Grrrrace's Reviews > A Winter Love Story

AWLS (1998) is pleasant enough, but a little slow going even for Betty. It's a typical MoC story. (view spoiler)[Heroine Claudia Ramsay first meets Rich British Doctor hero Thomas Tait-Bullen when he's called in as a consultant to try to persuade her great-uncle to have heart surgery. She's not entirely sure she like Thomas at first, but finds him very handsome and kind and intriguing. Uncle refuses surgery, dies, and since his estate is left to a distant male relative (pffftttt), she and her mother are left homeless. Mom conveniently marries the local doctor, and Claudia takes a crappy job as an assistant at a nursing home. She finds herself thinking of Thomas frequently but doubts she'll see him again.

Thomas can't seem to get her out of his mind either, and when he finds out they've lost their home, he makes a point of getting in touch with the local doctor. He meets Claudia again at her mother's wedding, drives her back to the nursing home afterward, and finds that he's very attracted to her--she's the most beautiful woman he's ever met, he thinks to himself. After a date or two, he proposes the standard BN MOC--a marriage based on mutual liking and friendship, with time to get to know one another and allow for feelings to deepen (he tells her to think of it like an engagement--only since he's always so busy, they'll have more time to spend together if they just marry and get to know one another afterward). Of course, he's already finding it hard to keep his hands off her--a very direct admission for an Neels hero, and she does convey more directly than usual throughout the course of the book just how difficult it becomes for our RBD to keep things platonic!

It always amuses me in BN's MoC stories that the heroes are so sure they are getting married for sensible, practical reasons (and in part they are)--looking at it from the standpoint of anyone else--the FFRs, the hero's family and friends, etc.--it must seem SO impulsive and hasty and clearly an emotional decision very much out of character for the controlled and deliberate doctors!

Claudia settles into life as a rich doctor's wife happily enough until Thomas's reserve starts to bother her. It doesn't take long for her to discover that she's in love with him, and they both do a good job of hiding their feelings. An OW, who has been trying to land our eligible RBD for a long time, makes a brief appearance or two and plants seeds of doubt in Claudia's ear regarding Thomas's relationship with his pretty secretary. He's angry at Claudia's lack of trust and we have the typical failure to communicate, followed by the heroine flight to get away and think.

The hero chases her down to the weekend cottage they bought and both think will be a place of happiness for them and resolve their differences. And so we have our HEA with talk of babies to come! (hide spoiler)]

Such a standard Betty outing, and while it has the usual charms of excellent writing and descriptions of lavish comforts, it doesn't really stand out in the field of similar stories.