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Goblin Court
The whole village was consumed with curiosity about the newcomer, Robert Challenger, who had moved into the Manor, and Lucy Wild was just as interested as the rest of them.
But she became more than a little disturbed when she discovered the truth about him....
But she became more than a little disturbed when she discovered the truth about him....
- GenresHarlequin Romance
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
About the author
Sophie Weston
183 books43 followersJenny Haddon was born in London, England, where she always returns after the travels that she loves. When she was small, her mother couldn't bear reading aloud, so her mother taught her to read at an appallingly precocious age. She wrote her first book with her own illustrations at the age of four but was in her 20s before she produced her first romance as Sophie Weston.
She studied English Language and Literature at university. Choosing a career was a major problem. It was not so much that she didn't know what she wanted to do, as that she wanted to do everything. So she filed and photocopied and experimented. She worked as consultant at the Bank of England and all the time she drew on her experiences to create her Mills & Boon books. She edited press releases for a Latin American embassy in London (The Latin Afffair); lectured in the Arabian Gulf (The Sheikh's Bride); waitressed in Paris (Midnight Wedding); and made herself hated by getting under people's feet asking stupid questions under the grand title of consultant all over the world (The Millionaire's Daughter). She also is an active member of the UK's Romantic Novelists' Association's Committee, and was its twenty-three Chairman (2005-2007).
Jenny has one house, three cats, and about a million books. She writes compulsively, Scottish dances poorly, grows more plants than she has room for, and makes a mean meringue.
She studied English Language and Literature at university. Choosing a career was a major problem. It was not so much that she didn't know what she wanted to do, as that she wanted to do everything. So she filed and photocopied and experimented. She worked as consultant at the Bank of England and all the time she drew on her experiences to create her Mills & Boon books. She edited press releases for a Latin American embassy in London (The Latin Afffair); lectured in the Arabian Gulf (The Sheikh's Bride); waitressed in Paris (Midnight Wedding); and made herself hated by getting under people's feet asking stupid questions under the grand title of consultant all over the world (The Millionaire's Daughter). She also is an active member of the UK's Romantic Novelists' Association's Committee, and was its twenty-three Chairman (2005-2007).
Jenny has one house, three cats, and about a million books. She writes compulsively, Scottish dances poorly, grows more plants than she has room for, and makes a mean meringue.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 23, 2018
BUYER BEWARE there are NO goblins in this book
March 29, 2016
This romance was originally written in 1976. It sort of shows it age a bit in the manner in which it's written. The hero and heroine don't spend much time together and there are lots of secondary characters taking up page space.
June 11, 2007
My absolute favorite of the many (many!) Harlequin romances that I read in high school and college. My fondest secret fantasy is to turn this into a screenplay for my directorial debut.
July 13, 2019
Sigh...The first couple of pages of this book were quite promising, and then it all went 'Pete Tong': the heroine, Lucy, became an trampled-upon watering pot (given to occasional inexplicable bouts of schoolyard giggles) and the 'plot moppets' (the heroine's nephew and niece) a pair of unruly varmints. Making matters worse, the heroine's employer and his wife also prove themselves unlikable, while the 'other man' and 'other woman' fail to evolve beyond quarter-baked characters (the OW is openly referred to as a 'bit of fluff'). But, that criticism put to one side, the real deterrent with this novel is it's hero -sometime engineer and legally appointed guardian of the 'plot moppets' - Robert Challenger (the surname, already, is just so 'alpha man-ape').
I'm cognisant this novel was penned in the late 1970's, but surely some of the lines used by the author must have proved pretty unpalatable even forty years ago (after all, women's lib was well underway by then!) For example, in discussing the heroine's ability to care for her niece and nephew, and after having threatened to take them away from her Robert tells Lucy (with a sigh);
'As I've already had occasion to point out, you're quite mad, therefore they [the children] need someone else for the stability ingredient. I'm positively immovable. Marry me, and then they'll have everything they need.'
And if that isn't a handsome proposal, I don't know what one is...
The 'silver-tongued' Robert later goes on to refer to the heroine as 'my sweet, silly Lucy' and the the tepid apology he proffers in the dying stages of the novel, isn't enough to redeem him either. At that juncture, Robert 'explains away' his objectionable behaviour to the heroine as;
'I was distraught, so I was nasty. It's a bad habit I have when I don't get my way...so - as you're so good with children - you might be able to deal with it better than most women, don't you think?'
Seriously, why would you? Why would anyone?!
In summary; I liked the book's title (even if its' a misnomer) and the first few pages of the story, but 'Goblin Court' is not going to remain on my bookshelf.
I'm cognisant this novel was penned in the late 1970's, but surely some of the lines used by the author must have proved pretty unpalatable even forty years ago (after all, women's lib was well underway by then!) For example, in discussing the heroine's ability to care for her niece and nephew, and after having threatened to take them away from her Robert tells Lucy (with a sigh);
'As I've already had occasion to point out, you're quite mad, therefore they [the children] need someone else for the stability ingredient. I'm positively immovable. Marry me, and then they'll have everything they need.'
And if that isn't a handsome proposal, I don't know what one is...
The 'silver-tongued' Robert later goes on to refer to the heroine as 'my sweet, silly Lucy' and the the tepid apology he proffers in the dying stages of the novel, isn't enough to redeem him either. At that juncture, Robert 'explains away' his objectionable behaviour to the heroine as;
'I was distraught, so I was nasty. It's a bad habit I have when I don't get my way...so - as you're so good with children - you might be able to deal with it better than most women, don't you think?'
