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The Strange Proposal (1935)

Tekijä: Grace Livingston Hill

JäseniäKirja-arvostelujaSuosituimmuussijaKeskimääräinen arvioMaininnat
1383196,692 (4)1
Fiction. Romance. HTML:

John fell in love with Mary Elizabeth at first sight, but she is not who he believes her to be; and it will take a miracle to unite these two people from very different walks of life. Readers will delight in this Grace Livingston Hill classic romance.

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näyttää 3/3
2.5 stars. The heroine, Mary Elizabeth Wainwright, and her young cousin Sam were absolutely delightful and when the story focused on them, it was light, readable, and flowed quite well. I would've read an entire book about their summer adventures by the sea. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the hero, John Saxon, who was a sanctimonious asshole so full of pride that he nearly cut off his nose to spite his face. He was haughty, snobby, and boring - apparently the sort of born-again Christian who was never told that Pride was one of the seven deadly sins. He's so focused on what he can make of his life on his own terms that he literally can't see the answer to his prayers when it's right in front of his face!

The book begins with the wedding of Jeff Wainwright and Camilla Chrystie, the couple from White Orchids. John is Jeff's best man. In White Orchids, he was a pretty nondescript guy with a quiet confidence that drew others around him like bees to honey. Young Sam Wainwright fell into a group of boys who went on a trip into the Florida swamps, which John led, and Jeff went along to keep an eye on his brother. Both of them came out the other side as born-again Christians, with Jeff finally seeing how he could bridge the gap to his precious Camilla.

The John Saxon of White Orchids was an okay fellow. The John Saxon of this novel was anything but. All he knows of the maid-of-honor is that her name is Helen Foster and she's a Christian aid worker out west. He doesn't know that Helen was unfortunately held up at the last minute, and Jeff's cousin Mary Elizabeth was good-natured enough to step into the role at the last minute. No, all John Saxon knows is what he's been told about Helen, and when he sees Mary Elizabeth walking down the aisle, he falls head over heels in love with her. She's beautiful! angelic! gorgeous! and best of all, she's a Christian aid worker! Finally, he has met a woman worthy of his love.

He doesn't bother to introduce himself or even confirm that he's talking to Helen - he just assumes that he is and on the way back down the aisle after the nuptials, he confesses his immediate love to Mary Elizabeth and ends up proposing to her that night as he grabs the midnight train home. He writes her a torrid love letter and only realizes what an ass he's made of himself when he goes to address it, and realizes that the woman he's confessed his love to is *not* a Christian aid worker, but a worldly Wainwright! A millionaire's daughter who is probably laughing at him and his presumptions! Never mind the fact that he considers Jeff Wainwright, the heir of a millionaire, to be one of his dearest friends. His cousin is obviously not a Christian, and therefore obviously not worthy of his love. But - oh! He just can't help himself, and sends the letter anyway, explaining that he realized who she was much too late but hoping that she might accept the love of a penniless doctor-in-training. Ugh, I wanted to throttle John at this point.

I was very glad that the narrative moved away from his judgmental sad sack self and onto Mary Elizabeth, who was equally enamored of John (and knew who he was the entire time, so no mistaken identities there!). She learns more about him from Jeff's brother Sam, and is intrigued. She decides that she needs a change of pace in her life, so she and Sam escape to the family's old summer cottage. There, Sam does a bit of proselytizing to Mary Elizabeth and gets her interested in learning more about the Bible and God, but she's intimidated and thinking she might not be good enough for the elusive John Saxon.

Meanwhile, she's quite literally beating off suitors with a stick, including one who wants to run roughshod all over her. His name is Boothby Farwell (what a name, LOL!) and he's a regular mustache-twirling villain straight from central casting. Mercifully, Mary Elizabeth can more than handle herself around him, and firmly tells him where to get off even when he won't accept her "no" as a final answer. Even with Boothby brings along a gang of her social scene to her beach house (quite uninivited), she refuses to go off with them. This girl has spirit and backbone and knows what she wants! Quite why she wants a sanctimonious sad sack isn't quite clear, but she knows she deserves more than Boothby Farwell, and never falters in this.

Meanwhile, John has returned home to the Florida orange groves and his mother is deathly ill, so he sends a message to his prayer partners, including Sam, asking for their prayers. Sam shows the message to Mary Elizabeth, and she determines that she will help him in every way possible, up to and including finding and flying one of his former instructors (an imminent physician) directly to his house in rural Florida to operate on his mother! She has limitless funds, and she wants to help, so why not? She arranges for everything but has Sam actually meet John when they land, since Sam has the better relationship with him.

The doctor saves Mrs. Saxon's life and the group of them stay down in Florida as she recuperates, with the Wainwright contingent sleeping on the plane, which was literally landed across the street from the little shack where the Saxons live and toil. Eventually they bring Mrs. Saxon back to the summer cottage up north for her health (I've never heard of a doctor claiming a sick patient needed harsher climate, rather than mild, but okay). Mary Elizabeth and her father work on John Saxon's pride and he finally agrees to marry her even though he is basically still a student and can't keep her "in the matter to which she is accustomed," as if she couldn't support her own damn self.

If he knew just how much they'd fixed him up, and how much the Wainwright fortune was already supporting him - with Mary Elizabeth's cousin buying the Saxon family property for way more than it was worth so that they had no excuse not to go north for her health - he'd probably have a stroke. Mr. Wainwright practically had to browbeat him into marrying Mary Elizabeth sooner rather than later. Ugh, I can only imagine how trying it will be to live with him and his pride. I wouldn't wish that on anybody.

In the meanwhile, Boothby Farwell chases Mary Elizabeth down to Florida but spends so much time being drunk that he has multiple accidents and doesn't actually catch up with her until after she's married, at which time he can't do anything nefarious like kidnap her to force her hand, so he basically retreats with his tail between his legs.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit once we got away from John's inner monologues. Mary Elizabeth didn't lose any of her spirit, and didn't have any big conversion or the like to John's way of thinking. She doesn't change much at all, which I was supremely happy for. She and Sam were shining delights, and I'm glad we were able to spend as much time as we were with both of them. Sam might be a born-again Christian, but he's also a 13-year-old boy and he doesn't lose his sense of mischief, especially when it comes to foiling Boothby. ( )
  eurohackie | Nov 14, 2022 |
Although this story line is very hard to believe it could ever happen in real life, I still liked the idea of it. John Saxon, best man at a wedding, sees Mary Elizabeth, maid of honor, walk down the aisle on the wedding day and falls in love, and then tells her of his love as they are walking down the aisle after the wedding. I know, I know, hard to imagine this happening, but the author does a great job of making it believeable. The rest of the story is how these two people, who only met briefly for a couple of hours at a wedding, will end up finding each other again and realizing that the love was real. This author writes "wholesome stories" full of adventure and romance and where people triumph over evil, because they have a great and mighty God on their side. ( )
  judyg54 | Feb 1, 2017 |
A young man serving as best man at a wedding falls in love with the maid of honor on the way down the aisle. And he doesn't know her name. ( )
  MerryMary | Apr 23, 2007 |
näyttää 3/3
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John Saxon saw Mary Elizabeth for the first time as she walked up the church aisle with stately tread at Jeffrey Wainwright's wedding. John was best man and stood at the head of the aisle with the bridegroom where he could see everything.
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Fiction. Romance. HTML:

John fell in love with Mary Elizabeth at first sight, but she is not who he believes her to be; and it will take a miracle to unite these two people from very different walks of life. Readers will delight in this Grace Livingston Hill classic romance.

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