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The Storms of Spring
She was afraid she'd never become a woman
After her desperately unhappy marriage to Barry, the last thing Vicki wanted was another involvement. Being an unloved widow was better than risking her heart again.
But almost against her will, she found herself married to Garth Travis. Vicki was convinced she had done it mostly for the sake of Garth's little son.
Then she discovered two things: that she was madly in love with Garth -- and that he was no better than Barry had been....
After her desperately unhappy marriage to Barry, the last thing Vicki wanted was another involvement. Being an unloved widow was better than risking her heart again.
But almost against her will, she found herself married to Garth Travis. Vicki was convinced she had done it mostly for the sake of Garth's little son.
Then she discovered two things: that she was madly in love with Garth -- and that he was no better than Barry had been....
187 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
About the author
Sandra Field
214 books35 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 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 23, 2019
The story started with an interesting premise: The heroine rescues a kidnapped little boy who collapses at the doorstep of her isolated cottage during a good old Canadian snowstorm.
She reunites the little plot moppet with a comically ungrateful father, but not before she tries to ward him off with an axe, thinking it's the kidnapper come to finish his job.
The boy's father, who is of course the hero of the piece, casually announces that the kidnapper, the boy's uncle, died in a car wreck mid-kidnapping and good riddance!
This flegmatic dude brushes aside the kidnapping attempt, the death of his brother-in-law, and the possibility of ensuing PTSD for his six year old son, as if this kind of misadventure happens to him every day on his way toTarget Canadian Tire.
What he is really, really, really hot under the collar for is the heroine, our little Mary Sue who is just so sweet, pure and gorgeous.
Completely unfazed by the heroine's white lie that she is already married (she is in fact a widow, as he is a widower), he proceeds to court her in the subtle, tender manner of a troglodyte clubbing his mate over the head and then dragging her back by the hair to his cave.
In typical Harlequin fashion, the guy demands that she answer his every question, do as he bids her, abandon her own home, abandon her friend, move in with him, housekeep for him, mother his child, confess all her deepest, most shameful secrets, expose all the ugliness of her previous marriage, lay bare all her feelings, vulnerabilities, and insecurities, marry him, worship him, trust him, basically do everything short of bending over backwards for him while walking on a tightrope in stiletto heels!
But when she asks him about his first wife, he completely rejects her. A big, fat, stone wall. Except to say that he was in love with his first wife and doesn't expect to ever fall in love again. That's it. That's all the little Mary Sue gets and ever will. She is not allowed to ask any other questions. Thanks a lot! What a way to woo Wife Number Two :(
Then, when a friend conveniently discloses that the hero may have actually killed his first wife while in the throes of a bitter divorce and custody battle that made international headlines some years ago, the hero has a complete hissy fit that his meek little Mary Sue actually has the nerve to question him. Mary Sues are supposed to be blindly trusting, unwaveringly loyal, and absolutely unquestioning of their mates, despite all their lies by omission, shadiness, vagueness, and general asshattery. It's in the Harlequin Manual!
Finally, a near-fatal car wreck brings about his Big Confession (he didn't kill his wife...well DUH! We can't really have an HEA with a murderer). He declares his undying love and devotion to his current wife, who is content to receive it but also assures him that she loves him so much, she would have stayed with him anyway, murder or no murder.
This whole story was extremely stupid from A to Z. But I was stupider for reading it 😀
She reunites the little plot moppet with a comically ungrateful father, but not before she tries to ward him off with an axe, thinking it's the kidnapper come to finish his job.
The boy's father, who is of course the hero of the piece, casually announces that the kidnapper, the boy's uncle, died in a car wreck mid-kidnapping and good riddance!
This flegmatic dude brushes aside the kidnapping attempt, the death of his brother-in-law, and the possibility of ensuing PTSD for his six year old son, as if this kind of misadventure happens to him every day on his way to
What he is really, really, really hot under the collar for is the heroine, our little Mary Sue who is just so sweet, pure and gorgeous.
Completely unfazed by the heroine's white lie that she is already married (she is in fact a widow, as he is a widower), he proceeds to court her in the subtle, tender manner of a troglodyte clubbing his mate over the head and then dragging her back by the hair to his cave.
In typical Harlequin fashion, the guy demands that she answer his every question, do as he bids her, abandon her own home, abandon her friend, move in with him, housekeep for him, mother his child, confess all her deepest, most shameful secrets, expose all the ugliness of her previous marriage, lay bare all her feelings, vulnerabilities, and insecurities, marry him, worship him, trust him, basically do everything short of bending over backwards for him while walking on a tightrope in stiletto heels!
But when she asks him about his first wife, he completely rejects her. A big, fat, stone wall. Except to say that he was in love with his first wife and doesn't expect to ever fall in love again. That's it. That's all the little Mary Sue gets and ever will. She is not allowed to ask any other questions. Thanks a lot! What a way to woo Wife Number Two :(
Then, when a friend conveniently discloses that the hero may have actually killed his first wife while in the throes of a bitter divorce and custody battle that made international headlines some years ago, the hero has a complete hissy fit that his meek little Mary Sue actually has the nerve to question him. Mary Sues are supposed to be blindly trusting, unwaveringly loyal, and absolutely unquestioning of their mates, despite all their lies by omission, shadiness, vagueness, and general asshattery. It's in the Harlequin Manual!
