A Change for Clancy

by Amanda Doyle

Clancy Minnow and her manager, Johnny Raustmann, were very happy running the Brenda Downs ranch in Australia. When the trustees appointed a new manager, Clancy had to break the news to Johnny. But Johnny Raustmann had a way out of this -- for both of them.

Genres: Harlequin Romance

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1966

Reviews

[Leona · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed this one even though I felt the heroine was my least favorite part of the story. Two young women are left orphaned with a large sheep farm in Australia. The manager has been stealing from them and the trustees decide to send an overseer to check things out.

The story with all it's twists and turns was delightful and the characters really came to life. My only regret to the story was the older sister (heroine) was too weak to hold together such a compelling story. Her thought process and decisions were just jarring. Her 11 year old sister had more common sense. As is typical in these vintage romances, the ending was also a bit abrupt.

I would give it 3.5 to 4 stars.

[StMargarets · Rating 3 out of 5]

The creepy cover for this one is accurate. Vulnerable orphans (h and her sister) are left at the mercy of a gaslighting/violent/embezzling station manager until the hero shows up to oversee for the bank trustees.

Heroine is wrung out physically, emotionally, and mentally from nursing her terminally ill mother and worrying about her wild child sister. The hero tries to help her, but the heroine feels he’s being condescending and fights him all the way.

This despairing and depleted tone of the narrative adds to the angst, but I quickly lost patience with the heroine. Why the (very wonderful) hero fell for her is beyond me. The ten-year old sister had a lot more common sense.

The menace of the gaslighting station manager cast too long of a shadow for this to feel like a romance.

[Margo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had a very different read on this book. The "OM" was a true potentially violent predator who (I felt) presented a very real physical threat to the h. This is fully revealed at the end of the book and the H, who has been instrumental in getting rid of the OM, still tells the h that she's going to have to make it up to him because he has been so jealous of the OM because she was so often in the OM's arms. DUDE, IT WAS NOT CONSENSUAL. SHE WAS TERRIFIED. It was a really jarring note.

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last time I read this I gave it 2 stars, this leaves me to think that perhaps my moods affect my reviews. Clancy and her 11 year old sister are orphans who live on a ranch in the outback of Australia. After her mother's death the ranch was left to her and her sister under the administration of a board of trustees. Jed is sent to the ranch temporarily to oversee operations and to check things out because the ranch is making less profit than expected. Clancy and her sister as well as the foreman resent this. The foreman, Johnny, pressure her to marry him and some of his actions make her fear for the safety of her sister and Jed.

[Last Chance Saloon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really sweet, but vulnerable and stressed heroine (19) is dominated and gaslit by the man working her and her sister's farm until the wonderfully capable, nice, handsome and perfect hero (early 30s) comes to the rescue.
3 1/2 stars - it would be more, but there was a pervading sense of anxiety interwoven through the story in the guise of the want-to-be OM (who only really wanted the farm's money).