Breach of Promise

by Maria Barrett

When Rory Gallagher calls off his wedding to childhood sweetheart Kate Dowie, she vows never to return to the Wiltshire country estate that has been her family's home for generations. Jilted only hours from the altar, she has no choice but to re-build her life in London. As heir to the estate however, Kate cannot stay away for ever. After the death of her uncle Leo, her inheritance brings back memories. It also brings her massive debts, the threat of re-possession from a City loan company, and the devasting news that Rory is living and working in the grounds. They have one hope of saving the property—an ambitious plan to revive the gin distillery that once operated on the estate. Despite their new relationships, working together begins to heal Kate and Rory's emotional wounds.

408 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Maria Barrett has published 12 novels, widely translated and sold worldwide. She also writes romantic fiction under the name of EVIE HILL.

Maria's latest novel is the first in an historical crime series set in New York in 1907.

Reviews

[Sue Gerhardt Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve only read one other book by Maria Barrett and as far as I remember it was quite good, and while Breach of Promise was excellent and loved the way the story unfolded a couple of scenes were baffling and, not quite sure what but something was missing, also I felt they were rushed and not developed properly.

I did enjoy the many characters involved in the story and how they were all linked to the two protagonists and the switching back and forth between them all kept the story at a nice quick pace.

Not only was the history of the gin distillery fascinating but also how to make gin. That was a really cool part of the story.

All in all this was an enjoyable read.

POPSUGAR Reading Challenge 2020: # 15 - A book published in the 20th century

*Book #55/72 of my 2019 coffee table to-read challenge, cont. 2020

[Cara Byrne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did like this but it wasn't my favourite of Maria Barrett's books. There were some annoying characters, but I guess that was how you were meant to feel whilst reading it. I felt it was a bit rushed towards the end and also, not really a spoiler, but how quick did the police arrive after the first 999 call?!

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best thing about this book is how it was plotted. There is plenty of suspense, plenty of conflict, and the book is unputdownable until you find out how the goodies win the day. Probably the one sentence that appears in the book and summed it up for me was: "Life is so often made up of small gestures which have far-reaching effects,..."

There are a lot of characters and all of them have a part to play in the lives of the two main protagonists who are battling to hold on to an estate the heroine has inherited, along with the considerable debts that go with it, and while it was exciting to see how they impacted on one another's lives, it was also confusing at times as there are at least four secretaries - minor characters, granted - that appear and only one of them is having an affair with her boss. One of the other three is let go and replaced, and the fourth belongs to the boss's wife. Then there are two characters named diminutives of Thomas - one is called Tom, the other Tommy. For a moment I was stumped as to how Tom suddenly showed up in England when he should have been in Australia, until I realised it was the other character, Tommy.

The heroine is highly strung. She does a lot of shouting at the hero.

The hero is just too nice at times, and not very nice at others (he shouts at his three year old on a couple of occasions). In fact, he wasn't all that well-rounded as a character. He did things, but was quite flat otherwise.

Another secondary character, Jan, runs away when she should be confronting an important issue with the man she's having the fling with, and then tries to commit suicide when she finds out about her husband's embezzlement. Characters who run away once can be forgiven, but twice? I like characters to change and grow and overcome their demons, otherwise there doesn't seem to be much point in writing about them.

The motivations of a couple of the characters is questionable too. I don't understand what the heroine's mother was trying to achieve, and the aforementioned boss's wife, Jan, who is having a fling, rushes home in a cab to check on something, refusing to let her fling accompany her. Immediately on arriving home she rings him. Why didn't she just bring him back with her?

The ending was disappointing. The estate was saved from repossession, not through the efforts of the heroine and hero, but because something in the house turned out to be quite valuable and was discovered at the eleventh hour. The book ends with a scene featuring the heroine's mother who has been scheming in an effort to thwart her daughter's plans. The mother wasn't a main character, so why end with her?

One reason I enjoyed reading this book (despite the disappointing ending) was due to the way the plot unfolded. There were a lot of characters, but the story still held me in thrall, possibly because of the omnipresent and omniscient narrator and the fact that there was conflict from page one with the narrator pointing out the motivations of the characters, rather than the characters engaging in too much introspection (which can be annoying).

This book has reminded me just how important it is to have a good and satisfying ending which this story lacked.

[Tania Easton]

I read this along time ago also, It is a great read and have got more of hers to read in the future.