Nobody Asked Me by Mary Burchell

Nobody Asked Me Reviews

• 
  Leona

  Just goes to show that sometimes the mood you are in determines the rating of the book. I just went back and did a reread of this book given so many other positive reviews and comments from my GR friends. The second time around, I definitely had a much different perspective. This is a well written old skool MOC, that still has the ability to keep you engrossed.
  
  I took my rating from 2 stars to 4 stars, mostly because I saw a different side of the hero the second time around.
  
  
  First Review
  A marriage of convenience between two very unlikely people. I'm a huge fan of Mary Burchell's work, but this one just didn't work for me. Mostly because the hero was in love with someone else for almost the entire book. The heroine was also too naive and self-sacrificing for my taste. Of course, she was only 20 and orphaned when she was young, forced to take any crumbs her relatives threw to her. I was also disappointed that the story ended too abruptly and left a lot of questions unanswered.
  
  This was a modern day Cinderella story that fell kind of flat since Prince Charming left a lot to be desired.
• 
  Sarah Mac

  Your basic MOC Harlequin, but with an extra half-star for Burchell's excellent prose.
  
  Alison, our h, is somewhat mousy, but she has her moments of spunk that must've been rather daring for a romance lady written in 1939. (Like many early Burchells, this one was reprinted in the late 70s.) She proposes a MOC to the hero -- shocking! -- all the while suffering through her skanky cousin Rosalie's innuendos re: his peen being out of her reach. Rosalie is an irredeemable tramp & her mom (Alison's aunt) is quite carefully described as a 'remarried widow,' but the reader (& her 2nd husband) both know she's an equally skanky gold-digger. Things are further complicated by the late arrival of a seductive OM who stalks Alison in an attempt to browbeat her into an adulterous affair. Oh noes!
  
  Burchell's description of their family dynamics was an interesting time capsule. No doubt she was hampered by dictates of the era, i.e. 'wholesome' books permitted no direct verbiage re: bad behavior, yet there are multiple refs to hormonal new brides, trampy sexpots, adultery, forced seduction, & money-grabbing bitchfaces, all of which transcend the years between '39 & 2017. I was thoroughly entertained by her politely scathing depictions.
  
  As I said, this is a 3.5 star book, but rounded down because the hero's appeal pales in comparison to the OM (though Alison would disagree :P). Also, there's a repetitive stretch wherein the story spins its wheels through Alison's martyrdom...but these things didn't diminish my enjoyment. Solid vintage HQN. :)
  
  
  NB: The hero spends 95% of the story in love with Skanky Rosalie (or so Alison believes -- he claims otherwise at the end). Be warned, ye who can't handle a non-monogamous plot. ;)
• 
  Sapheron

  4.5 stars.
  
  First read from Mary Burchell and I really liked it.I liked the hero and understood his struggle. He was in love with another girl. We wouldn't expect him to forget her at the outset in real life. I bought his confession of love to the heroine at the end and my only regret was we didn't spend more time seeing them as a loving married couple.
  
  I was SOOOOOOO impressed with the writing. We need modern writers with this kind of talent. She wasn't just a storyteller, she was an author. Loved it.
• 
  Jane

  Mary Burchell and her sister saved Jews from the Nazis in the 1930s, funded by her writing. She was my favorite author back when I used to read a lot of romances. I'm reviewing the books in a box of Harlequin romances I kept.
  
  Nobody Asked Me is an orphaned poor relation novel, but it has some interesting twists. Alison's parents are dead and she has been in boarding school since their deaths. Now it's time to leave, and she goes to live with her only living relation, her cousin Rosalie. Rosalie's father was Alison's uncle, but he is dead. Her cousin's mother and Rosalie are beautiful, spoiled women with a primary interest in money. Her cousin's new stepfather is the sympathetic one. He likes that Alison is actually appreciative when he gives her a few pounds to buy a new dress. In addition, Rosalie has twin half-siblings who befriend Alison. Rosalie's rich fiance Julian (who is of course much too nice for the awful Rosalie) also befriends Alison.
  
  What sets Mary Burchell apart from most genre romance authors is that she doesn't always follow "the formula." The romance itself is not as interesting as the family dynamics. Alison falls in love with her cousin's fiance and drama ensues, but eventually all ends well.
  
  A nice genre romance.
• 
  April

  I really liked the story line. Alison’s story is quite sad. She feels quite unwanted but she still tries to make a place for herself in the world. Her only living relative, her aunt, is a spiteful person who has a daughter, Rosaline, just like her. Finding herself an orphan, Alison has no other recourse than to turn towards the generosity of her only living relative. Upon arriving from her boarding school Alison is eager to join the social gather at her relatives place but finds herself out of sort when no one wants to talk to her. Fleeing the scene after hearing her cousin making fun of her dress, Alison enters the library quite by accident and enters the hero, who in my opinion should be clouted on the head a couple of times. Julian, who is Rosaline’s fiancé, had gotten into a row with Rosaline earlier and decides to use Alison as a mean to get back at Rosaline (I really wanted to hit the guy over the head, really!! Such inconsideration!!). Alison of course finds out later from her younger cousin about the reason from Julian’s kindness as revenge and is heartbroken but somehow finds a way to forgive him. Long story short…they find themselves pledging alliance for marriage of convenience. Alison has always loved and liked Julian but finds that Julian only cares for Rosaline. Julian’s friend Simon falls for Alison and forces Julian to acknowledge his feelings for Alison although, they do not resolve their feelings until the end, and I mean the very end, of the story.
  
