A Foreign Affair

Rating:
Summary: Too much history, not enough romance.
Review: It was a time of unrest. Sovereigns, diplomats, and ministers from all over Europe gathered in Vienna to reestablish order after years of war and upheaval. (In simple terms, everyone gathered to redraw the map after the depredations of Napoleon.)

Miss Helena Devereux was the stepdaughter of the Prince von Hohenbachern. She was in Vienna with her mother, the lovely Princess von Hohenbachern. The two women were different in their looks, as well as, their interests. While Helena was intelligent and kept very close tabs on politics, her mother was downright beautiful and wanted only to have fun again now that travel was no longer dangerous. The prince was not in Vienna. Instead, he remained with his armies on the Saxon border.

Major Lord Brett Stanford was in Vienna as Wellington's aide. He was a war hero many times over and was constantly on the look out for possible spies. Brett and Helena meet, learn they share views on politics, and become partners, of a sort.

** No real danger or intrigue begins until shortly after the first 110 pages. Until then everything is setting up all the players, making sure the reader understands the political happenings, having Brett and Helena meet, and then begin to trust each other. Since so much is required to set up the plot of the book and the players, I found the first half of the novel very complex and often tedious to read through. I had to make sure I understood everything and everyone, which required much back tracking to re-read several sections to be positive I did not misunderstand something. The author did a wonderful job of explaining it all so that people, such as myself, who know little or nothing about the setting's era can understand it all. Yet I could not relax and just enjoy the story until the last half. I had to study history until then.

If you are looking for romance, light reading, or a bit of humor, pass on this one. However, if you are a European history buff you will adore this novel. **

Rating:
Summary: bit of a slow read but nice
Review: The Congress of Vienna is in full swing as diplomats, politicians and heads of state flock to the city in order to reestablish order after years of upheaval and war. Of course social butterflies have also swooped down to enjoy the dizzy round of balls and entertainments that are bound to ensue once dusk has fallen. But the city is also humming with a different sort of energy, that of political intrigues and secret machinations...

Tired of the dreary isolation that the war had forced upon her, the beautiful Princess von Hohenbachen has decided to sample the giddy pleasures that Vienna has, currently, to offer. And she has insisted that her elder daughter by her first marriage, the quiet and serious Miss Helena Deveraux, accompany her. No mother and daughter pair could be more unlike -- for while the princess enjoys flirting and flitting from one social function to the other, her daughter, Helena, prefers political discussions, reading and riding. But all that changes when Major Brett Stanford catches both the eyes of both the princess and her daughter...

While Major Brett Stanford has been given a diplomatic assignment to assist Lord Castlereagh, his main brief (given to him by Wellington) is to keep an eye on the ladies -- like the Princess Bagration, the Duchess of Sagan and the Countess Edmond de Talleyrand-Perigord -- social hostesses of power and with an eye for political intrigue. A handsome and dashing lady's man like Brett Stanford would be the ideal candidate for what Wellington has in mind. And when Brett first meets the beautiful Princess von Hohenbachen and realises that the lady has a delicious flirtation in mind, he decides that he has been given the ideal opportunity to mix some pleasure with business. That is until he meets the princess's enigmatic daughter, who bewilders and intrigues the young soldier. Suddenly the urbane and sophisticated lady's man finds himself involved with two ladies from the same family! How to extricate himself from such an embarrassing situation? And how to indicate to one lady that he wishes to pursue a relationship with her without angering and alienating the feelings of the other?

For me, "A Foreign Affair" suffered from poor pacing. Evelyn Richardson did a fantastic job of developing the relationship and attraction that was growing between Brett and Helena, and she does a rather good job of showing why these two are a perfect match as well. Where things feel apart for me was when the authour suddenly remembered that there was supposed to be a spy-intrigue plot too, and when Brett began to wonder if Helena and her mother were actually very clever and devious spies. Up until that point, even though the plot was a very basic one that was moving at a somewhat sedate pace, the authour's natural storytelling skills and her brilliantly sketched in historical and descriptive tidbits, made this book rather good reading. I really didn't think that the story needed a boost from the spy/intirgue subplot and felt that it was a mild distraction for no good reason. Fortunately, it only went on for about a chapter or two, but it did spoil the smooth flow of the story for me.

On the whole, however, "A Foreign Affair" was a rather nice story about a serious minded wallflower and the dashing major who captures her heart.