Kay Carlson had come to live at Hope House to help out her mother's grieving cousin. In the lovely New Zealand dwelling, Kay built a successful artistic career. Then Rolf Warburton, the new owner of Hope House, burst on the scene.
Reluctantly, Kay had to acknowledge her compelling attraction to the handsome invader. And it stung her deeply that Rolf appeared to be priming the house for his glamorous but spiteful friend, Estelle.. . .
The last straw came when Rolf asked her to paint a portrait of Estelle. Tempers were bound to explode--not to mention Kay's heart.
Miriam MacGregor wrote several romances for Mills & Boon and Harlequin in the 1980's and 1990's. Her stories are mostly set in New Zealand.
She also wrote several well regarded non fiction books about New Zealand.
Mrs Macgregor was married twice. Rachel McAlpine states in The Passionate Pen that Mrs Macgregor moved to England in the 1990s to live with a daughter.
added information from The Passionate Pen, the back cover of Petticoat Pioneers & National Library New Zealand.
When Miriam MacGregor uses her formula, it's a delight. However, this one failed on a lot of levels. The H's attention to the OW can eventually be explained, but not all of the provocative statements he made about her in front of the h. The h is totally infatuated with him and sometimes is so upset that she actually cries in front of him several times at the idea he's going to end up with the OW. (It actually brought back memories of a painful dinner party I went to where a work friend basically lost it in front of a table of her colleagues. I knew it was coming and gnawed my foot off so I could be gone by the time it happened.)
At the end he appears pretty besotted and doesn't actually rub it in how transparent she is in her feelings, but this one doesn't work on any level.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.