Rating: 
Summary: All in all...a good read
Review: I like the plot centering around "the ugly duckling" who turns into a beautiful swan. Although, I wish the "ugly duckling", Isadora, had started out with slightly more backbone then she did but all is forgiven. She turned out to be just what our hero, Ryan, needed. Ryan is a very charming, very irresponsible but lovable man. Just the kind of man every women would love to take home and keep. With fun characters like these, Ryan's mother and the charming crew of the Swan, how can you go wrong. I was a little disppointed with this Susan Wiggs book only because I didn't laugh nearly as much as I usually do reading her books. I did, however, enjoy it and that's all that's important.
Rating: 
Summary: The Ugly Duckling finds romance
Review: Isadora's transformation from an ugly duckling to a confident, irresistable woman is a pleasure to read! I was with her all the way, especially when Ryan finds he loves her. A great, fun, sexy story!
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT!!
Review: Once again Susan Wiggs has created a wonderful book filled cover to cover with an excellent story, unforgetable characters and fasinating places!!!
Rating:
Summary: A book about the way things SHOULD be....
Review: This is my favorite kind of romance because it shows you don't have to be perfect to find a perfect love. The scene where Isadora says "I don't eaccept your apology" and Ryan says "That wasn't an apology, you goose!" made me laugh aloud and there are many others. And the storyline about the free man Journey touched my heart. I honestly didn't know how it would all turn out. Don't want to spoil anything by saying more--prepare to be totally surprised. They make some tough choices.
Rating:
Summary: Susan Strikes Gold, Again!
Review: The flawless Ms. Wiggs brings us yet another stellar good read. The trademark accuracy of her historical research, well-timed humor, realistic and appealing characterization, and plot all add up to a read that is delightful from start to finish. A novel worthy of hearty praise, The Charm School is one that you are sure to read in one sitting. No one writes like Susan Wiggs!
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Summary: A woman who only loved books, until....
Review: There is something of Isadora in all of us. How many times has life disappointed you, and you turned away to curl up with a book? That's what Isadora's been doing all her life until she realized she can't hide anymore. Life is meant to be LIVED, even if you're not blond and perfect likeyour brothers and sisters. That's what makes this such a grand romance. Isadora meets the one man who pushes her (with typical male rudeness) out of her comfort zone and forces her to be more than she is. As I read this book I never knew if I was going to laugh myself silly (like when she climbs the rigging and he looks up her skirts) or get my heart broken (like when she has to go back to her old life in Boston). the perfect springtime read but wait, t's good any time of year!
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Summary: Charming historical romance
Review: In 1851 Boston, Isadora Peabody feels like the ugly duckling amidst her beautiful and graceful family. When the opportunity arises for her to become a translator on the Silver Swan, a trading ship, she pulls strings with the owner, Mr. Easterbrooke. She obtains the job over the objection of the ships captain Ryan Calhoun. On the voyage to Brazil, Isadora steals the hearts of all the crew, even the captain, as her open-eyed innocence hooks everyone. Her voyage to self-awareness and confidence turns successful as her own personal crew of instructor-sailors making up THE CHARM SCHOOL teaches her that she is a beautiful swan. In Rio, Ryan and Isadora fall in love, but sadly they have no future together because Ryan has a personal commitment to complete that could cost him his life. Award winning Susan Wiggs is the author of over ten well-received historical romances that keep readers wanting more works from this awesome talent. Her latest novel THE CHARM SCHOOL is an excellent retelling of the classic Ugly Duckling. The exciting story line is entertaining as the decade prior to the Civil War is brought to life. The lead characters are a charming pair, but it is the support cast, especially the sailors, who will provide Ms. Wiggs with more awards and another best seller. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book......Highly Entertaining
Review: The old story of the ugly duckling comes back to life again in "The Charm School". This time with a twist. She grow up with a bunch of sailors teaching her to be a lady. By bullying her way into a position as a translator on a ship to Rio she comes to "draw-out" each member of the crew who teaches her a different aspect of how to be a "lady". The ending had me going for awhile so I won't give it away, but it was not what I expected. I found this book to be very entertaining and to heroine kind of like me today who is "book smart" and feels like she is lacking social graces. It is nice to know that things can and usually do work out.....that some men take the time to look beyond glasses and the wrong clothes. This book was very funny and an enjoyable read. Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: Such a sad story...
