Never again, Liz Stuart cautioned herself, would she fall a willing victim to the facile charms of an attractive stranger! With that conviction uppermost, she decided a holiday was in order.
And so, with a fickle fiance and a broken engagement behind her, Liz drove off for the beautiful New Zealand back country and a well-deserved rest for her tangled emotions.
Then fate stranded her on the doorstep of Jarrah Conway, a heart-stoppingly attractive stranger—but a man who knew her past.
Gloria Isabel was born on 20 July 1911 in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, Australia, the daughter of a mining engineer. At three, her family moved to New Zealand, and considers herself a New Zealander. She lived in Auckland, from 1926 to 1936. On 1937, she married Thomas Henry Bevan, a building inspector, and they had three daughters.
After leaving school she worked as a typist, but she had been writing stories for as long as she could remember and feel "there's a certain magic about writing even when the characters refuse to act the way I want them to." She not begin to publishing until she was well into her fifties, first detective novels as Fiona Murray in 1965, She started corresponding with fellow New Zealand writer, Essie Summers who introduced her to publisher Alan Boon and under her married name, Gloria Bevan, she wrote 25 contemporary romance novels for Mills & Boon from 1969 to 1992, many of which are set in her beloved New Zealand. When not writing, she explored the many and varied exotic locations within reach of her suburban Auckland home. Her obvious love of her country and her particular talent for weaving interesting background information into her novels made her a popular romance writer of her era.
Gloria Bevan was interviewed by New Zealand author Rachel McAlpine in 1992 for The Passionate Pen. This was published in 1998. In The Passionate Pen's Introduction, McAlpine mentions that Gloria Bevan had moved into a rest home. According to New Zealand's National Library website, Mrs Bevan died in 1998
2 1/2 Stars ~ After her fiancé jilts her weeks before their wedding, Liz decides to take a touring vacation to the outback regions of her beloved New Zealand. On a isolated road, her car breaks down but she's luckily rescued by a sheering gang on their way to their next job. They take her to the first station homestead, and Liz finds herself the guest of one Jarrah Conway, who happens to be her ex-fiancé's step-brother. Jarrah takes an instant dislike to her when he learns her identity, for the story he heard was that Liz had been the one doing the jilting with her eye for a better catch.
The sheep station's mechanic determines her car needs a new battery, but it will be weeks before Jarrah will be able to send any one the half day's drive to get one for her. Finding herself a forced guest, Liz insists on a job on the station. Jarrah knows she's good with horses, having been a trainer and a show jumper for her father. So he hires her to train his thoroughbred for racing. While Jarrah doesn't hesitate to praise her skill with horses, Liz wishes he'd see her as a woman too.
What I love about vintage harlequins is the story telling. While the romance in this book was pretty limited to some forceful punishing kisses, one more tender passionate kiss, and then the big "I love you" reveal, the story that was woven around that, was really rather charming.
I can't like the heroine, and the hero is smug and vacuous (a former F1 driver, now sheep farmer who wants a racehorse trained), and once again, as soon as the OW comes in (an international model who is unbelievably rude to the heroine, but the hero says nothing and he even has a framed picture of her on his study wall) everything is about her. Even the last two pages after the heroine is knocked unconscious is about the resolution of the OW's love life and career. It's just terrible. I can't understand how her earlier books had such cute heroines and sweet heroes compared with these cardboard characters.
Never again, Liz Stuart cautioned herself, would she fall a willing victim to the facile charms of an attractive stranger! With that conviction uppermost, she decided a holiday was in order.
And so, with a fickle fiance and a broken engagement behind her, Liz drove off for the beautiful New Zealand back country and a well-deserved rest for her tangled emotions.
Then fate stranded her on the doorstep of Jarrah Conway, a heart-stoppingly attractive stranger—but a man who knew her past.
Nice. Nothing special. Girl gets jilted, decides to move, gets stranded and is saved by her ex's step-brother who believes the rumour she got cold feet before the wedding.
The female ptotagonist seems to spend more time with her horse than the male protagonist.
Heroine had potential to be considered cute but she was just too damn argumentative all the time. There wasn’t attractive chemistry or tension between them. Liz’s mate is her hero. If you know, you know! Neighhhh!
Never again, Liz Stuart cautioned herself, would she fall a willing victim to the facile charms of an attractive stranger! With that conviction uppermost, she decided a holiday was in order.
And so, with a fickle fiance and a broken engagement behind her, Liz drove off for the beautiful New Zealand back country and a well-deserved rest for her tangled emotions.
Then fate stranded her on the doorstep of Jarrah Conway, a heart-stoppingly attractive stranger--but a man who knew her past.