Seriously, why would you? Why would anyone?!
In summary; I liked the book's title (even if its' a misnomer) and the first few pages of the story, but 'Goblin Court' is not going to remain on my bookshelf.
April 30, 2024
Author released a new version on kindle that includes H’s POV and it greatly improves story. In original the romance simply appears and here we see it develop. Also new edition resolves the drifting plot points. The original is 3 stars, new version 5. It is charming and funny.
Original . Sweet story but it doesn’t quite hang together. Plot points drift in, go nowhere then waft away. I liked the neighbors and the holiday fund raiser/fancy dress ball, but kept hoping h would leave her foot down once she said no. Kids were important secondary characters not plot moppets.
Romance came out of left field, didn’t like that.
I wondered whether copy on archive.org was incomplete.
Original . Sweet story but it doesn’t quite hang together. Plot points drift in, go nowhere then waft away. I liked the neighbors and the holiday fund raiser/fancy dress ball, but kept hoping h would leave her foot down once she said no. Kids were important secondary characters not plot moppets.
Romance came out of left field, didn’t like that.
I wondered whether copy on archive.org was incomplete.
March 27, 2023
Light hearted romance wherein the best aunt ever (according to me and the kids in this book) has custody of two children while their father convalesces abroad. In rolls Mr Champion, with his flashy car and easy laugh, to upset everything.
What I loved about this, and is SUPER RARE for Mills & Boon/Harlequin is its duel perspective, and while Robert (our H) is outwardly a a-hole at times he's really a rather vulnerable and lonely man. I loved him!
I thought the whole lute thing would have more of a payoff though. We're told he h plays the lute (hmm that's unusual), that she attended lute school, had a lute master, practices whenever she can around work and the kids, yet she NEVER plays in public. Come on the great Christmas extravaganza, and she's roped into playing for the whole town.. oh my god the build up, and the H will be int eh audience! I waited for THAT scene, where I imagined 'oh he'll see her play, and fall in love with the music, and admire her so much, and she'll grow in confidence because she conquered her fear!'... but no. NOTHING HAPPENED! We have a few lines in the past tense saying 'she got up and played three songs, then got off stage' and that was IT! Why all the build up with the lute thing if it was destined to go nowhere?
Also - at one time I had no idea if they had sex or not. Clothes off, in front of a fireplace, some misty line suggesting intimacy.... you would assume sex. Then a few chapters later she's thinking about how they almost 'went all the way' and I was like whut? The writing was so vague, suggesting one thing, then another - a few times over a huge chunk of the book I was so confused, 'wait, they didn't have sex??? They did??'
What I loved about this, and is SUPER RARE for Mills & Boon/Harlequin is its duel perspective, and while Robert (our H) is outwardly a a-hole at times he's really a rather vulnerable and lonely man. I loved him!
I thought the whole lute thing would have more of a payoff though. We're told he h plays the lute (hmm that's unusual), that she attended lute school, had a lute master, practices whenever she can around work and the kids, yet she NEVER plays in public. Come on the great Christmas extravaganza, and she's roped into playing for the whole town.. oh my god the build up, and the H will be int eh audience! I waited for THAT scene, where I imagined 'oh he'll see her play, and fall in love with the music, and admire her so much, and she'll grow in confidence because she conquered her fear!'... but no. NOTHING HAPPENED! We have a few lines in the past tense saying 'she got up and played three songs, then got off stage' and that was IT! Why all the build up with the lute thing if it was destined to go nowhere?
Also - at one time I had no idea if they had sex or not. Clothes off, in front of a fireplace, some misty line suggesting intimacy.... you would assume sex. Then a few chapters later she's thinking about how they almost 'went all the way' and I was like whut? The writing was so vague, suggesting one thing, then another - a few times over a huge chunk of the book I was so confused, 'wait, they didn't have sex??? They did??'
September 12, 2023
Oh dear - I’m unsure how to rate this. Well written but incredibly dated; it reflects a different age indeed. Personally I like books with more spice in them and with more intelligent transactions between the protagonists.
This author always writes so well, that I was prepared to suspend judgement about many of the anachronistic elements and enjoy the story. However it proved so difficult because fashions in romance writing has changed so much. A focus on inner conflict and deep wounds are what we expect today and deep POV for both h/H is a necessity. We did get more from Robert than was the norm in the 1970s but I wanted more.
I loved the hero - despite the occasions he behaved in a very patronising and unattractive, 1970s manner.
I disliked the heroine, she was irresponsible, judgemental and behaved like an adolescent. When she hit the hero - I was appalled and it threw me right out of the story.
It’s worth reading to see how category romance has changed over the decades and is certainly an entertaining read
This author always writes so well, that I was prepared to suspend judgement about many of the anachronistic elements and enjoy the story. However it proved so difficult because fashions in romance writing has changed so much. A focus on inner conflict and deep wounds are what we expect today and deep POV for both h/H is a necessity. We did get more from Robert than was the norm in the 1970s but I wanted more.
I loved the hero - despite the occasions he behaved in a very patronising and unattractive, 1970s manner.
I disliked the heroine, she was irresponsible, judgemental and behaved like an adolescent. When she hit the hero - I was appalled and it threw me right out of the story.
It’s worth reading to see how category romance has changed over the decades and is certainly an entertaining read
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews