A Trial of Marriage

Rating:
Summary: Romance Blooms in Torquay
Review: Rachel Lesley is eighteen and both her parents have recently passed away, leaving her penniless and unable to go on to university. So she accepts a job as companion for the snobbish Mrs. Falkner-Stewart, a well to do childhood friend of her mother's. The snob takes Rachel to Torquay as she wants an extended holiday and they are staying at the Tor Court Hotel.

Jake Courtenay is forty-one, a multi-millionaire and the owner of the Court Hotel Group. He's recently suffered a nervous breakdown, looks like he's at death's door and feels that way too. His doctor told him he needs months of rest with no, absolutely no, pressure. So, reluctantly Jake takes his advice and checks into his Tor Court Hotel under an assumed name.

Rachel and Jake meet when she is walking the snob's dog. After a few more chance meetings the girl throws herself at Jake. He refuses, being the gentleman that he is. Besides, there is that business about too much pressure and an eighteen-year-old girl can cause a lot of that. Also, Jake's a man of the world. He's not gonna cave in to a child's advances. Not the first time anyway.

I wanted to read an earlier Harlequin Romance, so that I could get an idea how they evolved into what they are today. "A Trial Marriage," was written way back in 1977, before the Internet, the dot com revolution, the dot com bust and before I was born. It's a good story, well written with well rounded characters, but maybe a tad hard to believe. I mean, she's eighteen, he's forty-one, looking like death warmed over and she doesn't know about his millions. She's just so attracted to this magnetic man that she agrees to marry him after knowing him for only a few days. But if you can get by that, I think you'll enjoy this story.

PS, the book info above says the book was written in 1999, that is incorrect. At least the one I have sitting by my iBook wasn't. It's pages have faded to yellow and it says on the publisher's page that it was penned in 1977. Also all the listings for this book are for the 1977 edition, so maybe it's been rewritten, I don't know.

A Harlequin Dreamers Review by Gracie Houston