Wandalilli princess

by Dorothy Cork

The dream of Frazer Madigan's life was to find a priceless opal -- and she knew she would find it on Jay Dexter's land. But Jay didn't exactly welcome her.And Frazer had another reason for getting the better of him...

Genres: Harlequin Romance

276 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1975

About the author

As an author for Mills and Boon and later for Harlequin Romance, Dorothy Cork wrote 38 romance novels. She was born in 1918 and is still alive. Her first book was published in 1965 and the last in 1985.

Quite a number of her books have been translated into a diversity of languages: Japanese, Greek, Italian, French and so on.

She also wrote a number of short stories - about half of which were published in various Australian magazines.

Reviews

[Nightwitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine, and mostly inoffensive. Our heroine is eighteen and consumed with anger at a local rancher - on whose land her father died while mining for opals - and decides to give him a false name and mine for opals herself. She brings along a school friend, who in turn brings along a disreputable boyfriend. There are some nice realistic interpersonal moments - as the boyfriend plays Frazer (yes, really) and her friend Caryl against each other and Frazer, who is a very naive eighteen, doesn't know how to deal with these kind of weird romantic tangents although she can see them happening - but there's also a lot of the hero stomping around and pointing out that Frazer is placing herself in danger of rape. So, you know, there's that. Predictable but pleasant.

[Leona · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to work my way past the cover. But once I did, I found it to be very entertaining.

3.5 stars

[StMargarets · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've realized that Dorothy Cork's heroines have an initial overriding passion for something at the beginning of her stories and then eventually shift to the hero. I like that the heroine has something else to think about while love finds a way.

In this story the overwhelming passion is to find an opal worthy of the name Wandililli Princess. Wandililli is the name of the hero's Outback Station where her father was last digging for opals and where he died of appendicitis. Heroine is convinced hero had something to do with it and she's also convinced that her father was right about opals being on the property.

She's had to wait 4 years to finish boarding school and assemble all the gear she needs to continue in the shaft her father dug. Hero is not happy to have her on his land, but he can't stop her or her friends - her classmate and her rapey boyfriend. (From what I understand - station owners own the top of the land and the people of Australia own what's underneath and can apply to dig around)

Suffice to say, the hero gets nicer, the heroine gets more confused about her feelings and the rapey boyfriend gets more rapey.

I really hated that classmate and her creepy boyfriend. Hero had his chance to hit him and took it by the end of the story. I liked the romance between the H/h. Heroine was 18 to his 34, but they seemed to understand each other and the lonely world they were to inhabit. Hero was a good guy and not all-knowing and arrogant. Heroine will be loyal to the end.

[Last Chance Saloon · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are hardly any characters in this story and I think it suffers for it. There is not a lot of conversation and the engagement between the hero and heroine is a little hard going. Both could use a smile or two. There is so much about opal mining, and the heroine's friend's boyfriend, and I think it could use some sweet moments. Both hero and heroine are nice enough though. It just lacked sparkle.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet coming of age romance. The heroine wants to vindicate her late father’s belief that his mine would produce opal. She has mining rights on the hero’s land.