Reviews for Marrying Mary

The average rating for Marrying Mary based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-05-06 00:00:00 Laura Popovich Mary Pagett has loving if somewhat absent-minded, airy-fairy parents along with an adorably feisty younger sister (also two brothers but we know nothing of them other than they are away at school). Her father is an intellectual who gets swindled out of much of his capital and anticipated inheritance from Great-Aunt Thirza (a real piece of work, but she dies early on). Mary long ago took over the running of the household from her mother, an artist who paints Christmas cards. But she has to earn some money so she takes a job as a mother's help which turns out to be not as advertised. The RDD (who Mary met when he treated Aunty's heart attack, and fell in love with) can't bear to see her slaving so he conspires with Polly to get Mary a more suitable job, in a bookshop belonging to an old friend of his. Roel van Rakesma thinks this will help him stop thinking about Mary. He even welcomes the Veronica, Ilsa van Hoeven, to visit him along with his younger sister, Pleane. Well, Pleane is delightful, a slightly older Polly, but Ilsa is Not Delightful. I really enjoyed the relationship between Roel and Polly. They exchange Mary-secrets and Roel tells Polly he intends to marry Mary. Other wonderful characters include Fred, Roel's manservant (whom Ilsa would discharge) and Nathaniel. Nathaniel was a homeless man that Roel treated for a heart attack and subsequently hired to caretake his country cottage. Plenty of angst in this one , from financial worries to Mary having to cook supper for Roel, Pleane and Ilsa at a moment's notice to the trouble caused by Ilsa's malicious machinations. 3 1/2 stars.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-10-10 00:00:00 Andrew Bildwin I couldn't give this one five stars. It should've been a great story and might've been if it had been 20 pages longer. I though the romance was too rushed and didn't make sense. Our hero spent more time with the heroine's teenage sister than with the heroine. They were both very strong characters and didn't get along very well - misunderstandings of course. I would've liked to see the more gradual development of their relationship that Betty Neels is so good at. It was like she was cut off here.