Anyone who writes 134 novels over 30 years is going to author many enjoyable books with a few clunkers, and most Betty Neels’ romances are good to very good, a few are mediocre and she wrote a number that stand out as highly enjoyable, peopled with interesting characters who feel real, a heartfelt love story, warmth and her excellent sense of setting and mood. The Course of True Love is one of those standouts, a novel I will purchase and read again.
Claribel is a physical therapist and Marc van Borsele is an orthopedic surgeon based in The Netherlands who travels frequently to England and is good friends with the senior consultant at Claribel’s hospital. They meet when she is shoved in a puddle and he offers her a ride. So far we have the classic Neels’ backstory: rich Dutch doctor, young(ish) English nurse/therapist, an accidental meeting where he helps her and a growing attraction.
The unusual part of The Course of True Love is that Marc realizes early on that he is falling for Claribel and sets out to court her in a more-or-less straightforward fashion. Claribel doesn’t like him very much – or so she tells herself – but increasingly enjoys his company. Somehow she doesn’t realize he takes her out for walks, for dinner and dancing, for trips to the countryside, to his home for lunch, drives her home to her parents for a weekend, because he likes her. She thinks he views her in a sisterly fashion, as somewhere to drop in for coffee. Indeed he is casual and a bit pushy, dropping in without an invitation.
Marc comes over from Holland solely to take her out for the weekend, bangs on her door, asks for breakfast then takes her out. Since he doesn’t tell her that he came over just to see her, she somehow doesn’t realize that he isn’t doing anything but spending time with her.
Marc does nothing to clear her confusion. He tells her early on that he’s intending to get married and implies he knows whom he wishes to marry. The story proceeds more or less as we’d expect from there. We get to know both Marc and Claribel; often romance novel men are hazy characters, foils for the love interest. Neels does a good job with both of the main characters and I enjoyed Marc more than most of her rich Dutch doctors.
Neels handles settings particularly well. I’m not at all familiar with English villages or London or the Dutch cities Claribel visits, but I felt like I could walk down the street and recognize the slightly untidy garden and gray urban hospitals. Neels describes clothes with gusto, she obviously enjoyed wearing pretty things herself and understands how we all have to balance durability with fashion and comfort and we readers easily put ourselves in Claribel’s shoes.
This is one of my favorite Betty Neels romances. The characters and their attraction and growing love make this one of the most enjoyable romances I’ve read.
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