Finally, a near-fatal car wreck brings about his Big Confession (he didn't kill his wife...well DUH! We can't really have an HEA with a murderer). He declares his undying love and devotion to his current wife, who is content to receive it but also assures him that she loves him so much, she would have stayed with him anyway, murder or no murder.
This whole story was extremely stupid from A to Z. But I was stupider for reading it 😀
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 16, 2021
Nothing groundbreaking here, but still a nicely done vintage (1981) Harlequin Romance with a well rendered Nova Scotia setting, mostly likable MCs whose past bad marriages serve as the main source of conflict/mistrust, and an ending that shows they have both grown. Good heat, an alpha hero who’s is clearly smitten and a touch vulnerable, and a heroine who has her stupid moments but who moves past them pretty quickly. A good, if familiar, walk through some classic tropes.
February 18, 2017
The heroin is a 21 year old widow. She lives alone in a remote cabin when she rescues a little boy from a snowstorm. The boys father (the hero) is looking for the boy and finds the cabin. He is instantly interested in the aloof h. She is weary of him so she lies and says that her husband is just away temporarily. Yet the H keeps questioning her about her marriage and her choice of lifestyle. It turns out that her husband married her for her money when she was only 18. He treated her badly and cheated on her. They never even consummated the marriage. He died a year after the marriage. Since then she has been living in the cabin. She doesn't tell the H this though. Because of the weather they stay the night. The next day the H tries to convince the h to come with them, if only for a holiday. She refuses. Fast forward 2 weeks and the H is back and angry, now that he’s found out that she’s a widow. He promptly proposes. The h is shocked, not surprisingly since they've only known one another 24 hours, and refuses to even come and visit the boy. The hero takes of in a huff and the h regrets being so harsh. She really likes the boy. A couple of days later the boy turns up on her doorstep. He wants to know why she won’t come for a visit. She can’t resist his pleas and agrees to visit. When the H comes to pick him up it’s agreed that she’s going to work for them as a sort of housekeeper on trial. So she moves in. The H is still trying to convince her to marry him and a couple of kisses later she agrees (by now she’s figured out that she loves him). She is still weary because she hasn’t told him she’s a virgin. But as expected he finds out on the wedding night and her past history comes out. From here on it’s smooth sailing. Until she finds out his past with the boys mother. It indicates that he’s no better then her x husband. There's a row and the H has to take of to Toronto for a meeting, but suggests that she take the time to figure out if she trust him or not. Then there’s other drama involving a pregnant neighbor and a storm, plus a car accident. The h realizes she does trust the H. They talk and declare undying love. HEA.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 20, 2024
Baffling, nonsensical, stupid.
Lonely idiot Vicki rescues a small boy from a blizzard, and rather frighteningly latches onto him as some sort of surrogate son. Within hours the father of the boy, a man named Garth, is pounding on the door and within seconds of clapping eyes on the heroine decides he's going to marry her. The heroine is horrified and says no, but immediately agrees to go live with him as an unpaid housekeeper. There is NO REASON for her to do this, other than some vague reasoning that the little boy would be disappointed if she didn't.
Speaking of the heroine agreeing to do something for no fuckin' good reason - within a few weeks she's agreed to marry him even though the very idea is oppressive and scary and horrible to her. They marry, forced seduction on wedding night, 80% breakup, love confession on the very last page.
As I said, this was so fucking stupid. No character acted like a real human being, they just sort of made outlandish, insane decisions for no reason at all and just went with it. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Lonely idiot Vicki rescues a small boy from a blizzard, and rather frighteningly latches onto him as some sort of surrogate son. Within hours the father of the boy, a man named Garth, is pounding on the door and within seconds of clapping eyes on the heroine decides he's going to marry her. The heroine is horrified and says no, but immediately agrees to go live with him as an unpaid housekeeper. There is NO REASON for her to do this, other than some vague reasoning that the little boy would be disappointed if she didn't.
Speaking of the heroine agreeing to do something for no fuckin' good reason - within a few weeks she's agreed to marry him even though the very idea is oppressive and scary and horrible to her. They marry, forced seduction on wedding night, 80% breakup, love confession on the very last page.
As I said, this was so fucking stupid. No character acted like a real human being, they just sort of made outlandish, insane decisions for no reason at all and just went with it. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
March 17, 2024
Vicki rescued little six-and-a-half Stephen Travis after he was kidnapped by an unknown uncle and had an accident in one snowy night. Later, his father, Garth Travis, found Vicki's house. It was then that Vicki focused all her well to guard her hidden agnoizing secrets against Garth's probing. It seemed he was not only determined to know her secrets, but also to marry her!
It was an ok read albiet the bizzare writing style. The hero's calling Vicki in every so often comment or question he asked just got into my nerves and the love between these two characters just wasn't convincing enough for me to relate to the ending at all.
It was an ok read albiet the bizzare writing style. The hero's calling Vicki in every so often comment or question he asked just got into my nerves and the love between these two characters just wasn't convincing enough for me to relate to the ending at all.
September 11, 2022
Het zal zomer blijven
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews