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Happy Ending
Just fall in love, Nicola!
As if it were that easy--and in any case Nicola Shea doubted that it would solve all her problems. Her love life to date had been one big series of disasters.
And she didn't need any distractions. Nicola was spending the summer in Newfoundland for one reason only--to write her novel. A romance didn't figure into the equation.
She tried to keep to her schedule but with a neighbor like Trent Livingstone it wasn't easy. She'd made it perfectly clear that despite how attractive she found him, she just wasn't interested. So why did Trent, who seemed to go out of his way to be unpleasant, keep invading her thoughts and the pages of her story?
As if it were that easy--and in any case Nicola Shea doubted that it would solve all her problems. Her love life to date had been one big series of disasters.
And she didn't need any distractions. Nicola was spending the summer in Newfoundland for one reason only--to write her novel. A romance didn't figure into the equation.
She tried to keep to her schedule but with a neighbor like Trent Livingstone it wasn't easy. She'd made it perfectly clear that despite how attractive she found him, she just wasn't interested. So why did Trent, who seemed to go out of his way to be unpleasant, keep invading her thoughts and the pages of her story?
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 1, 1992
About the author
Sandra Field
215 books37 followersJill MacLean was born on 1941 in England, UK. In 1950, her family moved to Nova Scotia, Canada.
After receiving her Bachelor of Science with honours from Dalhousie University, she married. She worked at the Fisheries Research Board until her daughter was born. Following the birth of her son, she was employed by the pathology laboratory of Sydney City Hospital and the biology department of Mount Allison University. More recently, she completed a Masters in Theological Studies at the Atlantic School of Theology; her thesis juxtaposed Hebrew concepts of chaos in the book of Job with modern chaos theory.
When her husband joined the Armed Forces as a chaplain, she had to stop working. They moved three times in the first 18 months, the last move was to Prince Edward Island. By then her children were in school; she couldn't get a job; and at the local bridge club, she kept forgetting not to trump her partner's ace.
However, she had always loved to read, fascinated by the lure of being drawn into the other world of the story. So one day she bought a dozen Harlequin novels, read and analyzed them, then sat down and wrote one. Her first book, To Trust My Love, typed with four fingers, was published in 1974 as Sandra Field (she believes she's curiously the first Canadian to write for Harlequin). During the four years she lived in Prince Edward Island, she researched an 18th century French settlement located near present-day Brudenell, resulting in a historical book, Jean Pierre Roma, published in 1977 under her real name. She also started to write in collaboration with other Martimer writer under the pseudonym Jan MacLean. She also used to singed her novels the pseudonym of Jocelyn Haley. Her pseudonyms was an attempt to prevent the congregation from finding out what the chaplain's wife was up to in her spare time.
Before she turned 40, her life was changed, she had lost three of the most important women in her life: her mother and sister to illness, and her seventeen-year-old daughter to a car accident, and she separated from her husband in 1976. One of the lasting legacies of the grief caused by these losses has been the idea that it is impossible and undesirable to live every waking moment in the knowledge that loss can strike at any time.
She's been very fortunate for years to be able to combine a love of travel (particularly to the north - she doesn't do heat well) with her writing, by describing settings that most people will probably never visit. And there's always the challenge of making the heroine's long underwear sound romantic. Her novels has been translated into Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Greek, Dutch, Swedish, Yugoslavian, Japanese... and sold in more than 90 countries. Her first collection of poetry, The Brevity of Red, was published in 2003. When her nine-years-old grandson, Stuart, asked him a book for him, she wrote her first Children's book and decided continued writing this type of books.
Jill now lives in Bedford, Nova Scotia, and she's lived most of her life in the Maritimes of Canada, within reach of the sea. Kayaking and canoeing, hiking and gardening, listening to music and reading are all sources of great pleasure. But best of all are good friends, some going back to high-school days, and her family. In Newfoundland, she has a beautiful daughter-in-law and the two most delightful, handsome, and intelligent grandchildren in the world (of course!).
