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Belonging
She'd always known she was adopted--but the older she got, the more marked the differences became. So after very careful preparation she traced her real mother.
Grant Livingstone, who found her in the grounds of her mother's Norfolk home, decided she was a highly suspicious character, up to no good.
It became clear he had valid reasons for his suspicions. But by that time Mandy was so enmeshed in secrets, she wondered if she'd ever manage to straighten things out with Grant!
Grant Livingstone, who found her in the grounds of her mother's Norfolk home, decided she was a highly suspicious character, up to no good.
It became clear he had valid reasons for his suspicions. But by that time Mandy was so enmeshed in secrets, she wondered if she'd ever manage to straighten things out with Grant!
- GenresHarlequin Presents
192 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1989
About the author
Sally Cook
69 books4 followersaka Susan Curran
Susan Griffin was born on 14 May 1952 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, daugther of Maureen McGinnity and Norman Griffin. She obtained a Bachelor in English at University Sussex on 1973. On 1976, she married Tim Curran, and they divorced on 1980. On 1980, she remarried Ray Curnow, and they divorced on 1988. On 1997, she remarried Paul Frederick Simmonds, and they live between in central Norwich, England and in the Loire valley, France. She has two children: Rufus and Evan.
She is a professional writer since 1979, and has since written or co-written more than 30 published books, including a wide range of non-fiction books and novels for Collins and Constable, she also wrote under the pseudonym of Sally Cook for Mills & Boon. She researches the life of real people to her novels, and now also to write biographies. During the course of her researches she visited many of the places in both England and France.
In the 1990s Susan set up with a group of writer friends and ran a small fiction publisher, Rampant Horse. Since 1997 she has run Curran Publishing Services Ltd, www.curranpublishing.com, which specializes in preparing mostly non-fiction books for press under subcontract from major publishers. In this capacity she has copy edited, typeset and indexed hundreds of books. For eight years until 2009, CPS had its offices in a redundant medieval church in Norwich, St Mary Coslany. Susan has been also a trustee of the Norwich Historic Churches Trust, which oversees many of Norwich’s redundant churches, since the early 1990s.
Susan Griffin was born on 14 May 1952 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, daugther of Maureen McGinnity and Norman Griffin. She obtained a Bachelor in English at University Sussex on 1973. On 1976, she married Tim Curran, and they divorced on 1980. On 1980, she remarried Ray Curnow, and they divorced on 1988. On 1997, she remarried Paul Frederick Simmonds, and they live between in central Norwich, England and in the Loire valley, France. She has two children: Rufus and Evan.
She is a professional writer since 1979, and has since written or co-written more than 30 published books, including a wide range of non-fiction books and novels for Collins and Constable, she also wrote under the pseudonym of Sally Cook for Mills & Boon. She researches the life of real people to her novels, and now also to write biographies. During the course of her researches she visited many of the places in both England and France.
In the 1990s Susan set up with a group of writer friends and ran a small fiction publisher, Rampant Horse. Since 1997 she has run Curran Publishing Services Ltd, www.curranpublishing.com, which specializes in preparing mostly non-fiction books for press under subcontract from major publishers. In this capacity she has copy edited, typeset and indexed hundreds of books. For eight years until 2009, CPS had its offices in a redundant medieval church in Norwich, St Mary Coslany. Susan has been also a trustee of the Norwich Historic Churches Trust, which oversees many of Norwich’s redundant churches, since the early 1990s.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 18, 2017
RE Belonging - Sally Cook's second HP outing is another non HP HP and this time we have an adopted h who is seeking her birth mother. I can't recall any other HP quite like this one. The h is a 19 yr old watercolour artist who goes to Norfolk to carefully introduce herself to her bio mum. The lady has no idear she is on her way and before the h can meet her, the H shows up and is immediately suspicious.
SC must have done a ton of research for this one, but as she is a Norwich, England native, perhaps she was just writing what she knows. A big part of this book is about an area known as the Norfolk Broads - which are little lakes connected by various waterways and currently the area is the equivalent of a National Park.
I had never heard of the Norfolk Broads, but it seems they came into being when the locals began cutting peat and selling it for fuel during the Middle Ages. Peat fuel was a big seller for the Norfolk abbeys, cause the main town of Norwich, the second largest town in England after London, needed the fuel and it was much less expensive than firewood. But all good things come to an end and all the peat cutting let the sea flow in and fill up all the places that used to be bogged by peat. This made several lovely little lakes called Broads and all sorts of wetland and birds and even forests grew up in the flooded area.
The Broads even have their own very distinctive boat - a sorta flat barge/scow looking thing with a trademark big black sail (from the oil used to cure it,) that is called a wherry. In the story, the H and the husband of the h's bio mum own a wherry boating business and there is lots of interesting information about them. The h becomes fascinated with the wherries and the area and there is lots and lots of travelogue about the Broads, the town of Norwich, and interesting places to see.
SC needed a lot of travelogue cause this story is seriously paced like a meander down a lazy river. After the initial meeting with the H and after the h meets her bio mum's husband, the h finds out her bio mum has multiple sclerosis and has frequent hospital visits and is now in a wheelchair. Because she was told to be very, very careful in her approach to her bio mum by the adoption counseling services to prevent the woman being traumatized or having her life ripped apart by the appearance of an unknown child, the h decides not to bother her again, she also doesn't want to cause a relapse in her bio mum's illness. Especially as the H seems to be really suspicious about this strange bohemian artist girl who showed on the front lawn with a story about researching her family genealogy.
But the bio mum calls the h after the H made her leave her phone number and the bio mum soon figures out that the h is in fact her daughter that she gave up for adoption. The bio mum wants to meet her and extends an invitation to stay in their home. The h accepts but the bio mum makes it very clear that she had the h before she married and her husband knows nothing about a seekrit baby pregnancy. The h is to use the cover story that a family cousin went to New Zealand, married, had the h and then died there. Leaving the h to be raised by her father and his new wife when she was brought back to England. The h is so desperate to find a family she fits in, that she agrees to the deception.
The bio mum's grandfather turns out to be a famous Norfolk Broad watercolour artist and the bio mum's house is full of his work. The h is a pretty good artist herself and getting more work sold all the time, tho she does still have to do office temp jobs to make ends meet occasionally. She is very excited to see the family paintings as in her adoptive family she was very different from her parents and they have no interest in art or painting at all. So the h arrives, but the bio mum is strangely distant and the H is wary, but there is big underlying attraction between the H and h too.
The h resolves to make the best of the situation, tho she doesn't like to lie - she figures it is up to her bio mum to determine how much of the truth to reveal. Things go along with the travelogue tourist bit and the H escorts the h about and finally the penny drops for the h.
The Famous Artist Grandfather's work is getting increasingly valuable and the h realizes that the H thinks she is an art thief. The h goes along to the H's house to talk to him about his beliefs and manages to convince the H that she had no idear about the value of the Famous Artist Grandfather. The H does believe her and they start dating in earnest. The h gets an invitation to stay at the bio mum's for the entire summer and since she has found some galleries to sell her paintings in, she takes the offer.
She and the H are getting closer, her artistic style is developing and the h's bio mum finally explains the circumstances of her birth. The bio mum went to Florence when she was 18 and got involved and preggers from a married man. She had to give the h up for adoption and then she went to art school for a while and then returned to Norfolk to marry her husband. Then she got diagnosed with MS and the h realizes her mother is only in her late 30's and bitterly resentful of all she has had to give up cause her illness is very limiting and the bio mum is in a wheelchair.
This gives the h some compassion and the h is just relieved to know she finally knows where her family is from and things about them. We also find out that the H is pretty rooted in the Broads and the Wherry business as well. His parent's divorced and his dad remarried and so he felt displaced in his own childhood, but when he moved to Norfolk and became friends with the h's bio mum and husband, he felt like he found a home. Now that he has met the h and is falling in love, everything seems to be getting even better.
The river muck hits the wall tho when the H finds out that the woman the h's claims is her bio mum died unmarried and childless in NZ. He believes the h betrayed and lied to him and so he throws a wobbly and makes the h leave her bio mum's house. The h wants to explain, but knows her bio mum would have an even bigger wobbly and probably a relapse too, so she just packs her things and goes.
