I finally got a copy of this oddly titled book (though still have no idea how “Grace Before Meat” describes it). It’s classic Sara Seale: a mid-teens heroine who looks even more childlike than her age, and acts even more childlike than that, a damaged hero well into his thirties, a glamorous other woman who’s […]

I Know My Love would be a sweet enough story, were it not ruined by an inexplicably weak doormat of a hero. The basic plot is that Jo has always nursed a bit of a teenage crush for older man and family friend Gervase. So when she’s finally 18 and he shows up with fiancée […]

That Young Person is one of the loveliest of Sara Seale’s romance novels, with a slow but believable build-up. Bride, 18, is young but very consistent and self-possessed, and a lovely girl. Simon, 36, is a decent and intelligent man, and it’s clear how he’s gradually falling for her. The basic plot is that Irish […]

Stormy Petrel was written in 1941 and is not in any way a typical Mills & Boon/Harlequin romance. The ending is not what you would expect. The plot: Toni is 15 when Dr Lister Shaw (30s) “rescues” her from a London slum. She stays with him and his partner, the older Dr Bussey Benton, before […]

This could have been a much happier, sweeter story than it was. Instead, it’s a rather cold, half-hearted romance, with a sad “twist” at the end that absolutely could have been avoided. Gina, 20, is a “model” – not the kind of glamorous model you might think of from the blurb, but a shop assistant […]

Just what is going on with the cover of this book? I mean seriously, WTF is this? The hero looks nothing like that photo, for what it’s worth. He has a disfiguring scar, for one thing, and there’s no mention of glasses nor of him looking like the doppelganger of Engelbert Humperdinck. If you can […]

Sara Seale does Rebecca and it’s glorious. It starts off a little bit These Old Shades with surgeon Adam Chantry, 38, rescuing a “young boy” from a fairground. The boy is, of course, 19-year-old destitute waif Miranda, who was raised in France (and thus has the same exotic speaking patterns of Vicky and her siblings […]

Amanda, 17, is an heiress, and Grant, 30s, is her trustee. This is actually one of the more credible relationships in a Sara Seale novel. It’s a very slow build. The other woman is Becky, Amanda’s lazy and spongeing cousin (along with her mother and brother). Amanda’s one weak point is that she feels they […]