After receiving her Bachelor of Science with honours from Dalhousie University, she married. She worked at the Fisheries Research Board until her daughter was born. Following the birth of her son, she was employed by the pathology laboratory of Sydney City Hospital and the biology department of Mount Allison University. More recently, she completed a Masters in Theological Studies at the Atlantic School of Theology; her thesis juxtaposed Hebrew concepts of chaos in the book of Job with modern chaos theory.
When her husband joined the Armed Forces as a chaplain, she had to stop working. They moved three times in the first 18 months, the last move was to Prince Edward Island. By then her children were in school; she couldn't get a job; and at the local bridge club, she kept forgetting not to trump her partner's ace.
However, she had always loved to read, fascinated by the lure of being drawn into the other world of the story. So one day she bought a dozen Harlequin novels, read and analyzed them, then sat down and wrote one. Her first book, To Trust My Love, typed with four fingers, was published in 1974 as Sandra Field (she believes she's curiously the first Canadian to write for Harlequin). During the four years she lived in Prince Edward Island, she researched an 18th century French settlement located near present-day Brudenell, resulting in a historical book, Jean Pierre Roma, published in 1977 under her real name. She also started to write in collaboration with other Martimer writer under the pseudonym Jan MacLean. She also used to singed her novels the pseudonym of Jocelyn Haley. Her pseudonyms was an attempt to prevent the congregation from finding out what the chaplain's wife was up to in her spare time.
Before she turned 40, her life was changed, she had lost three of the most important women in her life: her mother and sister to illness, and her seventeen-year-old daughter to a car accident, and she separated from her husband in 1976. One of the lasting legacies of the grief caused by these losses has been the idea that it is impossible and undesirable to live every waking moment in the knowledge that loss can strike at any time.
She's been very fortunate for years to be able to combine a love of travel (particularly to the north - she doesn't do heat well) with her writing, by describing settings that most people will probably never visit. And there's always the challenge of making the heroine's long underwear sound romantic. Her novels has been translated into Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Greek, Dutch, Swedish, Yugoslavian, Japanese... and sold in more than 90 countries. Her first collection of poetry, The Brevity of Red, was published in 2003. When her nine-years-old grandson, Stuart, asked him a book for him, she wrote her first Children's book and decided continued writing this type of books.
Jill now lives in Bedford, Nova Scotia, and she's lived most of her life in the Maritimes of Canada, within reach of the sea. Kayaking and canoeing, hiking and gardening, listening to music and reading are all sources of great pleasure. But best of all are good friends, some going back to high-school days, and her family. In Newfoundland, she has a beautiful daughter-in-law and the two most delightful, handsome, and intelligent grandchildren in the world (of course!).
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 22, 2017
Re Happy Ending - Sandra Field takes us to a writer's retreat for love on the island of Newfoundland. The orphan h is an aspiring writer. She is currently in college for an English degree after nursing her ill grandmother and losing two fiances, one to each of her sisters who set out to seduce them.
The h likes romance stories and thinks she can write a romance novel every summer and pay for some of her next year college expenses. She had applied to the owner of the writer's retreat, an eccentric wealthy three time widow who has a hobby of meddling in her author's business.
The h gets assigned a duplex cabin for the summer and when she arrives she finds a drunken man in her bed. At first she thinks she is in the wrong place, but the obnoxious guy refuses to leave and is insulting and the h decides to ask the retreat owner for a different room. The only place available according to the owner is a stuffy attic but the owner goes and talks to the drunk guy, who is supposed to be the groundskeeper, and the h decides to stay in the cabin.
The h is a bit wary, cause the groundskeeper is right next door and the walls are very thin. When she meets the man later at the communal dinner, she finds out he was faking being drunk to insult her and run her off.
The h isn't too thrilled with the groundskeeper, especially since every meeting they have is fraught with tension and anger. The h has a plumbing problem and the plumber asks her to go over next door and check the H's cabin for his wrench. The H groundskeeper assumes the h is there to seduce and toy with him and he forces a few roofie kisses on her. She is outraged and tells him off when the plumber confirms that he had asked her to check for his tools. The H tries to apologize but the h doesn't want to hear it, tho she is curious cause she heard the H on the phone with the police earlier, she just thinks the H is a good looking nematode.
Things take a turn when some of the other writers at the retreat throw the h into deep water as a sorta hazing thing and the h gets hysterical because she is terrified of water as her parent's drowned when she was a child. The H rescues her and begins to teach her how to swim to help her get over her bathophobia.
The h soon reveals her back story to the H as they get closer and she explains how she brought two fiances home to meet her vampy tart sisters and how they soon seduced them away and the h feels like she is a romantic failure. The h's writing starts off badly at first, but after multiple encounters with the H, she starts to find her romance inspiration and is soon pounding out the pages, tho her love scene needs help cause she has little experience.
The H gradually reveals his backstory too and we find out that he isn't really a groundskeeper, he is an architect but is taking a sabbatical and the retreat owner is actually his great aunt. The H has HUGE issues with women and trust and we all learn that the H's grandmother had to raise him and was horribly abusive, she used to lock him in the cellar for long periods of time until his great aunt made the woman send the H to boarding school.
The h and H have a lot passion sparking between them, but in a very unusual HP move, SF has them NOT consummating the lurve mojo. They only indulge in mutual digital stimulation as the h is a virgin and they have no protection. The day after the big finger manipulation explosions, the h finds her writer's block about her novel's love scene is gone and she can now use her own experience for inspiration as she types the description out.
The H finds the pages the h has written and loses his temper and accuses the h of using him for research and betraying his trust. The h denies it, her characters don't resemble the H at all, but the H needs an excuse for distance and so he dumps the h.
The H's great aunt is playing obnoxious matchmaker and forces the H and h together however she can. The H is called on to help the h when her sister's decide to visit and the h as to pick them up. They try to seduce the H literally at the baggage carousel and in the airport parking lot and the H fortunately tells them off.
Then the skeevy sister's claim they were only trying to protect their sister by seducing her former fiances, as a man who really liked the h would be impervious to the two skeevy tarts. The h explains that they hurt her and the sister's act amazed that she should be so sensitive and hurt.
Anyhows, they leave after a visit and the h's relationship with them is restored. The H is being nicer and the h is beginning to wonder more about why exactly the H is at the retreat. There was a strange encounter with a dubious man at the airport with the H when they went to get the h's family and the h gets even more alarmed when she sees a man with a gun outside of the H's cabin. He is going to shoot the H and the h grabs a tree branch to knock the gun away and then she jumps on the stalker guy until the H can get him tied up.
The H declares he loves the h and is keeping her forever and they are getting married right away as she risked her life to save him. The h has been in love for the last six chapters, so she happily agrees and we find out that the H really is an architect.
But he had to go into hiding because one of his clients was a big home builder and was cheating his home buyers and the H figured it out and tipped off the police. The shoddy builder was on the lam and trying to eliminate the H so he could get out of a trial and the weird man at the airport was his partner and tipped the would be killer off.
The H now understands the difference between writing and using inspiration as opposed to publishing actual intimate moments and he is now okay with the h's writing. So now they have trust and the h is okay with her sisters and she is almost done with her book and the H's great aunt is happy she finally made a true love connection for the H for the HEA.
This was a very odd book. It was oddly paced and a strange confabulation of H therapy moments combined with suspense and some wanna be rom com that takes some bad turns. I mainly thought most of the people in story were fairly horrible, but the H did manage to resist the skeevey sister team up, so that makes this one an average HP outing with an okay and mostly believable HEA , but there are better HP's out there.
The h likes romance stories and thinks she can write a romance novel every summer and pay for some of her next year college expenses. She had applied to the owner of the writer's retreat, an eccentric wealthy three time widow who has a hobby of meddling in her author's business.
The h gets assigned a duplex cabin for the summer and when she arrives she finds a drunken man in her bed. At first she thinks she is in the wrong place, but the obnoxious guy refuses to leave and is insulting and the h decides to ask the retreat owner for a different room. The only place available according to the owner is a stuffy attic but the owner goes and talks to the drunk guy, who is supposed to be the groundskeeper, and the h decides to stay in the cabin.
The h is a bit wary, cause the groundskeeper is right next door and the walls are very thin. When she meets the man later at the communal dinner, she finds out he was faking being drunk to insult her and run her off.