  I would have liked to give their story a strong five for I have come to realizes that I like reading Mary’s romance but sadly I cannot for this story. Why? Because, I felt that the story wrapped up too quick and we were hardly introduced to any sort of affection from Julian that could convince me that he has come around to love Alison, although the ending did make up for his lack of attentions. I still want to clout him over the head a couple of time and I wanted to strangle Simon for trying to hurt Alison but I will refrain from using violence on these idiotic men. Anyway I felt that the ending was rushed and I was left with the need to have more details. Oh well. I still loved the story. Leave it to Mary to end a story with the female always wanting to get her hands on the man and not in a happy way too (well…happy if she gets to clout him on the head a couple of times). Let’s just say I am willing to give this story a good 4.5 all due to Alison. May love always find a way to clout some sense into a man!!
  
• 
  Margo

  I'm not quite sure how this received three stars except for the following logic: The h was a doormat of epic proportions, who'd been a neglected drudge for years and whose worldview reflected it. The H was a nice guy who fell in love with the h's monstrous cousin and who was devastated when she jilted him. The h patiently listened to him suffer and dried his tears, so to speak, and he eventually realized that she was a much nicer person and fell in love with her. She was perfectly satisfied with this, and I think he'll be a very kind husband to her and will be very sensitive to her feelings, so HEA.
• 
  Mary-jane

  I admit, the story has too much emphasis on little things and it should have been fast paced but seemed to be at a slow paced for me.
  I wanted much more story of when they were married than before they marry.
  In most part of the book, the hero stayed in love with the cousin
  Well, the book had much more potential if there was more pages where they could have developed more when the hero started to fall in love with the heroine but i personally think that it was too abrupt.
  
  3.5*
• 
  Ellyn (Mrs. Darcy in my Dreams)

  This h needed more background and the H was too Beta for my taste. I wish we had seen more alpha from him at the end! This was similar to Except My Love. This book has a very aggressive and scary OM.
• 
  Parparak Pink

  LOVED IT SO MUCH. It's very well written and well developed and I loved all of the characters. It's a very beautiful story and I give it thousands of stars out of five.
• 
  Maria

  Story line was great the writing flawless I just have one problem with this book. I was rooting for Simon instead, the hero was clueless and in love with OW almost the entire book. I didn't feel the connection and the HEA.
• 
  Aayesha

  Review to come.
• 
  Nikki

  This was two stories meshed to one. We had two(kinda 3) villains for the the front and the back of the book. If they had been split they each could have made good individual stories. Instead we get this mash up that does no one any favors. Liked the uncle! And I guess the heroine was okay but she just kinda floated around unsure of what to do. The hero wasn't worth pining for. And the villains weren't really awful and never got their comeupins. Skip.
• 
  Reading with Cats

  Oh vey...that cover. The heroine looks exactly like the My Friend Mandy doll I had as a kid, right down to the vacuous expression on her face.
• 
  Melody

  2020 QUARANTINE READ: 4 stars!
  
  How easy it was to make a fool of yourself when you were lonely! You snatched at the faintest bit of kindness and read all sorts of things into it.
  
  
  
  
  I'm really Mary Burchell binge reading these days ho ho ho! To be honest, I don't really like this one compared to Wife to Christopher but I was entertained by the story. If I view it in these times, I would probably say that the heroine was a doormat or weak. But reading it with the thought in her position: orphaned early, sent to boarding school, unwanted by her aunt, extension years in boarding school, taken by the aunt but still her presence was unwanted, no future prospects, and she had no friends, etc etc. She was really an awkward 19/20 year old. And the first kindness she experienced was from Julian, who turned out to be her cousin Rosalie's fiance.
  
  I would say, her contact with Julian was more of infatuation at first. I think it bloomed into love later on. I didn't like her actions later especially when she did not trust her instincts but still carried on with another man lels!but still I understand her as a whole person.
  
  It must have been really hard for her. But oh, well, at least it ended splendidly.
  
  
  
• 
  RomLibrary

  Julian's words haunted Alison. "You're only a schoolgirl," he'd said, and Alison knew he still considered her a child.
  
  Could she really mean so little to him? Somewhere under all the planning and preparations Alison had cherished a faint hope that her business-arrangement marriage with Julian would turn into the kind of relationship she'd always dreamed of.
  
  But now, with sickening certainty, she realized that Julian had never loved her. And Rosalie was free again, deternimed to win Julian back. Alison felt suddenly that there was no use fighting anymore.
• 
  Nenya

  3.5 rounded up to 4. sweet and angsty. rather too much angst... resolves nicely in the end.
  More Michelle Reid, than Betty Neels -_-