There is a few weeks of mopey moments and then the H shows up at the h's flat in London cause he figured out who her bio mum really is. He offers to sell up his business and then marry the h and they can move to the Caribbean. He loves the h very much and she loves him back just as fiercely but she won't ask him to give up the only place he found roots and a home, all to be with her. The H and h both want the bio mum to tell her husband the truth, but she is refusing to do that and the h is refusing to elope with the H, so everybody has to have mopey moments for a while longer.
Finally the bio mum tells her husband the truth and the husband goes to London to ask the h to return to Norfolk. She goes right to the H and they plan to marry, it is made clear that the bio mum and the husband want to continue to refer to the h as a distant cousin and the h is fine with that, since she and the H will be busy sailing wherries and having kids and making their own home to belong to.
This one was slow but interesting and it turned out pretty sweet in the end. The biggest tension build up is waiting for the bio mum to tell the h about the background to her birth and the tension and stress in getting to know an unknown parent was done fairly well. When the H figures out the h lied about her mother, things start picking up fast - kinda like hitting a river rapid after a fairly calm stretch.
The HEA was believable but the premise was unusual in that the h's bio mum wasn't her aunt or a relative being a famous person and her adopted family had NO connection to her bio family. Give this one a go if you like the sweeter, slower type of stories with lots of interesting background details for your outings in HPlandia.
SC must have done a ton of research for this one, but as she is a Norwich, England native, perhaps she was just writing what she knows. A big part of this book is about an area known as the Norfolk Broads - which are little lakes connected by various waterways and currently the area is the equivalent of a National Park.
I had never heard of the Norfolk Broads, but it seems they came into being when the locals began cutting peat and selling it for fuel during the Middle Ages. Peat fuel was a big seller for the Norfolk abbeys, cause the main town of Norwich, the second largest town in England after London, needed the fuel and it was much less expensive than firewood. But all good things come to an end and all the peat cutting let the sea flow in and fill up all the places that used to be bogged by peat. This made several lovely little lakes called Broads and all sorts of wetland and birds and even forests grew up in the flooded area.
The Broads even have their own very distinctive boat - a sorta flat barge/scow looking thing with a trademark big black sail (from the oil used to cure it,) that is called a wherry. In the story, the H and the husband of the h's bio mum own a wherry boating business and there is lots of interesting information about them. The h becomes fascinated with the wherries and the area and there is lots and lots of travelogue about the Broads, the town of Norwich, and interesting places to see.
SC needed a lot of travelogue cause this story is seriously paced like a meander down a lazy river. After the initial meeting with the H and after the h meets her bio mum's husband, the h finds out her bio mum has multiple sclerosis and has frequent hospital visits and is now in a wheelchair. Because she was told to be very, very careful in her approach to her bio mum by the adoption counseling services to prevent the woman being traumatized or having her life ripped apart by the appearance of an unknown child, the h decides not to bother her again, she also doesn't want to cause a relapse in her bio mum's illness. Especially as the H seems to be really suspicious about this strange bohemian artist girl who showed on the front lawn with a story about researching her family genealogy.
But the bio mum calls the h after the H made her leave her phone number and the bio mum soon figures out that the h is in fact her daughter that she gave up for adoption. The bio mum wants to meet her and extends an invitation to stay in their home. The h accepts but the bio mum makes it very clear that she had the h before she married and her husband knows nothing about a seekrit baby pregnancy. The h is to use the cover story that a family cousin went to New Zealand, married, had the h and then died there. Leaving the h to be raised by her father and his new wife when she was brought back to England. The h is so desperate to find a family she fits in, that she agrees to the deception.
The bio mum's grandfather turns out to be a famous Norfolk Broad watercolour artist and the bio mum's house is full of his work. The h is a pretty good artist herself and getting more work sold all the time, tho she does still have to do office temp jobs to make ends meet occasionally. She is very excited to see the family paintings as in her adoptive family she was very different from her parents and they have no interest in art or painting at all. So the h arrives, but the bio mum is strangely distant and the H is wary, but there is big underlying attraction between the H and h too.
The h resolves to make the best of the situation, tho she doesn't like to lie - she figures it is up to her bio mum to determine how much of the truth to reveal. Things go along with the travelogue tourist bit and the H escorts the h about and finally the penny drops for the h.
