Elizabeth teaches piano from the drawing room of her family home. She’s thirty-one, she lives with her overbearing parents, and it’s 1950s Australia – it’s time for a life of her own.Â
She’s had opportunities before. Elizabeth isn’t a weak or niaive woman; she was honest enough not to forge a relationship with her admirer, Tom, whilst her fiance was away at war, and Tom emigrated to Scotland to become a sheep farmer. But when her fiance returned a changed man, she had to let him go, too – she couldn’t enviasge a life together. So when Edward, the widowed parent of a pupil comes on the scene, Elizabeth is keen to encourage him. That’s before her mother’s devasting betrayal comes to light, a secret that would have altered the course of Elizabeth’s whole life. Is it now too late?
Margaret Lynette Sharp is a prolific author, with around twenty books to her credit. She writes what are called ‘sweet romances’, which is factually correct, (though ‘gentle’ might be a more appropriate word) but may well have connotations of insipid or twee… Love Denied is neither. Elizabeth is an intelligent, passionate woman with a mind of her own, she simply needs a jolt out of the rut into which she’s fallen, and when it comes, she acts in a way that produces an engaging and satisfying read.
Love Denied is a ‘novelette’ at 20,000 words, and Sharp uses her words well; the plot is not over-complicated, the twist is not too convoluted. And she writes with a lightness of touch that is ‘deceptively simple’. Â This is a story for those days when you want a bit of romance, a decent but not obvious plot, and the hint of a happily ever after.
And if you’re wondering why an Australian author writes about Scotland, like I was, I can tell you that Sharp’s husband’s ancestors came from Aberdeen – his father and uncle were both Scottish dancers, a drummer and  a bagpiper.
Scotland is still a long way from Australia, but in the 1950s it was farther still – is it a step too far for Elizabeth? You might have to wait for the sequel for the whole story, and that’s due out later on this year!
Love Denied is available as a Kindle eBook at  https://www.amazon.com/Love-Denied-Margaret-Lynette-Sharp-ebook/dp/B01GYC9RN8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1466390018&sr=1-1&keywords=love+denied
(Editor’s apologies for the gremlins in the system that have produced the distorted cover pic – will be resolved asap!)