What happens when you are ordered to give up your wonderful diplomatic post and return to your small home town undercover to try to discover a plot against national security. Add to the mix a financee who doesn’t want to go with you as she refuses to be out “in the sticks” and a complete stranger called Nancy who agrees to act as your wife to fool her brother who is slowly recovering from an accident and one has a romping great tale. Of course there are mysterious villains trying to check the truth of the hasty marriage as well as trying to discover what is going on in Simonston,there is the chance that the pretend romance is becoming all too real!

Emilie Loring was a must read author for me in my teen years, so I was interested to see what I would think of her many years later. This story of Peter Gerard and Nancy Jones was one I enjoyed. It was a little more simplistic than most of what I read now, but I still liked it. The characters were likable and the storyline kept my interest.

I'm glad that I read this one. I'm sure I"ll be rereading some of her others in the future.

Although originally published din t he 60's, the book stood up pretty sell. A bit fantastic at times, but it certainly reflected what life was like when the book was written - I know, I was there. It really is a fun book - kind of a clean Danielle Steel, . I liked again this time I read it - Loring was one of my favorite authors.

I was caught by the title, it seemed mysterious in a certain way, and the plot sounded interesting enough. I was pleasantly surprised however by how much i enjoyed the story.
It was in fact quite simple: A nice, heartworming romance with an intriguing conspiracy background, set in a New England village in the first half of the last century.

Peter and Nancy got married under the strangest circumstances. She just lied to her sick brother about having a fiancé and desperatly needed one. He just got dumped by his cold-hearted soon to be wife and he promised her he would marry the first girl he would see.
It was a good compromise for both of them. She needed a place to take care of her brother, he needed a good cover, for his secret government work, to be in his country house in the winter.

It was interesting to see how the relationship between Peter and Nancy developed, how they came to trust each other.
The story had a simple, straight forward plot. No unexpected twists or unforseen problems. Yet, in a certain way it was very pleasant to read. I actually finished it in one day.
And for a small village, the characters offered a great deal of variety, and many of them were really funny!

Overall it was an enjoyable book.