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A Change of Heart
Caught up in a whirlwind romance with James, happily planning her marriage, Catrina was on cloud ten. And then, on the eve of her wedding, her world crashed in ruins around her, when her fiancé had been killed. 'Time heals' everyone told her, but Catrina knew better. Never again would she love anyone as she had loved James.
Catrina went to work at the Northfleet School for maladjusted children. Her colleague in her new job, Doctor Max Hartland, and the attractive Frenchman Pieree Magneau were more than willing to help her try and pick up the pieces. Amid the absorbing work there she found that time -- and the friendship of Doctor Max -- began to heal the wound. But which one would she choose, Max or Pieree? Or could she chose either, as long as she only saw them as a substitute for James? Then Catrina discovered that Max had been involved in the collision which had killed her fiancé.
Catrina went to work at the Northfleet School for maladjusted children. Her colleague in her new job, Doctor Max Hartland, and the attractive Frenchman Pieree Magneau were more than willing to help her try and pick up the pieces. Amid the absorbing work there she found that time -- and the friendship of Doctor Max -- began to heal the wound. But which one would she choose, Max or Pieree? Or could she chose either, as long as she only saw them as a substitute for James? Then Catrina discovered that Max had been involved in the collision which had killed her fiancé.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1963
About the author
Eleanor Farnes
54 books3 followersEleanor Farnes is a British writer, who wrote over 60 romance novels at Mills & Boon from 1935 to 1979. Eleanor Farnes lived in England, but her family had a home in Spain, where she also spend part of each year. She also traveled widely in Europe, South Africa, and North America. She started to write after marrying and having 2 children. Her hobbies included the restoring of old houses and traveling, that had brought the charm and beauty of exotic locales to her novels, like Spain, Italy or Switzerland, that she knew personally. She also wrote doctor/nurse romances.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Want to Read
August 2, 2021Such a gorgeous cover by Inge Drachmann, so far she's the only female illustrator I've been able to confirm for M&B (though there are a couple more I'm working on)
The blurb sounds interesting as well—sad, but I like sad—and findable in it's HR incarnation. I'm holding out until I can find Inge's cover.
The blurb sounds interesting as well—sad, but I like sad—and findable in it's HR incarnation. I'm holding out until I can find Inge's cover.
March 25, 2026
Unusual Harlequin in that the heroine is beautiful (and knows it), wealthy, courted by all, and doted on by lovely parents. She is also the favored, golden child, to her younger, bitter and resentful sister. In other words, the heroine of this vintage romance has all the trappings of an Evil Other Woman, not the typical lowly, destitute orphaned waif who eats beans and toast in her grotty bedsit while waiting to be rescued from her dreary existence by a resplendent Spanish Conde.
The heroine’s charmed life comes to a tragic twist when her fiancé dies in a car crash on the eve of their wedding. The heroine is shell-shocked and deeply depressed. With the gentle nudging of her parents, she is coaxed back into some sort of life, finding work at a school for “maladjusted children,” an archaic, very English euphemism for children suffering from deep mental disorders due to abuse and neglect. Surprisingly, the heroine takes very well to her job, almost too well. It seems like this is just her personality, she has a bit of a problem with obsession. Just as she was obsessed with her late fiance, she now transfers her obsessions into the little girls she is in charge of, sometimes putting in 12 hour days in the faint hope that she will achieve a miraculous recovery. The doctor in charge of the school is impressed by her and soon he is falling in love with her, like every other man in this book lol. The heroine only sees him as a substitute for her dead fiance. She has hot and heavy make out sessions with him, using him as a stand in for her dearly departed, until the hero has had enough. As pleasant as the kisses are, and as deeply in love as he has fallen with the heroine, he is tired of being treated like a drug, to be injected every once in a while when the heroine is jonesing for her late fiance.
