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Love for a Stranger
Why hadn't he told her who he was...?
Louise was glad that her job as an interior decorator had taken her to the old manor house in Wales. Redecorating it would help take her mind off Barry, whose only interest in her had been financial.
She hadn't expected to find anyone at Tir Glyn. Certainly not Tom Reading, the disturbingly attractive grounds keeper.
By the time she found out his secret, it was too late. She was in love. And she had already agreed to marry him.
Louise was glad that her job as an interior decorator had taken her to the old manor house in Wales. Redecorating it would help take her mind off Barry, whose only interest in her had been financial.
She hadn't expected to find anyone at Tir Glyn. Certainly not Tom Reading, the disturbingly attractive grounds keeper.
By the time she found out his secret, it was too late. She was in love. And she had already agreed to marry him.
188 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
1 person is currently reading
86 people want to read
About the author
Jane Donnelly
145 books29 followersJane Donnelly began earning her living as a writer as a teenage reporter. When she married the editor of the newspaper she freelanced for women's mags for a while. After she was widowed she and her 5 year old daughter moved to Lancashire. She turned to writing fiction to make a living while still caring for her daughter, she sold her first Mills & Boon romance novel as a hard-up singleparent in 1965. She wrote over 60 romance novels for Mills & Boon until 2000. Now she lives in a roses-round-the door cottage near Stratford-upon-Avon, with four dogs and assorted rescued animals. Besides writing she enjoys travelling, swimming, walking and the company of friends.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 11, 2017
HAIKU BOOK REVIEW:Love for a Stranger, by Jane Donnelly
She is a doormat,
And he's a cruel asshat,
Tired of these tales.
October 4, 2016
Omg not only was she a long Ghak or some such non-sense but she has no common sense!!!
Really?
Would you let your new hubby have his ex come and stay and host your parties for you? Cause to me it screams I can't stand to for myself! As I let others run my life for me.
Just not my type of heroine personally. She is too nice and sweet. One of life's doormat who will always stand back and allow others to take her rightful place!
Omg she was too stupid to live!
It was a total waste of time for me!
Glad it was a free ebook or I would have felt ripped off!
Really?
Would you let your new hubby have his ex come and stay and host your parties for you? Cause to me it screams I can't stand to for myself! As I let others run my life for me.
Just not my type of heroine personally. She is too nice and sweet. One of life's doormat who will always stand back and allow others to take her rightful place!
Omg she was too stupid to live!
It was a total waste of time for me!
Glad it was a free ebook or I would have felt ripped off!
May 7, 2015
Great MOC story. I loved how insecure heroine was and how she was fighting her feelings for our hero. She had to cause she had no idea hero was also crazy in love with her. She thought this marriage was strictly business for him and there was the evil other woman on top of that. It made me swoon when they finally admitted their feelings!
November 20, 2023
The Harlequin cover is by the distinctive brush of Gordon Rayner. I've always been a bit worried about this male cover model, he's one of Rayner's faves but the proportions of his skull seem peculiar. And because I can't help theorizing I wonder if it's a result of paper size? You see it in art classes all the time, over-awareness of an edge leads to unconscious adjustments in order to make all the bits "fit" even when it would be compositionally stronger to let whatever run off the page.
And it's not at all fair because he's an absolute master of the form but I'll just let Will Davies' cover for M&B be a visual tonic. (Sorry I've put in a request for the M&B image to be added but until then you can go to my profile page photos to see what I'm referring to.) It's beautiful and WD leaves the cropping to M&B's art dept so the male figure's proportions are natural and healthy looking. I also love the affect where they're both insubstantial enough that either may just be imagining the other.
Jane Donnelly is one of my favorite romance writers but I don't think MOCs are a good fit for her characters. This pair enters into one with intellectual and physical interest on both sides but no good reason. And do it hastily and without coming clean about their expectations. Then it's as though JD decided that as she's trying the MOC thing out she may as well go with a generic hero who becomes really insecure about being married for his money, is pissed when h doesn't put out on their wedding night then peevishly plays up to his former GF while being a knob towards the h. I kept thinking that JD's characters, especially in the 60s and 70s, don't have the sort of problems that lend themselves to a MOC and it's not how they problem solve anyway—and bless them for that—so the template feels out of place.
The only interesting element was that the heroine Louise had a horror of being yelled at—of yelling in general—because of submerged childhood trauma. I personally can't tolerate it either and practice immediate avoidance strategies whenever I encounter yelling so I had sympathy for this.
And it's not at all fair because he's an absolute master of the form but I'll just let Will Davies' cover for M&B be a visual tonic. (Sorry I've put in a request for the M&B image to be added but until then you can go to my profile page photos to see what I'm referring to.) It's beautiful and WD leaves the cropping to M&B's art dept so the male figure's proportions are natural and healthy looking. I also love the affect where they're both insubstantial enough that either may just be imagining the other.
