Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable, touching story of two misfits
Review: Again, Carla Kelly shows her distaste for the shallow world of balls and Regency characters obsessed only with clothes, money and titles; Sam and Lydia are two characters who find the world in which they live empty of any real feeling. Lydia hates accompanying her younger and more beautiful sister to social occasions, and Sam, despite being an Earl, insists on staying in a makeshift army hospital with the badly injured and dying men he commands. He meets Lydia when she and her sister join those Society men and women who visit the hospital; much to Lydia's disgust, her companions only want to stare. She, on the other hand, helps. And ultimately her insistence on helping out causes a major rift with her family...I liked this less than other Kelly books, such as Mrs Drew Plays Her Hand and Reforming Lord Ragsdale; there is something in those two books which is simply haunting and unforgettable. In this book, I found Lydia's family members to be little more than one-dimensional caricatures, something which is certainly not the case in her other books. I also couldn't understand why, after the mail coach was robbed, Sam didn't send for his friend, who *he* knew lived nearby. Instead, as he grew more ill, Lydia was forced to take desperate measures... all because, for some unknown reason, he didn't want his friend to know he was in the area. Silly, that. So, overall, a rating of good, but...
Rating: 
Summary: Another Kelly keeper. . .
Review: Again, Kelley manages a uniquely earthy pair of characters for a Regency novel which are usually populated by ingenues and Corinthians. The wounded soldier and the pragmatic young miss are easy to love. . .despite the mess Sam has gotten them into.
Rating:
Summary: Better and Better
Review: Calling Carla Kelly a Regency romance writer is a bit of a misnomer, because most of her books focus in equal parts on finding love and finding yourself. This is especially true in the unfortunately titled, With This Ring. At the start of the novel Lydia is a person who spends her life bowing to the wishes of others. She has been cowed by both her mother and an idiotic society. Her life is then slowly changed by a series of hard experiences and added responsibilities. A reviewer below questioned why the hero of the book, Sam Reed, would not help Lydia when he easily could have done so. Well, that's because Carla Kelly has created a hero who is unique in the regency genre. He says nothing because he wants Lydia to know she can succeed on her own, without any help from anyone. Which she does, of course, while the hero is virtually absent from the novel for over forty pages. Is there any other romance novelist who would attempt that?
Rating:
Summary: Better and Better
Review: Calling Carla Kelly a Regency romance writer is a bit of a misnomer, because most of her books focus in equal parts on finding love and finding yourself. This is especially true in the unfortunately titled, With This Ring. At the start of the novel Lydia is a person who spends her life bowing to the wishes of others. She has been cowed by both her mother and an idiotic society. Her life is then slowly changed by a series of hard experiences and added responsibilities. A reviewer below questioned why the hero of the book, Sam Reed, would not help Lydia when he easily could have done so. Well, that's because Carla Kelly has created a hero who is unique in the regency genre. He says nothing because he wants Lydia to know she can succeed on her own, without any help from anyone. Which she does, of course, while the hero is virtually absent from the novel for over forty pages. Is there any other romance novelist who would attempt that?
Rating:
Summary: Carla Kelly delivers another original and pleasing Regency.
Review: Carla Kelly, one of the best and most original Regency authors today, delivers another original, well-written, and charming romance that will please any fan of this genre.
Heroine Lydia Perkins is in London with her parents and younger sister, trying to crash the aristocratic social circle's Season. Unappreciated and mistreated by her mother because she doesn't share her sister's extraordinary beauty, Lydia doubts herself and her own inner beauty but ultimately follows her own heart. This leads to a clash between her and her family.
Hero Major Samuel Reed, a war-weary veteran of the Napoleonic wars, refuses to leave his wounded men in the inadequate hospital where a nation celebrating the exile of Napoleon has left them all but forgotten. He also is avoiding returning home to his estate, where his mother expects him with a wife and child in tow. The problem is, he has neither!
Lydia's and Major Reed's accidental acquantance blossoms into friendship and they eventually discover their true selves while discovering their love for each other.
Rating:
Summary: With This Ring
Review: I am a HUGE Carla Kelly fan and I didn't think she could top MISS WHITTIER MAKES A LIST but was I wrong! WITH THIS RING is undoubtedly one of her best stories ever. The hero, Major Sam Reed, is one of the most compassionate, selfless characters I've ever come across, even if he does embellish his military paperwork in order to get his men what they need. The heroine, Lydia Perkins, is quite unappreciated at home, and is only brought to London to act as a maid to her younger, much spoiled sister Kitty. Lydia finds true usefulness in nursing Major Reed and his wounded and dying men as they lay forgotten in a crumbling church while all of London is celebrating the victory at Waterloo. Sam convinces Lydia to marry him after she is thrown out by her family. Sam is in most urgent need of a wife, since he told his mother and aunt that he was married in order to secure the money he needs to run the estate he inherited. I don't want to give any more of the story away, but the two have quite a few unexpected, entertaining and sometimes poignantly moving adventures between leaving London and arriving at Sam's home in Northumberland. Simply put, this is a MUST read and a definate KEEPER!
Rating:
Summary: A Very Pleasing Book
Review: I can't really tell you why this book worked so well for me, but it did. The minor characters are drawn with such a wide brush, they are almost caricatures, but somehow, that even worked and the end result was charming. It's a lovely story and deals with death in a spiritual way (almost unheard of in romance). From the blurb in the back cover, I noted Ms. Kelly is involved in the Hospice program, which is probably why this portion of the book is both lovely and has substance. I was also impressed that Ms. Kelly understands the titles and rituals of the Church of England, and treats them and prayer with something more than a plot device. This is rare in romance. This was my first book by this author, but it won't be my last. I was totally impressed.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent story--the romance is just a sideline.
Review: I only recently discovered Carla Kelly's books, and this one is my favorite so far. Sam and Lydia both are people I would enjoy knowing if they were real, and that to me is about the highest compliment I can pay an author! The best part of the story is Lydia's journey to self-acceptance and self-respect through the nursing she does for the soldiers and Sam after they are married, not to mention her own business venture! She realizes she is capable of more than she ever knew, and that Sam saw that all along somehow. A great read.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book, but with reservations...
Review: This is even a very good book -- it started out really, really well, with the plight of the neglected soldiers of Waterloo & the heroine's efforts to help them; then somehow as it moved along there was something lacking about the characters & the story toward the end. Maybe it was the silliness of their having to pretend to have met in Spain & to be a family for the benefit of the Hero's family. I agree with the reviewer who said the heroine's family were like caricatures. I found myself skimming toward the end without really caring.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but with reservations...
Review: This is even a very good book -- it started out really, really well, with the plight of the neglected soldiers of Waterloo & the heroine's efforts to help them; then somehow as it moved along there was something lacking about the characters & the story toward the end. Maybe it was the silliness of their having to pretend to have met in Spain & to be a family for the benefit of the Hero's family. I agree with the reviewer who said the heroine's family were like caricatures. I found myself skimming toward the end without really caring.
|
