The Time and the Loving

by Marjorie Lewty

"A time for everything...a time to love"

Daniel's eyes gleamed as he quoted the words. At seventeen Cassandra had fallen in love with Daniel Marshall. She had been bitterly hurt by his rejection of her in favor of his career.

Seeing him again, Cassandra, now personal assistant to a famous interior designer, realized she was as vulnerable as ever where Daniel was concerned.

And there was no guarantee that this time would be any different....

Genres: Harlequin Romance, Second Chance

186 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1977

About the author

Marjorie Lewty, née Lobb, was a British writer of short stories and over 45 romance novels from 1958 to 1999 to Mills & Boon.
She studied at Queen Mary High School in Liverpool, but her plans to study sciences at university were thwarted, when her father died. She was forced to take a hated job at secretary of the District Bank Ltd. from 1923 to 1933, when she married with Richard Arthur Lewty, a dental surgeon of Liverpool. They had one son and one daughter. After her marriage she began to write short stories which were published in magazines. In 1958, she sold her first romance novel to Mills & Boon, and her last novel in 1999.

Reviews

[Naksed · Rating 1 out of 5]

The hero in this one was disgusting and the heroine a spineless nitwit.

H and h met when h was 17 and H was 23. He was her brother's bestie and business partner. h's brother had inherited a building firm and H was a budding architect. H and h spent a lot of time together. Although H never put the moves on her or said love words, h imagined they had a special understanding. She was falling head over heels in love and saw (or desperately wanted to see) all sorts of clues that he felt the same.

The night of the wedding between h's brother and his fiancee, h and H finally had the passionate kiss that was brewing between them for months. But the next day, he dumped her very abruptly, saying he was leaving h's brother's firm because he had gotten a better offer in Canada, and whatever happened between them last night was just the result of champagne.

I didn't hate him at that point. She was only 17, he didn't have two cents to rub together and still at the beginning of a promising career. I am not saying his ambitions or the way he handled the dumpage were admirable, but I understood his p.o.v.

She predictably had a downward spiral the way a heartbroken teenager can, even contemplating suicide. She had my sympathy on that as well. Eventually, she pulled herself together to go to college and ended up six years later as a very efficient, talented in her own right, executive assistant to a top-notch interior designer.

The story really begins six years after the dumpage when h and H are thrown together (h very reluctantly and H very eagerly) on a big project of designing, building and decorating a massive theater complex for a mega-rich supermarket chain owner, who is building it for his budding young actress daughter.

H has recently come back from Toronto and very arrogantly, with supreme self-confidence, wants to pick things up with the h where they left off six years ago because h is now a sophisticated hot babe and not the guileless country bumpkin teen who would have weighed him down like an albatross round his neck on his aggressive, single-minded rise to the top.

h makes a half-hearted effort to resist, trying to pass off her boss as her love interest. The H, after seeing the slightest bit of resistance to his slimy kisses, chooses to believe what she is saying about her being involved with someone else, and wastes no time making a date with another woman, the spoiled daughter of his supermarket tycoon boss. Yes, I thought, this is right in line with his ruthless character of achieving his goal at all costs, and if it means sweettalking the daughters of his employer, so be it!

The disgust rose to epic proportions when H drove h to a business dinner at Supermarket Tycoon's house, and then leaves after dinner for some nightclubbing with the tycoon’s daughter, stranding the h there by herself! What an oaf!

The h, realizing the supermarket heiress is 17 years old, and just as in love with H as h was at her age, is in the depths of despair. She is still in love with him and accepts that she is clay in his hands, no matter that he is a shallow manwhore who will always treat her as second, or third, or fourth best. So despite him being a rude pig, the spineless nitwit h eventually gives in and follows him inside his cottage one evening after he propositions her...only to find the supermarket heiress waiting naked for the H before the fireplace. The h just quietly walks out and the H makes absolutely no attempt whatsoever to go after her, or explain himself or kick out the naked woman in his house… He shows up to h's house the next day to “talk” but who is at the wheel of his car but the supermarket heiress!!! LoL I can't even with this guy.

The conclusion of the book pretty much confirms all my feelings about this H. He left six years ago because he felt he owed it to his parents to make the most of his career after they scrimped and saved to provide for his education. He "didn't live like a monk"(his words) much less spare heroine a thought during the six years that he was building his architect portfolio in Canada. The fact that he was put into this project with her was a happy coincidence and he thought why not, if she is available, why not have a go? And the cherry on the cake was that he claimed that he sacrificed himself to remain on the good side of the supermarket tycoon and his trampy daughter because he wanted to make sure the building contract would be given to h's brother. Now that the contracts are safely signed and the hook is in, and the supermarket heiress has conveniently been offered an acting part in London, he is back to his love declaration to the h because now, finally, the time is right. Wow, what a Prince!!!!!!!!

