Wild Heart

by Doris E. Smith

Her unexpected inheritance of the cottage in Cumbria left Victoria in the state of indecision. Should she make the cottage into her permanent home? She was determined, at any rate, to give a try for a short time. She soon discovered that there was more to the whole situation than met the eye. And what part did the mysterious Dugald Douglas play in it?

Genres: Harlequin Romance

189 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1976

About the author

Doris Edna Elliott was born on 12 August 1919 in Dulbin, Ireland. Educated at Alexandra College, Dublin. From 1938 worked for an Dublin's insurance group. As Doris E. Smith was the author of over 20 gothic and romance novels from 1966 to 1982. In 1969, her novel Comfort and Keep won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by Romantic Novelists Association.

Reviews

[Vintage]

Having a dog on the cover was worth one star.

I started to zone out when the self-centered older sister aka Blanche DuBois and the equally shallow Aunt that raised the two girls drop that the h's beloved Great-Aunt died three days before the info in an aside and revert back to wedding talk. They brush it off as she wasn't really a relation despite the fact that the h went to visit her EVERY SUMMER.

I guess the two were too involved with the older sister's wedding. The wedding where the fiancee showed up by himself because his father was too ill to come and his mother is dead. Little response to the h's question when she asks why they didn't have the wedding where the father could easily come. Big sis' response...Auntie would have been deprived of giving me the wedding of the year, and I owe her so much. Bleh. No surprise that the fiancee calls it off at the last minute.

Considering I fumed over that for over 2/3 of the book and never woke up to the h or H is telling.

Too bad as it had bad 70s fashion otherwise known as 70s fashion, a taciturn but yummy Scot (is there any other kind), lots of dogs and other animals, and an animal sanctuary. Where did it go wrong?

The wedding that never was...


A hunky Scot...


And another. So it's not a kilt, but it's close. Sue me.

[Margo]

This was really hard to get through. So much talk, talk, talk.

[JR]

'Wild Heart' is the third title I've read from Doris E. Smith and I'd rate it as being significantly better than The One and Only , but not quite as good as Smuggled Love - I'm giving it a three-and-half star vintage romance rating.

The story begins with the heroine's sister, Lorraine, being jilted just prior to her wedding day. Determined to take her sister away from the scene of her unhappiness (and the stultifying environment of the home Lorraine shares with their Aunt and Uncle in commuter belt Surrey), well-known fashion writer Victoria Elliot, relocates them temporarily to a village on the Scottish Borders (why the novel's back-cover mentions a cottage in Cumbria, which is North West England, I know not). It's in this rural town that Victoria has inherited a cottage called 'Wild Heart' from a 'batty' Aunt who ran the place as an animal refuge. Feeling obliged to continue her Aunt's charitable work, Victoria begins sheltering animals (with her poor Sister called on to deal with the practicalities of frozen meat and sterilising surfaces) and in this way encounters the debonair local vet, Craig Maxwell, and also the local Laird, Dugald Douglas.

Almost immediately, there's tension between Victoria and Dugald - she thinks he's the party who reported her late Aunt to the Council for not having permits for the eyesore sheds erected on the property. To Lorraine's embarrassment, Victoria consistently does battle with Dugald, even when he's trying to do them favours (e.g. by securing the hen shed against errant foxes). By the time Victoria realises that Dugald, rather than Craig, is the 'very man for her' she's convinced he's in love with her sister. However, in the usual fashion of M&B of the period, this is simply a big misunderstanding and fashion-queen Victoria and dog breeder/ Kennel owner/ local benefactor Dugald are one another's 'true destinies'.

In summary, a very pleasant, if not overly demanding read; I'm considering procuring another title from the author (perhaps Cotswold Honey?) in due course...

[Caz]

This was an incoherent, rambling read that was hard to finish. I couldn't get into the writing style of this author - too much dialogue, too many side characters, occasional forays into the stream-of-consciousness of the nitwit heroine, and at times I didn't know which character was speaking or even what exactly they were trying to say.

[Hannah]

Story was ok, but the character's attitudes over the animals in the story kinda rubbed me the wrong way.

[Andi]

DNF.

The aunt / animal refuge storyline was both tedious and baffling. On the whole, the characters and plot were strangely off-putting. Read the author’s Cotswold Honey instead.

[Noemail]

have 2