Instead, Jeff, independently wealthy himself and working as a engineering consultant with high-powered clients in Washington, decides by marrying Eve he can save her from a life of poverty, as she has never been trained for any career. It's a bit condescending to make this decision for her but well-intended.
Jeff returns with news about the ownership of the gold mine but unfortunately Moya returns with him, so Eve still thinks they are involved, although Jeff has now realized he loves Eve. He has two rivals: one is Senator Holden’s right hand man, Seth, and the other is Señor Alvarez, a Secretary at a South American Embassy – and Jeff thinks Alvarez is after the same gold mine and will kill to secure the ownership, so naturally he does not approve of Eve’s friendship with the man. Various complications ensue (at one point Jeff and the Senator are accused of starting a revolution in South America, which seems like a stretch) but as Jeff and Eve are thrown together, they finally begin to work out their problems.
Loring’s heroines are vibrant, independent, courageous (but Eve, at least, has a quick, unreasonable temper) and her heroes are debonair and masterful. She became a bestselling author because her characters were appealing, wholesome without being boring, and some combined romance and suspense, as this does. However, I don’t think it is one of her best because Eve is very illogical and the plot involving the gold mine seems kind of silly, although I liked the DC setting. My library had every book Loring wrote (and some she didn’t) and I read them all when I was in junior high. I had mostly forgotten them until I read that Patti Bender was writing a book about Loring – Happy Landings – which inspired me to revisit a few. When I was in Philadelphia for a conference in October 2024, I found this one at a used bookstore called The Book Trader. It’s a first edition hardcover with a pristine dust jacket so I couldn’t leave it behind!
Title: It’s a Great World
Author: Emilie Loring
Publication: Grosset & Dunlap, hardcover, 1935
Genre: Romantic suspense
Source: Personal copy
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
• 20 Books of Summer 2026
• Cloak and Dagger Challenge 2026
“You look as stunned as if you had been struck by lightning, Jeff. I don’t see anything startling in my suggestion. You are going to a strange country with what you fondly believe is a broken heart. You’ll be an easy mark for a designing woman, they say those ships fairly swarm with husband hunters. You wouldn’t be lonely if I went along; and you wouldn’t have to bring me a present as you always do when you come home from one of your engineering trips, nor say, ‘Great Caesar, but you’ve grown, Kiddo.’”This might have all worked out (eventually - it takes most of the book for him to stop calling her “Kiddo”) except that moments after their quiet wedding they learn that Moya and her new husband were in a plane crash and the husband died. Also, Eve’s guardian leaves her a note apologizing for losing/using Eve’s fortune. Eve is furious that Jeff didn’t tell her and says she is freeing him from their hours-old marriage to marry newly-widowed Moya. Jeff tries to reason with her but she refuses to listen so he angrily goes to South America alone to investigate a gold mine purchased by Senator Holden (who is another of Eve’s uncles and should have protected her from the embezzler). While he is gone, Eve moves in with the Holdens in DC and takes a secretarial class, then is able to get her own apartment (with a maid, improbably) and work for her uncle. His secretary has left under mysterious circumstances and is colluding with people after the gold mine.
Jeff returns with news about the ownership of the gold mine but unfortunately Moya returns with him, so Eve still thinks they are involved, although Jeff has now realized he loves Eve. He has two rivals: one is Senator Holden’s right hand man, Seth, and the other is Señor Alvarez, a Secretary at a South American Embassy – and Jeff thinks Alvarez is after the same gold mine and will kill to secure the ownership, so naturally he does not approve of Eve’s friendship with the man. Various complications ensue (at one point Jeff and the Senator are accused of starting a revolution in South America, which seems like a stretch) but as Jeff and Eve are thrown together, they finally begin to work out their problems.
Title: It’s a Great World
Author: Emilie Loring
Publication: Grosset & Dunlap, hardcover, 1935
Genre: Romantic suspense
Source: Personal copy
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
• Cloak and Dagger Challenge 2026
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