Product Description

When the village prepares to welcome their new vicar, they are in for a shock...Young, attractive, a widow with a ten-year-old daughter - Venus Stanton was certainly not the vicar that the traditional parish of Thurston had been expecting. The village was agog, the congregation surprised and in some cases not at all pleased. Venus - a name wished on her by her otherwise conventional parents, and which she felt wholly inappropriate for a woman priest - had to endure curiosity, misunderstandings and even downright hostility. But she also found warmth, friendship and kindness - sometimes from the most unexpected quarters. Still mourning the death of her husband, and having to cope with the problems of single parenthood, Venus began to think that she would never manage the task she had set herself. Perhaps the doubters were right - she was not suited to be a vicar, to care for the souls of the parish. But the handsome local doctor thought otherwise, and so did many others who came to regard her not only as their priest but also their friend.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #213624 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 469 pages

From the Back Cover
Young, attractive, a widow with a ten-year-old daughter - Venus Stanton was certainly not the vicar whom the traditional parish of Thurston had been expecting. The village was agog, the congregation surprised and in some cases not at all pleased.

Venus - had to endure curiosity, misunderstandings and even downright hostility. But she also found warmth, friendship and kindness - sometimes from the most unexpected quarters.

Still mourning the death of her husband, and having to cope with the problems of single parenthood, Venus began to think that she would never manage the task she had set herself. Perhaps the doubters were right - she was not suited to be a vicar, to care for the souls of the parish. But the local doctor thought otherwise, and so did many others who came to regard her not only as their priest but also as their friend.

About the Author
Elvi Rhodes Elvi Rhodes was born and educated in Yorkshire, and now lives on the Sussex coast. She is the author of many bestselling novels including Cara's Land, Ruth Appleby, The Mountain, Portrait of Chloe, Spring Music, Midsummer Meeting, The Birthday Party and Mulberry Lane, all published in paperback by Corgi Books.

Customer Reviews

not believable
I'm sorry but I cannot recommend this book to anyone I found it non believable. Especially the relationship between vicar and doctor how can you feel this way after meeting only 3-4 times and having one date and so soon after her husband dying.It felt like the author couldn't make up her mind on which direction the book was to go and never covered any direction fully. I found it impossible to care anyway. Unbelievable story and people. Sorry.

Parishioner's Delight
What a wonderful read - a very difficult book to put down! I had not read anything by Elvi Rhodes before and found this one quite by chance by the picture on the cover. A great deal of the content could be related to locally from the problems of being the vicar that wasn't what the parish was used to and also for the parishioners who had problems accepting their new priest. I found the book gripping from beginning to end and hope there may be another follow on to see how the future turned out - did some return to St Mary's after leaving; the events leading up to and including the vicar's wedding; did the vicar have any more children; did Bertha Jowett become a Christian and how did it work out with the vicar being Anglican and Nigel, her husband, being a Roman Catholic? I'm sure there's plenty of material for the next book!

An unexpected pleasure
Elvi Rhodes is not an author I had ever read before, as I had her down as a 'rags to riches' historical romance writer - probably very unfairly. But when this book was bought for me, I was very glad I'd decided to read it. I found it light but well-written, and felt it gave a real insight into the everyday life of the clergy. As a Christian myself who knows female vicars and ministers, I felt this was a pretty accurate description of the reactions they receive from different factions of the congregations, and was only very slightly embroidered for fictional use. Yes, maybe the romance between the vicar and the doctor was rather hasty, but hey, this is a novel and meant to be entertaining! I'll certainly be reading more of Elvi Rhodes' novels, particularly the contemporary ones, and would even welcome a sequel to this particular book - after all, unless I missed something we never found out what became of Miss Frazer. It would have made a trite ending, but I'd have liked her to have 'seen the light'!