Review: I hate to be the only nay-sayer in the crowd, but I simply did not enjoy "The Charm School". It was very well written, and the plotting and idea were excellent, but I found the story to be such a sad one that I simply could not read past the first few chapters. (I skimmed the rest, so I know the story).
Isadora was not only an ugly duckling, she was so badly treated by everyone around her, and she was in such a tremendous amount of emotional pain, it took all my self control to keep from wringing their necks. Everyone was so nasty to her, there was not one person who was nice to her?
I have to admit that I did identify somewhat with Isadora, but I was simply horrified by the way she was treated. The intensity of the cruelty of the people around her seemed horrific beyond words - I have to thank G-d that I was not treated this way. I have to admit that like Isadora I wasn't Miss Social Debutante - but most people were not outright nasty to me, the way people are here in this story. I was simply horrified.
Especially since very early on in the story, I was able to figure out why Isadora acted the way she did. There is something called "sensory integration disfunction", if you will type this into any search engine you can get a lot of information about this condition. This is a minor nervous system disorder - similar to ADD, yet very easily diagnosable, and also easily treated (no drugs, just certain kinds of exercise). "Sensory integration" is how the nervous system, and the brain, process all the millions of sensory stimuli that are constantly around us and are able to synthesize it into a cohesive whole. Some people have excellent sensory integration, and these are the people who seem very much at ease with themselves and with their bodies, their sensory input is processed quickly and efficiently, and they will come across as "poised" and "with it" because their nervous system does a better job at processing and interperting everything around them. At the other end of the spectrum are people whose nervous systems do a poor job processing all kinds of stimulation properly - and these deficiencies can come across in many different ways. One of the faces of SID is the way Isadora is presented - awkward, clumsy, tongue tied, and ill at ease in the physical world around her.
The most serious end of the SID spectrum is autism. An autistic child or person usually has very bad sensory integration, and this is why they sometimes hear things either lower or higher than they actually are, they will feel things either not at all, or they are extremely sensitive. (Perhaps that's also why they do sometimes bizarre - to us - activities, such as rocking, because they are trying to stimulate a nervous system (vestibular stimulation) which is under-stimulated because they can't process normal stimulation properly). But most people with poor sensory integration are not autistic, and their deficiencies are usually not as dramatic or serious as the autistic person's deficiencies.
Normal people who have SID may have difficulty processing auditory stimuli - for instance they will hear a little too loud, or too low, or they will be unable to tune out background noises as well as the average person, which makes it harder for them to concentrate in class, let's say, if there's a humming from the electricity, for instance. Or they will be more sensitive to certain clothing - or less sensitive so that they don't feel pain the way they should, and will do dangerous things - like scald themselves - because they don't realize how hot the water is.
Some children with SI crave stimulation - because since they are not processing the ordinary stimulation around them in a meaningful way, they crave an "extra" dose just to feel normal. Other children with SI will be too sensitive - and will feel that even the slightest touch "hurts" them. One thing they all have in common is that they are "out of sync" with the world around them - which is why SID is sometimes called being "out of sync".
I could go on and on, there are many, many more ways for this to come across in real life, but the way this translated to this story is that Isadora is almost a classic poster child for SID. One of the most common symptoms is difficulty with gross motor planning - dyspraxia. She is awkward because she can't maneuver herself properly, because her brain is not processing the nervous system stimulation efficiently, and therefore she feels awkward both physically and socially. When she goes into a crowded ballroom, SID will especially get worse - because of the increased nervous system input. It is almost cruel to put someone with SID into a crowded ballroom filled with music, talk, people, and lights, and expect her to react normally.
Most people do outgrow it by the time they reach adulthood - or learn to live with it, or compensate - but it seems that Isadora was so badly treated that she did not get a chance to do that. Because of the way she was constantly put down it became impossible for her to develop on her own a way to deal with her deficiencies. She simply lacked the confidence and courage to deal with her problems, people who are constantly put down simply cannot grow up, and this is what has happened to Isadora.
I have worked with children, and have seen this scenario often. Just after I read this story I met Isadora personified in a little three year old. He looked so sad, so much pain in such a young face. This was because he was very clumsy, constantly tripping, breaking things, etc. and was always getting punished. I was so glad to be able to help him, but this is why I couldn't read this story. It was simply too painful to me. I couldn't help her in any way, I couldn't give her confidence over the pages, and reading about all that pain without being able to help was simply too much for me.