Though he proposes at the end, I don't believe for a second there will be fidelity in this marriage. The H will put his career first, whether it means time to do the work, travel, and yes, engage in flirtations and affairs if they will smooth the way, and the h will be the meek first wife keeping the home fires burning and turning a blind eye to all the H's rudeness, selfishness and ruthlessness, until he eventually dumps her for someone “better” for his second marriage.

Barftastic.

[StMargarets · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't hate this as much as Naksed, but I was left with a lingering sadness at the end of the story and that's never a good sign.

The story goes down easy. Heroine was jilted by the hero when she was 17. He left her to pursue career opportunities in Canada. Five years later he's back and he and the interior designer heroine are working together on a project in their old stomping grounds, the Cotswolds.

The hero is head architect, the heroine's step brother is in line to be the builder, and the moneybags behind the project is a vain, self-made millionaire with a 17 year-old daughter who has a crush on the hero. Veteran romance readers will recognize the problem right away.

Heroine has been eating her heart out for the hero all of these years (complete with nightmares). Hero returns with a glib - hey you still mad about me jilting you? And heroine has hide her emotions because of pride. Meanwhile hero is keeping the 17 year-old sweet and breaking the heroine's heart all over again.

The angst is great. The resolution is not. Hero gets the contract and the heroine without a grovel, a declaration, an acknowledgement that the heroine has suffered, or that he's put his career ahead of her every time there was a choice. Heroine is firmly second best. *sigh* And someday she'll realize it.

There's also the heroine's boss who adds another sense of betrayal. Heroine dotes on him and worries about him when he's in the hospital since he has no family. But it turns out he has lied by omission/manipulated the heroine from the beginning. He has a wife in Eastern Europe who is finally being let out to join him in the West. No one is looking out/cares for this heroine. *sigh again*

[MissKitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vintage harlequin. Decent enough but a bit boring. I had a hard time finishing the book since I kept putting it aside. Too bad started off on a good premise that somehow never took off.

Cassandra is an assistant to a famous interior designer. When he is taken ill, she goes in his place, to check out a commission for a project in the country. She is excited for this project as it is near her brother's house and she can get a chance to visit with him and his family. When Cassandra arrives to check out the project, she encounters Daniel. He is the architect for the project.

Cassandra and Daniel have a past. They were dating when she was 17 and she thought that they fell in love with each other, only Daniel left for Canada and never contacted her again. She was very depressed after this so when she meets him now, she is cold and aloof. Daniel seems to want to take up where they left off but Cassandra is discouraging. The whole book continues in this manner, and when Cassandra finally realizes that she still loves Daniel and is willing to give him a chance, before she can do so, Daniel decides to give her "space". Earlier, she had allowed him to assume that she was in love with her boss. So Daniel starts going out to dinners and staying out late. More misunderstandings.

During one dinner when Cassandra and Daniel are invited by the client, the client's pretty young daughter shows up, she seems very familiar with Daniel and drags him off to a party with her. Cassandra is left entertaining the dad (client)!!! Then on a trip down to the project site, Daniel and Cassandra have dinner together, the are again connecting and all seems to be going well, Cassandra finally admits she is not involved with her boss and Daniel invites her back to his cottage. Only, when they arrive, the young daughter of the client is waiting inside wearing a revealing negligee. Cassandra storms off in the car. Daniel tries to see her the next day but she refuses. After that, they don't see each other again until Cassandra is ordered by her boss to attend the ground breaking ceremony for this client. At which she is forced to watch the OW clinging to Daniel's arm and kissing his cheek. She walks out of the event soon after, but Daniel follows. He says he was just stringing the OW along so that "Daddy" would give contract to Cassandra's brother, who is a builder, by the way and had put in a bid for the project. His explanation of why he suddenly left years ago; He said he was just starting out in his career and wanted to support his godparents who did everything for him. And he didn't think it was fair to ask Cassandra to wait for him since she was still so young herself. When he heard that he was assigned a project in the area, he was quite excited to see Cassandra again and to see if she was still available. Hmmm.... yes could have been a much better story but it lacked angst on Daniel's part. All the introspection and agony was only Cassandra's. Could have been better

[Martha B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was slow. I found myself skipping through some parts because I was bored. The heroine had a teenage crush on the H that she blew out of proportion to the big love affair and was depressed when the H left her behind. The H was pragmatic and a bit of an opportunist because there was not only his interest at stake. There was some OW drama and angst otherwise it would be only two stars.

[Tia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to giggle a bit in this novel. The hero was foxed at every turn by the heroine, it was all quite humorous. Some of it was very sad and depressing though, I felt bad for the heroine and what she had to go through. As it all went, it was a good read.