Beyond the Lagoon

by Marjorie Lewty

"God preserve me from rich men's daughters!"
Only Susan saw the irony of Gideon North's contemptuous statement. She wasn't rich at all--but she was pretending to be Della Benton, who was.

A free holiday on Grand Cayman island had made the deception seem worthwhile, until she had to fool the attractive yet arrogant Gideon.

For Della's despicable father had made some kind of deal with Gideon--using Della as bait! "And God preserve me!" Susan prayed.

Genres: Romance, Harlequin Romance

188 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1981

About the author

Marjorie Lewty, née Lobb, was a British writer of short stories and over 45 romance novels from 1958 to 1999 to Mills & Boon.
She studied at Queen Mary High School in Liverpool, but her plans to study sciences at university were thwarted, when her father died. She was forced to take a hated job at secretary of the District Bank Ltd. from 1923 to 1933, when she married with Richard Arthur Lewty, a dental surgeon of Liverpool. They had one son and one daughter. After her marriage she began to write short stories which were published in magazines. In 1958, she sold her first romance novel to Mills & Boon, and her last novel in 1999.

Reviews

[StMargarets · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no idea what this title has to do with a story of a secretary taking the place of a poor little rich girl so rich girl can sneak off and marry her “rock star” while the secretary visits rich girl’s godfather in the Cayman Islands.

That’s the plan at least.

Heroine is the secretary to poor little rich girl’s ethically-challenged father. The story opens with the h refusing to lie about a contract and her bully boss firing her. Poor little rich girl is in the outer office crying, but her father refuses to budge. She will not be marrying her musician – she will be visiting her godfather and keeping a potential investor sweet (hero).

Heroine realizes rich girl doesn’t have much of a backbone and feels sorry for her. Heroine’s father died two years before, but they had a great relationship. He taught her to deep sea dive and they lived a halcyon existence in a small town on the English coast until it was time for the heroine to go to secretarial school in London.

So the heroine has mixed motivations when she agrees to this.

1. The heroine feels the need to stand up/have a bit of revenge on the bully boss.
2. The heroine’s compassion for the rich girl.
3. The heroine’s longing for a change/travel.



She calms her conscience by deciding she will tell the godfather about the mistaken identity right away. Either he’ll kick her right back on the plane or he’ll let her stay for the whole visit. Either way, she gets a trip and a suitcase full of new clothes to wear and rich girl will get married to her true love.

All goes well until the hero picks the h up at the airport. Seems godfather is ill with liver disease and is in Houston for treatment. Hero is rude because he had to leave a meeting to pick up heroine. Heroine decides to wait for the godfather’s return and not to reveal her true identity to the hero because he keeps sneering about useless rich girls.

The godfather and hero are sharing a condo on the beach, close to town. This is a temporary arrangement. Hero is borrowing it for a few months, while godfather has a remote villa where he was planning on the heroine staying. Now that the godfather is ill, there is no one at the villa. So heroine has no choice but to stay with hero (she has no money for a hotel).

Hero knows and dislikes the bully father and transfers that dislike onto the heroine. But he’s wildly attracted to her. When he finds her naked in his bed (heroine was jet-lagged and mistook his room for the spare room) he begins to seduce her. Heroine is frightened and eventually aroused, but she fights him off.

Hero thinks it’s all an act, but he backs off. Their cleaning lady, a native of the island, enjoys a good gossip. She tells the next-door condo neighbors, a bored brother and sister (wannabe OW and OM) that the heroine is staying with the H. Hero is glad to use the heroine as a smokescreen since he’s tired of the OW chasing him.

Heroine goes diving with the brother, who wants to be a songwriter. She has to rescue him when he gets in trouble and then the hero has to rescue her. Hero then spends all of his free time with the heroine, taking her places and diving with her.

The poor little rich girl does get married to her musician. Heroine sends the musician a tape the songwriter OM made and hero is jealous of both of men. Heroine also sends the rich girl’s godfather a letter explaining the whole scheme. There are few more misunderstandings along the way, but it all blows up in the heroine’s face when bully father/boss unexpectedly shows up.

He is angry to find his secretary living with the hero – and hero coldly tells heroine to pack her bags. Heroine leaves all of the rich girl clothes and the necklace the hero bought her. Hero doesn’t wait for an explanation – he drives her to the airport and heroine is gone within the hour.

