Spring Love — Florence Stuart

Why should a beautiful April morning make Mary feel like running away? And from what? Herself? Roger? Or the stranger who asked her to look into her heart...

Voice of Experience

Mary Parker was grateful to the family that had taken her out of an orphanage when she was a little girl and given her a home. But it wasn't gratitude so much as love for her handsome, vain and irresponsible foster brother, Roger, that made her always sacrifice her own interests for theirs. Then writer Neil Blake came to town and gravitated quite naturally to Mary's little bookshop . . . and pretty Mary. The victim of a selfish love himself, Neil tried to show her that she was wasting her affection on a man who didn't deserve it. When Mary asked him ... reluctantly ... if he would use his influence to help Roger get a screen test, he refused ... only to change his mind when he saw it might be the only way to stop her from making a marriage he knew could only mean regret and years of misery....

Favor from a Friend…

“If you don't want to be kissed, you shouldn't look so beautiful,” Neil teased. Then, serious again, he told her. “Mary for your sake I'm going to get your Roger his screen test… Frankly, I consider it a complete waste of time and effort, but I'll do it…”
Mary said, so pleased and grateful that she could have cried. “Neil, I never heard of anyone so kind. I don't understand why you should bother -- “
“I don't understand it myself,” Neill said dryly. “Unless…this is my day for doing good deeds…”


Also published as: The Little Book Shop