All Else Confusion Gentle Romance by Betty Neels English Countryside Novel

I mentioned in my last post how much I enjoyed romance novels by Betty Neels. They are gentle, friendly, easy reading with interesting characters. Sometimes the plots are a bit contrived, but that is true for most romance novels – it’s even true for romance in real life!

All Else Confusion uses one of Betty Neels’ more difficult plots, where the couple, Jake and Annis, marry before discovering or realizing they are in love. These are difficult because the author has to give some plausible reason for the marriage, has to provide some incident that shows to one or the other (or both) people that they really are in love, has to have some tension or challenge.

Plot Difficulties

If you think about it, there are four main variations on this plot.

1. He thinks it’s convenience.  She knows she loves him.
2. He thinks it’s convenience and so does she.
3. He knows it’s love but she does not.
4. They both know it is love but for some reason neither realizes the other feels the same way or is afraid to say something.

There are sub variations of course.  One of them could love the other but not know it, or one could have extremely good reasons to get married that cause the other to assume there is no love, etc and etc.  The main problem with these plots is turning the corner from “convenience” to “love” and giving a good picture of both characters and their feelings.

Character Limitations

Betty Neels tells the story from the female perspective and in some of her later novels she does a better job showing the man’s point of view and emotions than she does with All Else Confusion. She wrote All Else Confusion after she had been writing novels for over 10 years, but it reads like it was one of her earliest, more tentative stories from before she developed her sure voice.

In any case, we never get a sense of Jake’s true emotions. Does he love Annis from the beginning? Or only after they are married, and if only afterwards, what caused the change?

Overall OK Story

Overall I’d rate this as in the bottom half of her novels.  I did read it to the end but I don’t desire to read it again.  It was a little too simplistic and without the emotional depth that make romance novels so enjoyable.