TEST
Mary McBride’s Still Mr. and Mrs. pulls off a good trick, one that few romances seem to manage: it’s light and funny, and at the same time it packs a hefty emotional wallop.
As the book opens, Angela and Bobby Holland are married and deeply in love. They are also separated and headed for a divorce. In spite of their intense feelings for one another, their marriage was in trouble from the start. Bobby keeps a tight rein on his emotions, and Angela learned to turn to his brother, Billy, to interpret how her husband felt. Then Billy was killed, and the emotional barrier between Angela and Bobby turned into a bulletproof shield.
So Angela walked. She didn’t want to loose Bobby, but she hoped that the shock would jar him into opening up to her and seeking help. It didn’t work that way, and the separation has persisted for nearly a year.
But that’s about to change. Angela and Bobby happen to be Secret Service agents, and the President’s mother has been threatened in a series of anonymous letters. Margaret Riordan, known as “Crazy Daisy,” hates being guarded and has no intention of allowing the Service into her home. So the President’s people arrange for her live-in married maid and butler to take a vacation, and for a married Service couple – Angela and Bobby – to go in undercover, posing as servants.
Bobby is absolutely charming. He adores Angela. He wants her to be happy, and he wants her back. Every moment of the book he’s tuned into Angela and how she feels, even when he’s supposed to be concentrating on his job. My favorite scene is one in which Angela, for the first time, relaxes in Bobby’s presence, and Bobby’s reaction to that: “He tried to imagine himself sitting in a garden, absolutely still, not breathing at all now while he waited for a butterfly, a painted lady, to light upon his wrist.” But Bobby only has the barest understanding of what he did wrong and how to fix it. As the author discloses the details of Bobby’s life, I found him to be an entirely believable and sympathetic character. His emotional unresponsiveness has served him well in life, and he simply doesn’t know how to let go of it.
Angela is in a somewhat thankless role here. She left Bobby before the book starts, which means that we never actually see the behavior that caused her to leave him. Because of that she’s a little harder to like, but once again, her obvious and (she believes) hopeless love for Bobby made me sympathize with her. The painful situation these two characters find themselves in – loving each other, but separated and incapable of communicating – was frequently poignant enough to bring tears to my eyes.
I also felt for Angela’s awkward place in Margaret Riordan’s household: she’s supposed to cook meals for the president’s mother! She’s not trained for this! Some of Angela’s culinary attempts – especially her tuna Waldorf salad – made me wince and laugh at the same time.
I must say one more thing about the president’s mother. Too many elderly people in romance novels seem to fall into the “cute little old person” category. Margaret is a person, with strengths and flaws, who also happens to be old. She is often infuriating, and some of her actions might be viewed as plot contrivances, but Margaret always seems authentic.
This novel seems quite simple on the surface, but in fact the author skillfully juggles several plot elements here: how Bobby and Angela feel about each other now; their past relationship and the challenges they faced; their different family lives and how they contributed to the breakup of their marriage; their day-to-day efforts to cope with Margaret; and, not least, the security threat that has put them in this position in the first place. All of this is accomplished smoothly, but probably not effortlessly.
Still Mr. and Mrs. is a page-turner, and I enjoyed every page. It is extremely readable and simply packed with emotion. While it’s funny and a little silly in parts, it also made me cry, and only very good writers can accomplish that. I’m looking forward to more from Mary McBride.
Grade: B+
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Kisses
Review Date: 24/09/02
Publication Date: 2002
Related Reviews
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.