The 50's feel comes from the everything about the story that just feels like an Americana-version of the 1950s in America.
The setting is the small coastal town of Mattapoisett, Massachussets.
The H is a reluctant banker single father dude who's moved next door to the h with his 8 year old precocious daughter who dresses in "dungarees" which I feel like wasn't a thing in the 90s but what do I know?
Heroine, h, is an impoverished schoolteacher whose family dates back to the Mayflower and whose falling-down home is at least 200 years old. She is ditzy like a 40s rom-com. Like, super ditzy.
Anyhow, the precocious 8 year old keeps running away from her father, who's a widower trying to be a single dad, who's decided to marry his deceased wife's sister even though she's horrible with children, hates her niece, is a gold-digging drunken idjit, and who is hated by his daughter. So said daughter keeps running over to the heroine's older but more homey home to hide from her aunt, her dad, etc.
Meanwhile the local nursing home has been foreclosed upon, so heroine's good friend she calls Aunt Something moves into their home. Aunt is locally rumored to be secretly wealthy although heroine knows that's a joke because Aunt something has gambled her fortune away, but they're always joking about heroine inheriting from Aunt Something, and unfortunately or fortunately that gets around town.
Around the same time, the heroine goes to the H's bank to borrow some money to fix up her house and fund her poorly-researched "summer camp" she's decided to conduct out of her house for all the rich folks visiting for the summer who want to offload their kids during the week. Her old house backs right up to the beach so this seems like a good idea. Based on a misunderstanding, as well as local gossip that heroine is Aunt Something's heir, who is allegedly super wealthy, they end up loaning her like 50,000 to fix up her house based on her expectations.
Hero has mixed feelings about heroine- he is attracted to her, but suspicious of her ability to take care of herself, let alone a bunch of kids (even though she's a schoolteacher haha), but also he's determined to marry his sister in law who's barely disguising her alcoholism, greed, and hankering for every male in sight, and also hatred of her niece, but ah well.
So this is a decent setup for all the shenanigans to occur, and boy do they occur.
It's a fun read, it's fun watching the MCs reluctantly fall in love, the 8 year old precocious child is actually mostly amusing and not annoying, and there's ofc an HEA.
**************************************************************************************************
Edit: So I'm continuing this from last night when I forgot to finish it lol.
The 50's feel comes from the everything about the story that just feels like an Americana-version of the 1950s in America.
The setting is the small coastal town of Mattapoisett, Massachussets.
The H is a reluctant banker single father dude who's moved next door to the h with his 8 year old precocious daughter who dresses in "dungarees" which I feel like wasn't a thing in the 90s but what do I know?
Heroine, h, is an impoverished schoolteacher whose family dates back to the Mayflower and whose falling-down home is at least 200 years old. She is ditzy like a 40s rom-com. Like, super ditzy.
Anyhow, the precocious 8 year old keeps running away from her father, who's a widower trying to be a single dad, who's decided to marry his deceased wife's sister even though she's horrible with children, hates her niece, is a gold-digging drunken idjit, and who is hated by his daughter. So said daughter keeps running over to the heroine's older but more homey home to hide from her aunt, her dad, etc.
Meanwhile the local nursing home has been foreclosed upon, so heroine's good friend she calls Aunt Something moves into their home. Aunt is locally rumored to be secretly wealthy although heroine knows that's a joke because Aunt something has gambled her fortune away, but they're always joking about heroine inheriting from Aunt Something, and unfortunately or fortunately that gets around town.
Around the same time, the heroine goes to the H's bank to borrow some money to fix up her house and fund her poorly-researched "summer camp" she's decided to conduct out of her house for all the rich folks visiting for the summer who want to offload their kids during the week. Her old house backs right up to the beach so this seems like a good idea. Based on a misunderstanding, as well as local gossip that heroine is Aunt Something's heir, who is allegedly super wealthy, they end up loaning her like 50,000 to fix up her house based on her expectations.
Hero has mixed feelings about heroine- he is attracted to her, but suspicious of her ability to take care of herself, let alone a bunch of kids (even though she's a schoolteacher haha), but also he's determined to marry his sister in law who's barely disguising her alcoholism, greed, and hankering for every male in sight, and also hatred of her niece, but ah well.
So this is a decent setup for all the shenanigans to occur, and boy do they occur.
It's a fun read, it's fun watching the MCs reluctantly fall in love, the 8 year old precocious child is actually mostly amusing and not annoying, and there's ofc an HEA.
March 27, 2024
The fact that the H seriously contemplated marrying a mean, self-centered money grabbing schemer to mother a child who was the apple of his eye put him so far down in my estimation that he couldn’t climb out of that pit. Lucy the h planned to step in to prevent this merely to help. What???.
October 29, 2013
this one was actually very boring ! i had 2 skip pages 2 finish it ! the main plot was good but then the other side stories got in the way about lucy taking a loan, starting a small business 2 repay the debt etc etc. so basically, proctor wanted 2 marry his wife's sister, eloise 4 maude's sake. becoz she was still a lil girl n needed a mother. but eloise was actually the evil stepmama while lucy was the good samaritan. finally they broke up as proctor discovered eloise had thrown brandy on maude n he decided 2 marry lucy. this cud have been good but i did not care 4 the narration. i mean it does not keep u captivated or absorbed in the book. n yeah, finally i did not bother 2 finish it ! i gonna read another book:P
July 24, 2011
I usually like EG but this one just didn't work for me.
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