Jane Donnelly is one of my favorite romance writers but I don't think MOCs are a good fit for her characters. This pair enters into one with intellectual and physical interest on both sides but no good reason. And do it hastily and without coming clean about their expectations. Then it's as though JD decided that as she's trying the MOC thing out she may as well go with a generic hero who becomes really insecure about being married for his money, is pissed when h doesn't put out on their wedding night then peevishly plays up to his former GF while being a knob towards the h. I kept thinking that JD's characters, especially in the 60s and 70s, don't have the sort of problems that lend themselves to a MOC and it's not how they problem solve anyway—and bless them for that—so the template feels out of place.
The only interesting element was that the heroine Louise had a horror of being yelled at—of yelling in general—because of submerged childhood trauma. I personally can't tolerate it either and practice immediate avoidance strategies whenever I encounter yelling so I had sympathy for this.
May 4, 2015
It has been a while since a romance story made me connect to the characters so strongly. My response to Love for a stranger certainly had nothing to do with its plot, or at least, not the plot alone, because it’s a romance novel in which nothing unusual really happens. Maybe it was the insecurities of both lead characters or how utterly hopeless their situation seemed to be at times, but it did touch a nerve and I felt like I knew them, as though I’d been right there with them.
February 10, 2025
I liked this better the second time around. Upping to 4 stars from 3 stars.
November 4, 2017
Messed up technical planning for a romance short novel. H hardly demonstrated any romantic feelings until the very last page. The love he expressed all of a sudden at the end was not convincing.
August 6, 2014
A lesser Jane Donnelly book. Pleasant but unmemorable, and the hero takes a few detours into alphahole territory IIRC...
July 22, 2018
من روايات عبير
181- عد فقيرا مثلي
181- عد فقيرا مثلي
May 5, 2024
First book by this author, but not keeping it. If you want it, contact me. When you read this in context of the time it was written, it has the usual type of plot. Working, career oriented, "ugly duckling" girl meets a devastatingly handsome man. She agrees to a marriage of convenience, under his terms of no emotional entanglements, but of course, she falls in love. Like most of the heroes written in Harlequin Romance novels at this time, he is not forthcoming with his emotions, since he is convinced she cannot love him for anything but his immense wealth and so he hurts her over and over again. He was not intentionally cruel, but kept himself so aloof and detached from her that his apathy was painful to read. She, like many of the heroines, do not communicate with him and makes her own wrong assumptions which continuously bruise her own feelings. There is also a beautiful woman of the recent past that adds to the heroine's heartache and the way the hero handles this woman (by not putting her in her place) really irked me.
I had great hope for this book. They started off as friends, although with some deception, but if the heroine had just trusted her initial instincts about his man and spoken to him, this would have been a much more enjoyable read. Heroine was too shy and withdrawn for most of the book and the hero was too aloof. I did enjoy reading about her work and seeing her confidence when it came to her work: interior decorating. Written from her point of view. Not a book I would read again.
I had great hope for this book. They started off as friends, although with some deception, but if the heroine had just trusted her initial instincts about his man and spoken to him, this would have been a much more enjoyable read. Heroine was too shy and withdrawn for most of the book and the hero was too aloof. I did enjoy reading about her work and seeing her confidence when it came to her work: interior decorating. Written from her point of view. Not a book I would read again.
pback-to-read
July 1, 2022Why hadn't he told her who he was...?
Louise was glad that her job as an interior decorator had taken her to the old manor house in Wales. Redecorating it would help take her mind off Barry, whose only interest in her had been financial.
She hadn't expected to find anyone at Tir Glyn. Certainly not Tom Reading, the disturbingly attractive grounds keeper.
By the time she found out his secret, it was too late. She was in love. And she had already agreed to marry him.
Louise was glad that her job as an interior decorator had taken her to the old manor house in Wales. Redecorating it would help take her mind off Barry, whose only interest in her had been financial.
She hadn't expected to find anyone at Tir Glyn. Certainly not Tom Reading, the disturbingly attractive grounds keeper.
By the time she found out his secret, it was too late. She was in love. And she had already agreed to marry him.
May 26, 2023
Love For A Stranger, is exactly what the title says it is , till the last page you are left with the feeling that the H and h are strangers, and to be very honest love doesn't feature much either.
Forget love even lust is questionable, they kiss maybe a couple of times and mostly those are pecks, the h is a complete idiot and the H not much better either.
Forget love even lust is questionable, they kiss maybe a couple of times and mostly those are pecks, the h is a complete idiot and the H not much better either.
March 11, 2014
when i chose this book , i was fascinated with the title , it remind me with a stranger friend...
February 12, 2014
قرأتها مترجمة بعنوان : عد فقيرا مثلي
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews