Book Review: Always My Love

Author: Dorothy Fletcher
Title: Always My Love
Publisher: Zebra
Publish Date: Sept 1979
Rating: 4 stars

Always my love is a story of a widowed aunt, Louisa and her niece, Iris, traveling to France where they meet a young man. Iris is disillusioned with love after being dumped by her fiancee two years before. When Paul Chandon enters there lives in a French cafe, Iris wants nothing to do with him, and when her aunt allows him to join them in their exploration of Paris, Iris is angered and fearful that he's a gigolo after her aunt's money.

Dorothy Fletcher paints a beautiful picture of Paris. Her descriptive storytelling really allows the reader to see the city. This seemed very unusual to me, since this was a romance novel.

Iris' worry for her aunt is well written and you feel her emotions as if they were your own. The only problem I had with Iris was she was a relatively strong character, considering the year this book was published. She was independent and intelligent and yet she didn't feel that she could talk to her aunt about her concerns over Paul.

Paul was the best character by far. He is a man of mystery for the most part, but he handles Iris' barbs with great ease. The average man would have given up on her.

Thankfully Iris met another man on the trip, Claude Marchand, who gave her a bit of advice and also helped her sort out who Paul was. I'm not sure how I felt about the scales being dropped from her eyes when she realized that Paul was wealthy and likely not after her aunt though. It makes Iris appear shallow, but then I remind myself that this book was written in the late seventies. May/December relationships, with the woman being the older party weren't so prevalent then. Though why shouldn't 46 year old Louisa hook up with a 32 year old man if she wants? The author paints her as being very beautiful and youthful for her age.

Overall this book held up well over the years. The story is still entertaining and the characters are well developed. Its definitely worth reading if you should happen to find it. I actually think it read like an old tv mini-series or movie of the week.