Rightfully His

Rating:
Summary: Engaging dramatic plot, but doesn't fit with the period
Review: Charlotte Ribard, whose world has just fallen apart, takes out her feelings of betrayal on Francis Storbridge, her father's former secretary and her one-time friend. He had come to help her when she was lost and alone and devastated; she assumed that he was tarred with the same brush as her villainous, murdering father.

Five years later, Francis is an MP and in a position of some influence, and Charlotte desperately needs his help. Since he had been in love with her for years anyway, his pride led him to state - as a challenge - that the price of his assistance was marriage to her. He never expected that she'd agree, but she did, so they marry, a marriage of convenience in which Charlotte doesn't trust Francis one bit and his pride won't allow him to tell her the truth about himself.

Into this relationship add the return of Charlotte's father, who now wants to plot to ruin Storbridge for his failure to support his plan for a new railway. This leads us into the political sub-plot of the book. Unlike the last reviewer, I enjoyed this very much and it was, in fact, the best-researched and most entertaining part of the book. One minor criticism at this point is that there were rather too many characters to keep track of; admittedly, some of them were from previous books in the series, but I had not read those previous books (both now out of print), and had to keep reminding myself of who these people were and what their relationship was to the protagonists.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. While I enjoyed the political sub-plot, I found it very difficult to concentrate on the romance and the personal interaction between the characters, because quite simply very few of these characters belonged anywhere but in the present day. The dialogue was far too modern for the period. Now, while I don't expect writers to stuff their dialogue with obselete words, neither do I expect to see contractions all over the place and modern expressions used. At one point, Charlotte even says 'bloody hell'; now, while it's just possible that a gentleman of that period would use such an expression, a lady would never have done so.

Period behaviour is also very much lacking - I was incredulous to see Francis' young sisters-in-law (aged 17 and 11) talking openly about mistresses, and to him as well. If young unmarried girls even knew of the existence of such a thing as mistresses - and they usually didn't - they would never dream of mentioning this in front of adults. Serena, who is 11, was treated as if she was at least 17, both in her conversation and in the way she was allowed to stay up late, join the adults at dinner (even formal dinners, which would be unheard of) and at the theatre.

Grant's male characters also treated the women in a way which, although common nowadays, was completely unheard of two hundred years ago. No man ever discussed anything of any importance with his wife or daughters if he could avoid it; the idea that Francis, Paul, Silverton and Robert would involve their wives in their planning is ridiculous for the period.

And finally, a two-year-old being able to pronounce 'explosion' perfectly and know what the word means?! Please!

While there were parts of this book I enjoyed, I was jolted out of the story by historical impossibilities far too often for me to read anything else by Tracy Grant.

Rating:
Summary: Complex plot, sensitive love story, great family!
Review: Entrapped into a marriage of convenience with a ready-made family, the heroine fights emotional battles on several fronts as this edge-of-the-seat plot sweeps the reader along to a totally unexpected ending.

Rating:
Summary: 4 1/2-delightfully done
Review: In 1817 Scotland, Charlotte de Ribard is stunned by the nefarious activities of her father and the man she thought she loved that ultimately led to murders, bribery, and a riot by the citizens of Lancaster. Her father skips town for his rich holdings overseas, leaving his daughter to face the storm. Though he loves her, her friend Frank Storbridge offers to marry Charlotte as a means to protect her from the continuing maelstrom. Since he worked for her father, she has condemned him for his blind ambition not allowing him to see the truth.

Five years later, Charlotte needs Frank's help to stop her father's latest scheme. He shocks her by asking her to marry him. This time, Charlotte is more desperate and less bitter than before, so she agrees on the condition that it is a marriage in name only. She will be his hostess and help raise his children, but they will not share the conjugal bed. Frank has his own agenda. He plans to regain Charlotte's trust and hopefully he! r love while protecting her from her father.

RIGHTFULLY HIS is a delightful Regency romantic suspense due to the complex relationships between brilliantly developed characters. The poignant story line built on trust/mistrust between people will intrigue fans of the sub-genre as Tracy Grant demonstrates that she is ready to take the historical romance world to new horizons.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: A bit boring
Review: This book bored me. It had too much politics in it and not enough passion. There wasn't enough dialogue between the two main characters. The main characters seemed wooden and there were too many family members which got really confusing, too many names had me going back to see which child belonged to who.

Romance novels are supposed to centre around the main characters and to develope their relationship. This book centred around politics. A romance novel should make us want to be one of the characters. The reason I think we read these sorts of books is to escape reality for a few hours, to dream a little. This book depressed me. I would have hated to have been one of the characters. This book lacked humour, passion and emotion between the main characters and gave me a tension headache!

Give this one a miss.