The action shifts to England. It’s the week before Christmas and heroine isn’t up to looking for a new job. She leaves her hostel in London and checks into a bed and breakfast on the coast where she had lived with her father. As she walks on the empty beach, a figure looms in the fog. It’s the hero who has tracked her down. He realized right away that he had overreacted. He contacted the godfather and got all the details from the letter the heroine had written. Then he talked to poor little rich girl and found her hostel. That was a dead end until he remembered the name of the town the heroine had mentioned where she had dived.

He does a lovely declaration and heroine apologizes for deceiving him for a Christmas Eve HEA.

I don’t normally enjoy a story where the heroine takes on another identity, but for some reason this one worked for me. Probably because the bully father/boss got his comeuppance. The heroine didn’t have to lie outright to the hero – she just answered to a different name. She was herself the entire time with the hero – she never put on another persona. Hero was a cranky from sexual tension, but was in no way a cruel hero – even when he felt betrayed for the black moment. Heroine had a lot of backbone. Just an entertaining vintage story.

[Sometime · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's -20° F outside today so reading a book with beautiful descriptions of a tropical paradise has been wonderful.

This was a great oldskool read. Susan goes to the Caymans in the place of her wealthy acquaintance Della for reasons that made a lot of sense to me. She's an honest, good girl and plans on revealing the deception to Della's Uncle Ben as soon as she arrives. To her shock, Ben has taken ill and is in a Texas hospital. She's met at the airport by tall, dark and infuriating Gideon North. She doesn't dare tell him she's not Della (and you can see where this is going).

I really loved this book. It's full of the usual things that scream Harlequin, but I loved it all the more for them. The island descriptions brought it to life, I could feel the sun beating down and hear the ocean. Gideon is arrogant and bossy, but once we see more of him, he's a sweety pie. Susan is a perfect h. She's smart, feisty, strong, sticks up for herself, but still vulnerable and kind. She's never TSTL. There was even some interfering OW and some OM jealousy as well.

I found this book incredibly romantic and really enjoyed myself this afternoon. This book was a perfect mix of romance, angst, and plot. (For those who are interested: there are only kisses in this book and inuendo)

Safety It wasn't stated but I'm pretty sure the h was a virgin. The H was experienced yet he didn't behave like a manwhore. There was an incident at the start of the book where he finds the h asleep (naked) in his bed and he was a little more pushy than I would have liked, but his motivation made sense. They kiss and caress before she comes to her senses and pushes him away.

No cheating, short separation (a few days).

The OW is the daughter of an important client so he can't brush her off rudely but he never had any interest in her. The OM drama is due to misunderstanding. The book ends with the MCs entering an apartment for their first night together. It's a shame they shut the door before they got to the good stuff ;)

[RomLibrary · Rating 3 out of 5]

God preserve me from rich men's daughters!"
Only Susan saw the irony of Gideon North's contemptuous statement. She wasn't rich at all--but she was pretending to be Della Benton, who was.

A free holiday on Grand Cayman island had made the deception seem worthwhile, until she had to fool the attractive yet arrogant Gideon.

For Della's despicable father had made some kind of deal with Gideon--using Della as bait! "And God preserve me!" Susan prayed.

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just another typical romance, a quick read. Nothing special about this book sadly.

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

The H is lascivious and a lecher to boot.

[Νίνα Δοδούδη · Rating 3 out of 5]

"3.5/5" Τα ερωτικά μπερδέματα της Σούζαν, Μάρτζορυ Λιούτυ, Συλλογή, 365

[Annarose · Rating 1 out of 5]

Be warned! Not that interesting!

Susan lost her secreterial postion because her Boss, Mr. Benton, wanted her to trick a cliant and she refused. He fired her on the spot and in the same time shouted at his own daughter, Della, who rushed to meet him for an urgent matter. Both Susan and Della were left in a state of shock and utter dismay, so Della suggested having lunch together in order for them to lick each others wounds. After that lunch, Susan's life changed because Della and the man she loved, Vic, persuaded her to go on a planned vacation to Della's godfather house in Grand Cayman island in order to trick Della's father for a while. Susan agreed because she wanted desparate change in her life in London. She thought that once she explained everything to Della's godfather, he would certainly help them in their harmless plan. Yet, everything got complicated once she arrived at the island. Not only the Godfather was taken ill and transferred to the US, but she was also supposed to live with Gideon North in his condo as well! The man was cynical and crazy! He assumed the she was sent by her father - Mr. Benton - to act as a "sweetner" in bed in order to trick him!


An okay read I quess :( , but not a convincing one! They fell in love in three days time, and not that much happened for such feelings to develop in such a rush! Shocking!