The Famous Artist Grandfather's work is getting increasingly valuable and the h realizes that the H thinks she is an art thief. The h goes along to the H's house to talk to him about his beliefs and manages to convince the H that she had no idear about the value of the Famous Artist Grandfather. The H does believe her and they start dating in earnest. The h gets an invitation to stay at the bio mum's for the entire summer and since she has found some galleries to sell her paintings in, she takes the offer.
She and the H are getting closer, her artistic style is developing and the h's bio mum finally explains the circumstances of her birth. The bio mum went to Florence when she was 18 and got involved and preggers from a married man. She had to give the h up for adoption and then she went to art school for a while and then returned to Norfolk to marry her husband. Then she got diagnosed with MS and the h realizes her mother is only in her late 30's and bitterly resentful of all she has had to give up cause her illness is very limiting and the bio mum is in a wheelchair.
This gives the h some compassion and the h is just relieved to know she finally knows where her family is from and things about them. We also find out that the H is pretty rooted in the Broads and the Wherry business as well. His parent's divorced and his dad remarried and so he felt displaced in his own childhood, but when he moved to Norfolk and became friends with the h's bio mum and husband, he felt like he found a home. Now that he has met the h and is falling in love, everything seems to be getting even better.
The river muck hits the wall tho when the H finds out that the woman the h's claims is her bio mum died unmarried and childless in NZ. He believes the h betrayed and lied to him and so he throws a wobbly and makes the h leave her bio mum's house. The h wants to explain, but knows her bio mum would have an even bigger wobbly and probably a relapse too, so she just packs her things and goes.
There is a few weeks of mopey moments and then the H shows up at the h's flat in London cause he figured out who her bio mum really is. He offers to sell up his business and then marry the h and they can move to the Caribbean. He loves the h very much and she loves him back just as fiercely but she won't ask him to give up the only place he found roots and a home, all to be with her. The H and h both want the bio mum to tell her husband the truth, but she is refusing to do that and the h is refusing to elope with the H, so everybody has to have mopey moments for a while longer.
Finally the bio mum tells her husband the truth and the husband goes to London to ask the h to return to Norfolk. She goes right to the H and they plan to marry, it is made clear that the bio mum and the husband want to continue to refer to the h as a distant cousin and the h is fine with that, since she and the H will be busy sailing wherries and having kids and making their own home to belong to.
This one was slow but interesting and it turned out pretty sweet in the end. The biggest tension build up is waiting for the bio mum to tell the h about the background to her birth and the tension and stress in getting to know an unknown parent was done fairly well. When the H figures out the h lied about her mother, things start picking up fast - kinda like hitting a river rapid after a fairly calm stretch.
The HEA was believable but the premise was unusual in that the h's bio mum wasn't her aunt or a relative being a famous person and her adopted family had NO connection to her bio family. Give this one a go if you like the sweeter, slower type of stories with lots of interesting background details for your outings in HPlandia.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 27, 2019
Adopted daughter finds her bio mom and then must keep silent about this new relationship, while the hero is suspicious of her motives in befriending the older couple. Heroine is 19 and an artist. Hero is in his mid-thirties and the co-owner of a boat-hire company.
This isn't much of a romance really, but the travelogue and the heroine's longing for her true identity/purpose/family is well done.
Boogenhagen got there before me (thank goodness) and wrote a thorough review, including some service-y info about the boats in this corner of England.
This isn't much of a romance really, but the travelogue and the heroine's longing for her true identity/purpose/family is well done.
Boogenhagen got there before me (thank goodness) and wrote a thorough review, including some service-y info about the boats in this corner of England.
abrierto-to-read-hr-other
February 20, 2022She'd always known she was adopted--but the older she got, the more marked the differences became. So after very careful preparation she traced her real mother.
Grant Livingstone, who found her in the grounds of her mother's Norfolk home, decided she was a highly suspicious character, up to no good.
It became clear he had valid reasons for his suspicions. But by that time Mandy was so enmeshed in secrets, she wondered if she'd ever manage to straighten things out with Grant!
Grant Livingstone, who found her in the grounds of her mother's Norfolk home, decided she was a highly suspicious character, up to no good.
It became clear he had valid reasons for his suspicions. But by that time Mandy was so enmeshed in secrets, she wondered if she'd ever manage to straighten things out with Grant!
November 13, 2022
Nice, gentle story.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews