Janice - reviewed on 3/1/2011 + 628 more book reviews

Not my cup of tea, really. I have been reading the rather secularized sort of traditional regency for years, and this one would be very like that style, if not for constant references to God's will. I have always thought that trads had too little inclusion of the role of religion in English daily life of the 19th century; people did believe, and even if they didn't, they did attend services regularly, have prayers at home and so forth, and this is rarely referred to, though Jane Austen included churchmen both as hero (Edward Ferrars) and comic dolt (Mr. Collins, Mr. Elton). This book went too far in the other direction, I think - these characters speak in those terms continually, to a point that seemed unrealistic and anti-period to me.

I wound up not liking it as a romance or as a novel of the period; I just felt it held too many false notes. It certainly isn't harmful, however, and you could give it to your kid without a qualm, though I think you'd be better off handing said kid a Georgette Heyer regency; I think Heyer had a more balanced view and her writing is certainly more polished (although the latter may not be fair as this seems to be a first novel).

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