The Fifth Day of Christmas (The Best of Betty Neels)

The Fifth Day of Christmas features a doctor from Holland, Ivo van den Werff, and an English Nurse, Julia. Julia is beautiful and a skilled nurse, not one of Neel's mousey girls, which makes the romance much more believable, at least in why the rich, successful doctor might be attracted to her. The book starts off with Julia accompanying a young diabetic woman to Scotland, however a storm hits and there's only the butler, of a sort, at the house when they arrive. Everyone else is stuck elsewhere, it seems. The power is out, the butler disappears back to his room, and Julia is left to settle her patient and cook and bake bread for everyone, which includes the ambulance drivers. Late that night, there's a knock on the door, and when Julia opens it, there's a man standing there, Ivo van den Werff. Ivo is lost, and he is invited in to join the not so merry party.

The snow stops, and the ambulance drivers leave Julia and Ivo alone with the patient. Ivo is quite charming while at the house with her. He jokes, compliments her, and is generally quite likable, and I'm thinking he's going to be one of Neel's rare nice heroes from the start. Well, not really. He offers her a job being a nurse/companion to a young woman recovering from polio. Seems the polio patient and Ivo are close, and he has been gone from her for six months. Julia accompanies him back to Holland and meets the young woman. Instantly, she is aware that not only is the young woman being secretive about her recovery (she can walk, but doesn't let on until pressed and then only hobbles about hanging on to Ivo) and is using the illness to insinuate herself into Ivo's family and hopefully gain a proposal from the rich doctor. Julia has, of course, fallen in love with the doctor, so the situation does not set well with her at all.

Ah, how hard it is for Julia to watch the wily woman manipulate Ivo. And Ivo...well, to me he comes across rather wimpish. There is no engagement, no understanding, although they were courting before she fell ill. He, of course, gives out hints that he is attracted to Julia, kissing her forcefully on a couple of occasions (the most ardent passion ever exhibited in a Neels book) and finding ways to spend time with her. Yet, he hasn't the backbone to simply straighten the mess out and keeps fawning over the patient, who is obviously tricking him. Made me want to shake some sense into him. Overall, Ivo van der Werff is too weak to be a really good hero. I can't imagine some of Neel's other heroes putting up with what he did and not putting his foot down. But, it is a typical Neels romance: sweet, clean, and one in which true love prevails.

There's a good 'cat fight' between the two young women, an emergency that throws the H/h together, some family members that come and go, and an angsty scene at the end before love is victorious. There's lots of snow and a bit of 'sight-seeing' in The Hague. I did not notice any typos or problems with the Kindle version.

A bit of useless trivia: the car the doctor drives in this story is neither a Rolls or Jag. It is a Jensen Interceptor, which is a slant-backed car that looks a bit like the old Mustang, and its last year of production was 1976, the year this was originally published. If you really want to impress others with your Neels-car trivia- and I cannot imagine anyone who would- then add the fact that Coventry Prototype Panels planned to offer a new, sleeker version of the Interceptor about 2014, but the sale of the company to Envisage Mfg Ltd has cast doubt about whether the new Interceptor will have it's own happy ending.

Oh, I loved this book. Julia is a beautiful nurse who is kind and sensible, but also not afraid to speak her mind. Our hero, Ivo, is a doctor who meets Julia in the midst of a snow storm and both he and she fall for each other while they are housebound. Once the snow stops, Ivo employs Julia to work in Holland where she soon discovers that his heart may be attached to another. But our hero is unceasingly drawn to Julia and by the end of the book, declares himself to her in a way that leaves no room for doubt. The ending is blissful! This is a highly recommended love story for any Betty Neel fan.

Been revisiting Betty Neels books and I really enjoyed this one. Gives one an idea of how Holland holidays were celebrated at the time and great inside look at homes, customs, villages etc. Great way to escape the worry of today.

Loved it

I got this instead of the fifth day of christmas