Wow! I am convinced that Barbara Metzger has truly channeled the late Georgette Heyer in this oldie, but GREAT regency from the nineties. The Hero, Courtney, was just somebody I would love to know. He was honorable, brave, a little crabby, and he just loved his old nanny. He seemed so out of place in the regency world where most men his age just went about haphazardly through life until they were forced into marriage. The writing was so good that we could see by his deeds all his qualities instead of being told how great he was. Ms. Metzger writing also let us experience how jaded and unbelieving the rest of the ton were when presented with his actions, so they instead resorted to believing the very worst (at that time, thankfully not now) of him. I also admired how he stood by his principles and refused to change. Sometimes stubbornness is a good thing - at least that is what I tell my husband!
Kathlyn as a heroine was almost as good a character. She was definitely spunky and never seemingly at a loss no matter what situation she was in. I truly admired her grit and I really got the sense that she was just as nice and honorable as Courtney (I really liked his name too). Kathlyn was a realist who had ideals that she tried to live by, but she made peace with sometimes making decisions that weren't her first choice. Sometimes life throws lemons at us :)
The plot did take a few funny turns, funny as in What??? as well as funny as in hahahaha. For example: I really didn't like how Kathlyn truly believed that she could open a school after pretending to be Court's mistress, but it was appalling that our nice, considerate hero was okay with letting her continue under that delusion. And why would the Nanny go along with such a scheme too? Court's friends were also a little much, but the scene where they kidnap Kathlyn was truly a hahahaha moment.
The moments of looking into the life of Court's first fiancee (who is pretty much the cause of all his
problems) were genius and I found myself looking forward to them. Another scene that is great is the meeting of his mother and her aunt. I am lucky that I get along with my in-laws and so does my mother, but when the families don't mesh well there are situations ripe for amusement. I need to
think about some examples that I have read and will add them. If anyone else can think of some, please feel free to drop me a comment.
I would give this a firm 4 1/2 stars and I look forward to reading it again and again.
No comments:
Post a Comment