Adair of Starlight Peaks

Glenorchy #4

by Essie Summers

Jane Grey's new-found step-grandmother Esmeralda was a perfect darling, and Jane loved her dearly even before she had offered her and her family a home in the beautiful Otago district of New Zealand, where Jane and her mother could paint pictures and sell them to tourists. It also enabled Jane to lend Esmeralda a helping hand too, so she just couldn't see why Esmeralda's grim neighbour, Broderic Adair, should be so disagreeable and suspicious about her.

Genres: Romance, Harlequin, Harlequin Romance, Fiction

189 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Essie Summers was a New Zealand author who wrote so vividly of the people and landscape of her native country that she was offered The Order Of the British Empire for her contributions to New Zealand tourism.

Ethel Snelson Summers was born on on July 24, 1912 to a newly-emigrated couple, Ethel Snelson and Edwin Summers, situated in Bordesley Street in Christchurch, Essie was always proud of both her British heritage and her New Zealand citizenship. Both her parents were exceptional storytellers, and this, combined with her early introduction to the Anne of Green Gables stories, engendered in her a life-long fascination with the craft of writing and the colorful legacy of pioneers everywhere.

Leaving school at 14 when her father's butcher shop experienced financial difficulties, she worked for a number of years in draper's shops and later turned her experiences to good use in writing the romantic novels for which she became famous.

She met her husband-to-be William Flett when she was only 13 years old, but it was 13 years before she consented to marry him. A minister's wife and the mother of two, William and Elizabeth, she still found many opportunities to pen short stories, poetry and newspaper columns before embarking on her first novel, which sold to the firm of Mills & Boon in 1956.

Summers died in Taradale, Hawkes Bay on the August 27, 1998.

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Reviews

[Fiona Marsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one. I think part of the reason is that there was no evil other woman wandering around annoying me. Jane Grey is an artist and is determined to provide for her recently widowed mother and twin siblings. When she meets an elderly lady who had been married to Jane's no good crotchety grandmother, their lives improve for the better despite the suspicions of neighbour and old family friend, Broderic Adair. The progression was traditional #vintageromance. Boy and girl meet. They hate each other. They get to know each other and love grows. Then comes the big misunderstanding. This was tied into the secondary romance between the heroes sister and an old friend of the heroine.
A sweet story and enjoyable read.

[Jane Irish Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably 3.5 stars. Jane Grey is an artist, a painter, and so are her mother and stepfather. They planned to move back to New Zealand from Fiji, and support themselves — including the eleven-year-old twins, by painting and selling their works. But then Noel, Jane's stepfather dies. But Jane and her mother June decide to go ahead with the idea, if they can only find a small house to rent! Jane searches and searches without any luck. And then receives an unexpected offer from the step-grandmother she never knew — Esmeralda's home is too large, so why don't they come share it with her? She leaps at the offer, despite reservations from Esmeralda's neighbor, Broderic Adair. Can Jane somehow convince him that she, unlike her late grandfather, means nothing but good for Esmeralda? This is a lovely, heart-warming story, set in the midst of the beautiful Otago district. Highly recommended.

[Last Chance Saloon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Artist heroine (24 - but acts middle-aged) encounters the hero (early 30s) when she meets her step-grandmother ;-) As usual it is enemies to friends to romance to enemies to HEA.
I think Essie Summers must have been a very nice lady, but I wish that she hadn't always written heroines that might have been based on herself.
The hero of this one was very two dimensional.
2 1/2 stars

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

A worthwhile story. Grandma Esmeralda is an especially memorable and fun character.