A Family of His Own (Harlequin Romance) [Mass Market Paperback]

Liz Fielding (Author)

Book Description

Series: Harlequin Romance | Publication Date: May 1, 2004

Dear Readers

Several of my books have touched on the lives of the inhabitants of Upper Haughton. Willow and Mike Armstrong from The Runaway Bride settled here. The Hilliards from A Perfect Proposal live in the Old Rectory. Jake and Amy Hallam, from my RITA® nominated book The Bachelor’s Baby still live here, too. Of course they moved out of Amy’s cottage a long time ago, needing more room for their three boys. No, Amy still hasn’t got the daughter she longed for. You didn’t really expect her to keep that abandoned baby, did you? Not when there was a desperate mother out there somewhere?

Little Polly isn’t far away though. She lives in the cottage with her mother Kay Lovell, who works at the village shop, makes prize-winning marmalade and spends her spare time helping out the neighbours. And never talks about her past.

Linden Lodge, however, has been empty for six years. The garden is running wild, the blackberries are tempting – and desperately needed for the village harvest upper – and the lock on the gate is broken. But Dominic Ravenscar has at long last returned and Kay’s trespass doesn’t go unnoticed...

Upper Haughton is a real village, a place from my own childhood. I’ve only changed the name. Come and visit, check out an excerpt from A FAMILY OF HIS OWN which is published as a Tender Romance™ in March in the UK and a Harlequin Romance® in May in the US.

With love...

Liz

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... it reminded me of Mary Stewart..." -- A reader...

"...poetic..." "...slightly gothic..." 4 stars -- Romantic Times BOOKclub

...one of the best and most touching books I've read in ages..." -- My editor's Mum...

From the Publisher

RITA Award-winning author Liz Fielding "gets better and better with every book!" -- Romantic Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Harlequin (May 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373037988
• ISBN-13: 978-0373037988
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,559,896 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Reading is, and always has been, the first love of my life. Except writing.
Success came early -- I was twelve when I won an Easter egg in a hymn writing competition at school - but life intervened with my plans to become a hot shot author. The day job. Not that this was dull. I travelled to Zambia at the age of twenty where I worked as a secretary, before following my personal hero to the Middle East, Kenya, Botswana and ambition became buried in the joyful business of raising a family.

I never forgot that I was a "writer", however. I wrote children's stories for Listen With Mother. Magazines articles. Ghost stories. I was at a point where I wanted to move onto something bigger when I read a magazine piece about Charlotte Lamb and Anne Hampson and discovered, rather late in life, romantic fiction. I read everything I could lay my hands on, then, feeling certain I had a grasp of the genre, began writing. I had three rejections - I still have those letters! -- but my fourth submission became An Image of You and was published in 1992.

Since then seven of my books have been shortlisted for RWA's RITA award - two of them, THE BEST MAN & THE BRIDESMAID and THE MARRIAGE MIRACLE winning in 2001 and 2006, respectively. A FAMILY OF HIS OWN always won the RNA's Romance Prize in 2005.

My best-beloved and I are empty-nesters these days, living out in the country where excitement means a visit from the mobile shop, the travelling library, the fish man. But I'm a writer, I invent my own worlds. Once the door to the my cabin in the woods is closed I can be anywhere my imagination takes me; the desert kingdom of Ramal Hamrah, the villages of Upper Haughton, Little Hinton and Longbourne where romance is always just around the corner, or I can jet off to New York, the Mediterranean, even the Himalayas. Come and see where I'm headed next - http://www.lizfielding.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charming English romance, April 11, 2006

By 

Sadhbh - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Family of His Own (Harlequin Romance) (Mass Market Paperback)

Very enjoyable tale about a widower rediscovering life and love when a woman trespasses in his garden to pick blackberries. It was very evocative of England and English gardens, a heartwarming tale of how and when to move on after loss.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Could they be a family?, May 11, 2004

By 

Anza Carrillo "heavenlyanza" (Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Family of His Own (Harlequin Romance) (Mass Market Paperback)

Kay Lovell was normally a strictly law-abiding citizen, but the tempting blackberries in a neighbor's neglected garden called to her. She took some of the berries and, feeling a bit guilty, came back the next day to replace the broken lock on the garden gate. While in the garden, a thin, haunted-looking Dominic Ravenscar spied her from a window in his house. Believing that Kay is really his dead wife, Sara, Dominic enters the garden and kisses Kay. Kay is shocked by the kiss; not only is she shocked that a stranger is kissing her, but she's more shocked that she is responding to the kiss - something she hasn't done in a long time.

Dominic Ravenscar is also shocked - shocked that he could have mistaken Kay Lovell for his beloved deceased wife. Sara has been gone for six years, and for six years Dominic has lived in a shadowy world, never pausing to fully grieve the loss of his wife. He believed that if he kept running, the pain wouldn't catch up with him. Six years of running, however, hadn't done him much good, and so he returned to his old home to sell it. He wants Kay's help in selling his home, but can Kay help him more than he imagines and heal his broken heart?

At first, I was really into this book. There was a mystery surrounding Kay and her daughter, Polly, which I thought could be quite interesting. I also loved the premise of the story with a dark, brooding hero. It almost reminded me of a gothic novel, and I like those once in a while. The more I read, though, the more boring the story became. The first half of the book was pretty good - Kay is determined to help Dominic overcome the ghosts of his past while she keeps her own secrets to herself - but after the 100 page mark, things went downhill fast. Kay became a rather weak heroine as time wore on, and Dominic went from miserable one day to completely healed over night. The timeline was pretty unrealistic after the first 100 pages, as well. There was a huge development in the story that was pretty much glossed over with just a few pages devoted to it, and a huge potential hindrance to the relationship went away without much discussion at all. The book was okay, but I won't be reading it again.

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm quickly finding that Ms. Fielding never disappoints. An awesome story., November 29, 2011

By 

KayLovesToRead (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Family of His Own (Harlequin Romance) (Mass Market Paperback)

A Family of His Own by Liz Fielding
Harlequin Romance # 3798 - May 2004

Returning to his home after six years away, Dominic only wishes to put the house on the market and bury the past. Finding Kay trespassing in his wife's garden, for a moment it was as if it had been Sara. But that wasn't right because Sara was dead. Kay couldn't stop herself from rescuing the bushes in the apparently abandoned garden from the choking vines. When Dominic confronts her trespass, Kay put her hand forward and offers herself for the job of setting the garden straight. She sees the torment in Dominic and wants to pass on a healing touch; similar to the one she herself received when she was at her rope's end.

This is the story of overcoming tragic pasts. For Dominic, it's the loss of his pregnant wife, and for Kay, it's the loss of her youth and fear for her child. Together they learn to fight for life and love. I'm quickly finding that Ms. Fielding never disappoints. An awesome story.