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kebreads's review against another edition
4.0
This story has some really great characters. Much of the story is told from the Male perspective, which is rather refreshing in a romantic novel.
Content: innuendo, a couple dozen mild swear words
Content: innuendo, a couple dozen mild swear words
tessisreading2's review against another edition
1.0
This book was such a toss-up: the primary romance was delightful. George, from whose perspective it is mostly told, is twenty-seven and a fundamentally decent sort of guy; he'd developed a crush on his sister's friend Olivia years ago, and then lost track of her for years, and is super-excited to be reintroduced, only to find that Livy - now age thirty-five - is - gasp! - an elderly, crotchety spinster. (Actually, this part is a little over-the-top; George gets indignant at one point because she is so old and crotchety, unlike the vision he remembered from ten years before. I consoled myself with the thought that 35 actually was pretty old back in Ye Day.) Needless to say she's nothing of the sort, although she is far too nice to a crotchety uncle who raised her, and their love story is very sweet.
No, the problem here is with the secondary romance. George's best friend, Bernard, was seriously injured years before and now is confined to a wheelchair/crutches at all times, and as a result is wildly self-pitying and dependent on George. He won't go anywhere without George, he whines and cries when George is not there to support him, he is furious when George breaks a promise to accompany him to a ball (because George was caught in a blizzard while spending time with his sister's family). He has a crush on a young lady named Harriet but despite the fact that she does everything but dance naked in an effort to get his attention, he reads everything she does as a denunciation of him and lapses into self-pity again (e.g. when she arranges for all of her friends to hang out with him at a ball, he decides it is because she wants him to propose to one of her friends and herself dislikes him). He is a mopey whiner in a wheelchair. That is literally his entire personality. It's both problematic representation and unpleasant to read. I haven't the slightest idea why we're supposed to be rooting for Harriet to capture his hand in marriage.
You'll note that I haven't addressed historical accuracy here. That's because frankly there isn't much. This is of the pseudo-Heyer genre of regency romance, when everyone was careful to make sure their heroes were driving the right type of conveyance (is it a wagon or a barouche?) and drop a few words of (not actually accurate) regency slang, but also had people addressing each other by their first names on brief acquaintance, finding excuses to let unmarried couples hang out in rooms alone, etc. For whatever reason the historical accuracy police have not come for these books, although they'll come for anyone who dares to include a character of color or progressive politics, but that silence doesn't actually mean they're historically accurate. Just something for readers to note.
In conclusion: Mansfield's decent for what this is (as I said, pseudo-Heyer chaste regency romance) but this book is a catastrophic failure due to fricking Bernard and his constant whining.
No, the problem here is with the secondary romance. George's best friend, Bernard, was seriously injured years before and now is confined to a wheelchair/crutches at all times, and as a result is wildly self-pitying and dependent on George. He won't go anywhere without George, he whines and cries when George is not there to support him, he is furious when George breaks a promise to accompany him to a ball (because George was caught in a blizzard while spending time with his sister's family). He has a crush on a young lady named Harriet but despite the fact that she does everything but dance naked in an effort to get his attention, he reads everything she does as a denunciation of him and lapses into self-pity again (e.g. when she arranges for all of her friends to hang out with him at a ball, he decides it is because she wants him to propose to one of her friends and herself dislikes him). He is a mopey whiner in a wheelchair. That is literally his entire personality. It's both problematic representation and unpleasant to read. I haven't the slightest idea why we're supposed to be rooting for Harriet to capture his hand in marriage.
You'll note that I haven't addressed historical accuracy here. That's because frankly there isn't much. This is of the pseudo-Heyer genre of regency romance, when everyone was careful to make sure their heroes were driving the right type of conveyance (is it a wagon or a barouche?) and drop a few words of (not actually accurate) regency slang, but also had people addressing each other by their first names on brief acquaintance, finding excuses to let unmarried couples hang out in rooms alone, etc. For whatever reason the historical accuracy police have not come for these books, although they'll come for anyone who dares to include a character of color or progressive politics, but that silence doesn't actually mean they're historically accurate. Just something for readers to note.
In conclusion: Mansfield's decent for what this is (as I said, pseudo-Heyer chaste regency romance) but this book is a catastrophic failure due to fricking Bernard and his constant whining.
lydiaewinters's review
4.0
Another surprisingly enjoyable freebie. At this rate I'm never going to get my Kindle cleared out.
Since no one but me cares about that, here's the useful part of my review: this is a clean romance.
Since no one but me cares about that, here's the useful part of my review: this is a clean romance.
keu482's review
2.0
Kind of creepy, and I think the author needed a sensitivity reader. Other then that it's not bad, characters are interesting and such.
georgiewhoissarahdrew's review
2.0
Why does one writer "work" and another not? Why should a competently written book, no better or worse than many another RegRom, just not set the world on fire for me?
To be fair, the first line does eveything to lure the reader in -
Ten years earlier, when he was seventeen, George Frobisher had caught a glimpse of Miss Olivia Henshaw naked. It was a moment he never forgot.
But then subsequent lines - fatally - allow the word "plodding" to take root in the mind: from there it's surprising difficult for a book to make a comeback.
He’d been granted leave from Cambridge to attend his sister’s wedding, which was to be held at Leyton Abbey, the groom’s country estate in Yorkshire. He did not usually enjoy attending weddings, nor did he like having to leave school so close to examination week, but Felicia, six years older than he, was his only sibling, and he was very fond of her. He therefore tried to make the best of it for her sake.
While dressing for the ceremony, he realized he was missing a stud for his shirtfront. Since the valet his host had provided for him was elderly and slow, he decided to go himself to find his father’s bedroom and borrow a stud. And so on.
Maybe on a different day, when I was willing to make allowances?
To be fair, the first line does eveything to lure the reader in -
Ten years earlier, when he was seventeen, George Frobisher had caught a glimpse of Miss Olivia Henshaw naked. It was a moment he never forgot.
But then subsequent lines - fatally - allow the word "plodding" to take root in the mind: from there it's surprising difficult for a book to make a comeback.
He’d been granted leave from Cambridge to attend his sister’s wedding, which was to be held at Leyton Abbey, the groom’s country estate in Yorkshire. He did not usually enjoy attending weddings, nor did he like having to leave school so close to examination week, but Felicia, six years older than he, was his only sibling, and he was very fond of her. He therefore tried to make the best of it for her sake.
While dressing for the ceremony, he realized he was missing a stud for his shirtfront. Since the valet his host had provided for him was elderly and slow, he decided to go himself to find his father’s bedroom and borrow a stud. And so on.
Maybe on a different day, when I was willing to make allowances?
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