Lo and behold, the heroine’s jealous little sister has set her own obsessive sights on the doctor hero. She thinks nothing of throwing in a wrench in his and her sister’s budding relationship by revealing to her sis that the hero was involved in the car collision that killed her late fiance. No matter how much the doctor protests that he was not at fault, indeed it was the fiance who was driving drunk and erratically, causing the crash, the heroine doesn’t want to hear it. So she turns to another man, a famous French singer who wants to lure her away from her job with the children and into a professional career as a singer, singing duets together. The heroine has a great singing voice and she puts deep emotion into her performance because she imagines that she is singing those love songs to her dead fiance. Frenchie and heroine have a grand old time singing their duets for French TVm and then sightseeing in Paris and visiting his farmhouse in Dordogne. In between, they have steamy make-out sessions which the heroine treats as a bit of well-deserved fun. Unfortunately for her, Frenchie catches feelings and proposes to her about a hundred times.
The heroine is pretty torn between the two men, the glamorous French singer and the do-gooding English doctor, and seems stuck in a vicious circle of stringing them both along until the doctor is stabbed by one of his disturbed patient, and the heroine comes to the rescue. This precipitates the concluding I Love Yous and we leave them to their HEA, planning a wedding that hopefully goes better than the last one!
I was honestly quite put off by this love triangle or should I say quadrangle story if you want to count the dead fiance. Never has been my cuppa. The horrid younger sister never gets her comeuppance. And to top it all off, there are two instances where the author uses REALLY GROSS AND NASTY racist language which were par for the course for the time this book was published, in 1963, but still gives me the ick.
The heroine’s charmed life comes to a tragic twist when her fiancé dies in a car crash on the eve of their wedding. The heroine is shell-shocked and deeply depressed. With the gentle nudging of her parents, she is coaxed back into some sort of life, finding work at a school for “maladjusted children,” an archaic, very English euphemism for children suffering from deep mental disorders due to abuse and neglect. Surprisingly, the heroine takes very well to her job, almost too well. It seems like this is just her personality, she has a bit of a problem with obsession. Just as she was obsessed with her late fiance, she now transfers her obsessions into the little girls she is in charge of, sometimes putting in 12 hour days in the faint hope that she will achieve a miraculous recovery. The doctor in charge of the school is impressed by her and soon he is falling in love with her, like every other man in this book lol. The heroine only sees him as a substitute for her dead fiance. She has hot and heavy make out sessions with him, using him as a stand in for her dearly departed, until the hero has had enough. As pleasant as the kisses are, and as deeply in love as he has fallen with the heroine, he is tired of being treated like a drug, to be injected every once in a while when the heroine is jonesing for her late fiance.
Lo and behold, the heroine’s jealous little sister has set her own obsessive sights on the doctor hero. She thinks nothing of throwing in a wrench in his and her sister’s budding relationship by revealing to her sis that the hero was involved in the car collision that killed her late fiance. No matter how much the doctor protests that he was not at fault, indeed it was the fiance who was driving drunk and erratically, causing the crash, the heroine doesn’t want to hear it. So she turns to another man, a famous French singer who wants to lure her away from her job with the children and into a professional career as a singer, singing duets together. The heroine has a great singing voice and she puts deep emotion into her performance because she imagines that she is singing those love songs to her dead fiance. Frenchie and heroine have a grand old time singing their duets for French TVm and then sightseeing in Paris and visiting his farmhouse in Dordogne. In between, they have steamy make-out sessions which the heroine treats as a bit of well-deserved fun. Unfortunately for her, Frenchie catches feelings and proposes to her about a hundred times.
The heroine is pretty torn between the two men, the glamorous French singer and the do-gooding English doctor, and seems stuck in a vicious circle of stringing them both along until the doctor is stabbed by one of his disturbed patient, and the heroine comes to the rescue. This precipitates the concluding I Love Yous and we leave them to their HEA, planning a wedding that hopefully goes better than the last one!
I was honestly quite put off by this love triangle or should I say quadrangle story if you want to count the dead fiance. Never has been my cuppa. The horrid younger sister never gets her comeuppance. And to top it all off, there are two instances where the author uses REALLY GROSS AND NASTY racist language which were par for the course for the time this book was published, in 1963, but still gives me the ick.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews