Through Night and Day

by Irma Walker

There was a saying that the Pelente men loved only once, and when Mayi Jenners married Laurens Pelente, she knew it would be forever. They would spend their lives in a fairy-tale village in the high Pyrenees, the Basque country Mayi readily adopted as her own. When the letter came, she saw her dreams shatter. Laurens didn't want to believe the startling revelation about his American wife, but as head of the Pelente household he could not ignore it. So Mayi set out to win back the love -- and trust -- of her proud husband.

Genres: Harlequin

380 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1984

Reviews

[Aou · Rating 4 out of 5]

H should have groveled on his knees on broken glass for a few months before he was forgiven. Alas, this was vintage HP.
🤷🏻‍♀️

[StMargarets · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely story of an independent American heroine who is seeking her roots in the Basque region of Spain.

She had studied the language at a university in Nevada and had befriended the visiting Basque professor. When the professor is due to return to Spain, he half-heartedly proposes a practical marriage for children, etc . . . While she rejected his proposal, she was devasted when he died in a car accident.

With the insurance money he left her, heroine travels to the professor's hometown in the Pyrenees mountains, but no one seems to know him. Herione quickly forgets her original mission when she falls in love with the hero, the head of the village, winery owner, etc . . . Hero is just as smitten. They marry within a few weeks of meeting.

The day after their wedding, they figure out that the visiting professor is the younger brother of the hero. (Naming conventions in the Basque language are explained) This is a problem. Hero thinks the heroine was a jezebel who lead his brother on and then dumped him when she realized it was the older brother had all the money and power. The younger brother had never written a name in his letters when describing his lady love, so hero assumed it was the heroine.

Hero assumes a lot about the heroine and it's his crazy paranoia that drives the last third of the story. Heroine does not run away, so the angst is delicious.

The black moment does eventually drive the heroine away for a year, but hero finally realizes how wrong he's been and goes after her.

So if you like well-meaning characters (heroine is a total Mary Sue), big misunderstandings, cruel heroes, beautifully described landscapes and family dynamics, you'll love this one.

Be prepared, however, to learn about the Basques! This is a SuperRomance, so there's lots of page time devoted to the history, culture and language of this group. I enjoyed all of it.

[ANGELIA · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was worth reading just for the info you get about Basque country, the people, history, culture and customs, as well as some of the cuisine and language. The H was Basque and lived in the village of Zubilibia, was head of his family as well as the village, and wished to preserve as much of the traditions as was possible. The h was Basque on her mother's side, was born and raised in America, and had a respect for the past but a more modern outlook, which was part of the conflict between them.

Mayi is a h to admire, as she's independent, focused, and worked hard for what she wanted, yet was gentle and sweet at the same time. She was orphaned at a young age and had several foster homes, then worked her way through school by taking all kinds of jobs, including Keno runner at a casino in Reno, NV, where she was studying. She has an optimistic outlook, in spite of things not coming easy for her.

Before she meets the H, Laurens, she was friends with his younger brother, Pio who - unknown to Mayi - had gotten his heart broken by a heartless young woman and hoped to forget her by returning home to Zubilibia, and tries to persuade Mayi to go with him, as his wife. (She wanted to learn more about her roots and study the language, and they were both at loose ends at the time.) Unlike Pio, Mayi wouldn't consider a marriage without love, and from there the story takes a dramatic turn, that brings Mayi to Zubilibia, and into Lauren's life.

Mayi starts living a dream, but soon gets a rude awakening, as the man she adores and married after a whirlwind romance, becomes a cold stranger, and accuses her of being the amoral tramp who destroyed his brother. Circumstantial evidence points to her, and from there, it's a case of "can't win for losing". Every time Mayi and Laurens take a step forward together, they end up ten steps back and apart. Other incidents, involving Lauren's younger sister, Engrace and her boyfriend Luis (in a sort of Romeo and Juliet situation), and later a neighborhood singer, Nicky, who's in the adult language class Mayi teaches, cause more troubles between them, as Laurens has major trust issues and is too quick to jump to conclusions, not to mention hurl insults. (At one point, an angry Mayi threw a book at him; too bad he ducked in time!) This is one H you'd love to shake until his teeth rattled! Even their having a baby son doesn't change his ways for long.

Mayi, to her credit, doesn't give up and run off, like so many other h's are prone to do; she fights for her marriage and her husband's love, until he hurts her so badly with a crummy accusation, that she believes she and baby Michael are better off without him.

Laurens has to work on himself, and work to win back Mayi and his son.

Despite wanting to clobber Laurens (many times), this is a book worth reading, and you get quite an education about the Basque way of life in the bargain. If it weren't for the fact that, due to his stupidity, Laurens and Mayi spent so much time apart, when they could have been so happy together all that time, I'd have given it another star.