The h isn't too thrilled with the groundskeeper, especially since every meeting they have is fraught with tension and anger. The h has a plumbing problem and the plumber asks her to go over next door and check the H's cabin for his wrench. The H groundskeeper assumes the h is there to seduce and toy with him and he forces a few roofie kisses on her. She is outraged and tells him off when the plumber confirms that he had asked her to check for his tools. The H tries to apologize but the h doesn't want to hear it, tho she is curious cause she heard the H on the phone with the police earlier, she just thinks the H is a good looking nematode.
Things take a turn when some of the other writers at the retreat throw the h into deep water as a sorta hazing thing and the h gets hysterical because she is terrified of water as her parent's drowned when she was a child. The H rescues her and begins to teach her how to swim to help her get over her bathophobia.
The h soon reveals her back story to the H as they get closer and she explains how she brought two fiances home to meet her vampy tart sisters and how they soon seduced them away and the h feels like she is a romantic failure. The h's writing starts off badly at first, but after multiple encounters with the H, she starts to find her romance inspiration and is soon pounding out the pages, tho her love scene needs help cause she has little experience.
The H gradually reveals his backstory too and we find out that he isn't really a groundskeeper, he is an architect but is taking a sabbatical and the retreat owner is actually his great aunt. The H has HUGE issues with women and trust and we all learn that the H's grandmother had to raise him and was horribly abusive, she used to lock him in the cellar for long periods of time until his great aunt made the woman send the H to boarding school.
The h and H have a lot passion sparking between them, but in a very unusual HP move, SF has them NOT consummating the lurve mojo. They only indulge in mutual digital stimulation as the h is a virgin and they have no protection. The day after the big finger manipulation explosions, the h finds her writer's block about her novel's love scene is gone and she can now use her own experience for inspiration as she types the description out.
The H finds the pages the h has written and loses his temper and accuses the h of using him for research and betraying his trust. The h denies it, her characters don't resemble the H at all, but the H needs an excuse for distance and so he dumps the h.
The H's great aunt is playing obnoxious matchmaker and forces the H and h together however she can. The H is called on to help the h when her sister's decide to visit and the h as to pick them up. They try to seduce the H literally at the baggage carousel and in the airport parking lot and the H fortunately tells them off.
Then the skeevy sister's claim they were only trying to protect their sister by seducing her former fiances, as a man who really liked the h would be impervious to the two skeevy tarts. The h explains that they hurt her and the sister's act amazed that she should be so sensitive and hurt.
Anyhows, they leave after a visit and the h's relationship with them is restored. The H is being nicer and the h is beginning to wonder more about why exactly the H is at the retreat. There was a strange encounter with a dubious man at the airport with the H when they went to get the h's family and the h gets even more alarmed when she sees a man with a gun outside of the H's cabin. He is going to shoot the H and the h grabs a tree branch to knock the gun away and then she jumps on the stalker guy until the H can get him tied up.
The H declares he loves the h and is keeping her forever and they are getting married right away as she risked her life to save him. The h has been in love for the last six chapters, so she happily agrees and we find out that the H really is an architect.
But he had to go into hiding because one of his clients was a big home builder and was cheating his home buyers and the H figured it out and tipped off the police. The shoddy builder was on the lam and trying to eliminate the H so he could get out of a trial and the weird man at the airport was his partner and tipped the would be killer off.
The H now understands the difference between writing and using inspiration as opposed to publishing actual intimate moments and he is now okay with the h's writing. So now they have trust and the h is okay with her sisters and she is almost done with her book and the H's great aunt is happy she finally made a true love connection for the H for the HEA.
This was a very odd book. It was oddly paced and a strange confabulation of H therapy moments combined with suspense and some wanna be rom com that takes some bad turns. I mainly thought most of the people in story were fairly horrible, but the H did manage to resist the skeevey sister team up, so that makes this one an average HP outing with an okay and mostly believable HEA , but there are better HP's out there.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 10, 2018
H is a selfish, cagey game-player, h is a doormat with low self-esteem and what sounds like a truly terrible haircut. As the French say, there is one who kisses and one who offers the cheek to be kissed, and the heroine will be puckering up for the rest of her life.
January 15, 2019
Enjoyable read. Good writing.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews