Betty Neels Collection - Book 63

Polly Talbot isn't quite sure what she wants to do with her life so she agrees to help Sir Ronald Wise type a book he is writing. She enjoys her work except for one thing - Sir Ronald's friend Sam Gervis. Sam unnerves her for some reason and she decides she needs to get away from him and decides to start a new career as a nurse. But Sam isn't that easy to get rid of and he turns up again in her life. Polly is falling in love with Sam, but there's a big obstacle in her way - he's engaged to the lovely Deirdre.

I've read almost all of Betty Neels's romance novels and "Polly" is now one of my favorites. It is very old fashioned - written in 1984, Polly uses a typewriter and carbon paper to type Sir Ronald's book. "Polly" has one of Neels' standard plot lines - a plain, poor English girl from a loving family falls in love with a rich handsome doctor (although, for a change he's not Dutch) even if she doesn't realize at first that she's in love with him. Neels also throws in a fiancée for the doctor who of course is all wrong for him and one of her favorite plot devices - a moment when Polly is in danger and the doctor must rescue her. None of this is new for Neels (it never is) but she had a way of telling the same story over and over again that is enjoyable and keeps me buying and reading her books. Polly is a feisty heroine - intelligent, realistic about her looks, a hard worker who loves Sam enough to let him go. Sam is a good hero, in love with Polly early on, but willing to wait until Polly realizes she is in love with him. None of this is particularly believable, but makes for a nice escape from the real world. Neels's romances fall in the "sweet" category, meaning some stolen kisses, but nothing heavy and no sex.

"Polly" is one of Betty Neels's best romances. ( )