A gentleman always remembers
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15
Ratings1
Average rating2
"Married young to a charming but improvident army officer, Eve Hawthorne was widowed with little left except for a few extravagant trifles. Desperate to avoid her domineering stepmother, she accepts employment as chaperone to the Earl of Stewkesbury's American cousins. Who better than a levelheaded widow to remind these young girls that they no longer live on a frontier? But when she flirts with a handsome stranger who turns out to be the earl's brother Fitz, Eve worries she's given the wrong impression. Trying to prove herself responsible-with Fitz challenging her at every turn-is hard enough, but a blackmailer with an interest in Eve's prior marriage proves far more troubling. With the earl away, Eve can turn only to Fitz for help. But dare she confide in him, when getting too close to this confirmed bachelor might risk her heart to his alluring ways?"--Taken from cover p.4.
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Okay, my spate of 2-star romance novel reviews tells me I actually need to step away from the genre! Or buy some as opposed to relying on the lending libraries, hah. I inexplicably read this despite already having started “A Memory Called Empire,” which is fantastic at just 65 pages in, so I need to do some good hard reflection on my life and my choices regarding fiction. In all seriousness, I do think my leaning toward romance, even when mediocre, reflects the amount of trauma-focused therapy I'm doing at work right now, but I can still be more intentional about my escapism!
Anyway, this was fine. Fine, fine, fine. There were a few funny choices, like how the protagonist is a widow, and therefore has more freedom than a never-married woman would, but also conveniently had a first husband with erectile dysfunction, so still has “virginal” vibes.... But there's some interesting inner monologuing about the choices available to her, and some nice connections between her and the young American women (i.e., heathens) for whom she is chaperoning. The hero is charming but vapid, and his growth arc from superficial party boy to serious adult is just that he doesn't let his brother's estate go to rack and ruin in his absence. I wasn't captivated, but I didn't dislike it, either. And now I'm going back to what Ann Leckie calls “an absolutely brilliant space opera,” which I suspect is 100% true.