The author happens to treat Isadora in a way that is consistent with the way we treat SID today - different kinds of exercise - in therapy lingo called sensory, tactile, proprioceptive, and vestibular stimulation. Working on a ship would provide all the right kinds of stimulation - plus I guess the food rationing and exercise would help her figure, and the fact that she was away from her cruel family and friends did a lot too.
All in all, this was not a book that I was glad I read.
If you want a really realistic, but funny Ugly Duckling story, I would suggest you try "Bet Me" by Jennifer Crusie.
Rating: 
Summary: Realistic heroine
Review: Heroine: plump/voluptuous Frumpy, dumpy Isadora Peabody doesn't want much out of life, just to be left in peace and quiet with her many academic tomes. That, and to be the wife of Chad Easterbrook, the handsome son of another prominent Boston family. But Isadora knows this dream will never come true, for she lacks the beauty, grace, and poise her lovely sisters possess, and she will never garner Chad's attention by hiding herself away behind potted plants at every social occasion. Instead, she comforts herself by reading travel books about far away exotic lands, and political tracts speaking out against that hated transgression against mankind: slavery. After a putting in a particularly dreadful appearance at a party, Isadora is grateful to make the acquaintance of one Lily Raines Calhoun, a lady most anxious to find her son's ship down at the harbor. Some strange impulse prompts Isadora to lead the elegant woman to the Silver Swan's berthing, but her feeling of goodwill and accomplishment turns to shock when the pair of ladies crash an orgy of Bacchanalian proportions being held on deck. Fiery of both hair and temper, Ryan Calhoun is a man with a mission. A man who will stoop to any level to accomplish that mission, including lie, cheat, and steal if that's what it takes to see justice done for his former-slave-turned-business-partner. Ryan's taken on sailing for Abel Easterbrook under false pretenses, and finds himself on a vessel bound for Rio minus a crewman fluent in Portuguese. When his employer makes an unfortunate visit to the ship mid-celebration during their first night in port, Ryan is certain he will lose his job, with his mother and some strange dowd in her company at hand to witness his shame! But to his surprise, his employment is secure, and he finds himself taking the conniving frump on as a hand on his crew after she finagles the translating job from Easterbrook! The last thing Ryan wants is to be saddled with this blue-stocking female, but he needs a translator and she is more than qualified. The timid spinster and reckless captain can't help but be thrown together during the long months at sea. And while Ryan begins the voyage by going out of his way to make poor Isadora miserable, her keen wit and willingness to pitch in with the chores soon win the handsome captain over, and he discovers that they have much more in common than he could have ever dreamed. Life at sea was simple enough when Isadora was a disheveled dowd, but as she comes out of her shell Ryan sees her for the beauty that she truly is, and is soon faced with the dilemma of how to avoid the only attractive young woman on board a very small ship. A woman who is rapidly falling in love with him! What worked for me: It's always nice to see a well-educated woman in a story, and I had the utmost respect for Isadora's astounding level of education, especially when it came to math and foreign languages, two areas I never really excelled at myself. I thought it was endearing how our hero, gorgeous though he was, had no fashion sense and couldn't refrain from wearing clashing, loud-colored clothes, an offense made all the worse when paired with his long red locks. Size-wise Isadora was extremely tall, plump, and unstylish at the beginning of the novel. However, trading in a life of books for a life spent climbing a ship's rigging caused her to tone up and lose a little weight. I thought that it was rather realistic, though, that Isadora did not shed her milk-toast personality as soon as she dropped a few pounds. It took her a lot longer to learn to how to have confidence in herself when faced with members of Society. What didn't work for me: When they say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, they are referring to the title as well. A name like "The Charm School" had me thinking that this would be a novel set in Regency London, not on the high seas of the Atlantic during Victorian times. Isadora began the story as something of a ninny. Thank heavens her journey gave her some strength of character! As I've mentioned before, I'm a bit of a stickler when it comes the physical side of romance. The fact that the hero bedded women other than the heroine in this story bothered me somewhat. Some scenes in the book went beyond the bounds of plausibility, enough so that it pulled me out of the story. Overall: "The Charm School" is a solid read for fans of American Historicals or novels with a "caterpillar-to-butterfly" theme.
Warning: There is some coarse language, sexy scenes, and recreational drug use in this story. If you liked "The Charm School" you might also enjoy "The Accidental Bride", "The Last Days of a Rake", "Unmarriageable", "The Bride and the Beast", "The Fire-Flower", "Suddenly You", "Enchanting Pleasures", "A Country Christmas", "The Hero's Best Friend", or "No Ordinary Princess".
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