Believe it or not I have actually been reading- just haven't felt with it enough to sit and record anything- until this week. What you ask has spurred me back to this little blog? Surely a book so wonderful I will beg you all to read it- or one so awful I couldn't not comment. No it was just a couple of compilations of Christmas books by Betty Neels (4 stories all told). That lady up there is Betty Neels. I think she looks like the mean teacher sent by the Ministry of Magic to take over Hogwarts- you know the frog lady. Anyways I LOVE Betty Neels. LOVE. She was a nurse, served on the front lines during World War II. She took up writing after she had retired and wrote four books a year until she died (practically).

Onto the book discussion-

Now your average romance novel has many of the same stereotypes- Greek shipping tycoons, punishing kisses, marriages of convenience, orphans, amnesia, miscommunication- I could go on and on. Betty used none of these. She wrote her first story and then just rewrote it 134 times- It is amazing the she just kept getting published- and that I can't read them enough. I will now give you the run down on all of Betty's books.

The heroine- a quite, yet friendly country girl- loved by the elderly, shop keepers, and animals. She has recently come across hard times and is living in the city in a dumpy flat with a few fine pieces of furniture from her past. She either lives with a loyal family retainer, her muddled and slow parents or her orphaned siblings. Rarely her family still lives in the country and she goes home to visit her large boisterous family (dad is a country doctor, a Greek scholar or a vicar) on the weekends. She works in the hospital- usually as a nurse- be it student, surgical, ward nurse, or floor supervisor- but sometimes she is just a file clerk or works at the switchboard. She is either plain with glittering eyes full of laughter- or she is especially beautiful with a large curvy frame. She either has had not a single date, or date many men as friends but no one special, or is engaged to a plodding stick in the mud who keep putting off the wedding day until they are able to save more. She usually meets the hero through a mutual acquaintance or by accident on the street only to run into him in the hospital when he is doing rounds- something she resents and makes her prickly and offensive at first.

Now on to the Hero- he is a wealthy Dutch doctor. What you say- he is always a wealthy Dutch doctor working in England? Yes- always. Apparently during the 60s and 70s there was a flood of wealthy titled Dutch doctors in the hospitals of London. He always works very hard- lectures in both Holland and England, private practice in Holland, and travels to England regularly to work on the sickest and trickiest patients. This is true in every single book that I have read (and I have read a lot.) He had a comfortable yet luxurious home in London and a large palatial home in Holland, normally on the North Sea- with well tended gardens, and the dunes and beach a short walk from the house. He is engaged to a cold, elegant, wealthy woman- who he doesn't love. (Some times on is just pursuing him). She dresses well and is so thin she is boney.

The two of them are thrown together often. There is usually an emergency where the heroine is able to show her level headedness. Usually they rescue an injured animal which the doctor then adopts and who makes fast friends with his dogs and cats. He tries to better her life with out her knowing it- and always finds an excuse to get her to his home in Holland. He has friends with lovely wives, and a large loving family- all of whom hate the evil fiance. About half way through the book the doctor decides he loves the girl and starts saying cryptic things like "I am waiting for the women I love to notice she loves me." or "All I need in life is right in this room with me." Which she will misinterpret and assume he is talking about his pets, or is just plain confused by. Usually he randomly kisses her when passing her in the hall. About 3/4 of the way into the book she realizes she loves him- knows he will never love her- the evil fiance says some snarky thing and she runs home- only to be stopped by the doctor told he loves her and they kiss. The End. It is a little amazing that this could be written 134 different times- but that is the genius of Betty Neels. Genius.