Rating: 
Summary: Read it!
Review: Sandy Hingston just gets better and better! I've read all three of her books, and this is the best yet. It's the story of a tomboy, Nichola Hainesworth, who is sent to what she presumes will be a very proper finishing school but turns out to be--well, a school for scandal! Nichola is very smart and funny, and Brian is definitely sexy! The idea of setting the book in a school for girls is wonderful. I loved all of Nichola's roommates and their back-and-forth. And Mrs. Treadwell, the headmistress, and Madame are great characters, too. The fencing scenes are beautifully written, and the story is so fresh and believable--I really felt I knew these people! The scene where Nichola is fencing with Lord Wallingford made me laugh out oud--I knew EXACTLY how she felt! (Can't say more, or I'll give it away.) From my experience, you can't go wrong reading Hingston. I can't wait for the next "School for Scandal" book to come out!
Rating:
Summary: THIS BOOK IS SO MUCH FUN
Review: Sandy Hingston just gets better and better! I've read all three of her books, and this is the best yet. It's the story of a tomboy, Nichola Hainesworth, who is sent to what she presumes will be a very proper finishing school but turns out to be--well, a school for scandal! Nichola is very smart and funny, and Brian is definitely sexy! The idea of setting the book in a school for girls is wonderful. I loved all of Nichola's roommates and their back-and-forth. And Mrs. Treadwell, the headmistress, and Madame are great characters, too. The fencing scenes are beautifully written, and the story is so fresh and believable--I really felt I knew these people! The scene where Nichola is fencing with Lord Wallingford made me laugh out oud--I knew EXACTLY how she felt! (Can't say more, or I'll give it away.) From my experience, you can't go wrong reading Hingston. I can't wait for the next "School for Scandal" book to come out!
Rating: 
Summary: be careful when describing your hero!
Review: This book is so wonderful. The words seem to reach out of the page and embrace you, and the author makes you care about the characters, and yet it still maintained a light and humorous tone. The story, incidentally, is about a young woman named Nicole, whose critical mother drops her off at a debutant farm to learn how to be a "lady." Unfortunately, Nicole is hopeless. However, she does find joy in her daily fencing lessons. Eventually, the school hires a rather infamous war hero ("Bullocksing Brown," I believe it was)to teach her the finer points of sword play, and things generally progress from those phallic symbols and onward, until Nicole's younger brother gets wind of the affair, and then the fur begins to fly! The end was a little murky, not to mention blaringly unrealistic (I thought the main characters' reunion would have been more poignant had it come about without all the kidnapping, etc.), but I still list this book as one of my favorites. A definite keeper!
Rating:
Summary: Without a Doubt One of the Best Romances I've Ever Read
Review: This book is so wonderful. The words seem to reach out of the page and embrace you, and the author makes you care about the characters, and yet it still maintained a light and humorous tone. The story, incidentally, is about a young woman named Nicole, whose critical mother drops her off at a debutant farm to learn how to be a "lady." Unfortunately, Nicole is hopeless. However, she does find joy in her daily fencing lessons. Eventually, the school hires a rather infamous war hero ("Bullocksing Brown," I believe it was)to teach her the finer points of sword play, and things generally progress from those phallic symbols and onward, until Nicole's younger brother gets wind of the affair, and then the fur begins to fly! The end was a little murky, not to mention blaringly unrealistic (I thought the main characters' reunion would have been more poignant had it come about without all the kidnapping, etc.), but I still list this book as one of my favorites. A definite keeper!
Rating:
Summary: Read it!
Review: This is one good book. It's funny but has some serious things to say about relationships between men and women, now as well as in days of old. Nichola is her own person and so is Brian and it's neat they way they find each other via the countess. The idea that there was a place back then that would teach girls to believe in themselves is wonderful. I wish I'd had teachers like those. I got a little confused by some of the history, but it doesn't matter. This is a novel. I can't wait to read Her next School for Scandal book.
Rating: 
Summary: At last, a heroine in honor of ME at 17!
Review: Were you an ugly duckling? Did your mother carp at you to improve your posture and lose 10 pounds? Did you know in your heart that you'd never find true love? And did you have BIG FEET? Well, that was me at 17, and in this book, I've at last taken my revenge! My darling heroine, Nichola Hainesworth, is a veritable bundle of insecurities. True, she's a whiz at hunting, shooting, swimming, and wrestling with her five brothers--but where's that going to get you with the Regency ton? If you were like me, you had a special teacher or two who made you see past your pimples and oily hair to the spirit inside you. And luckily, Nichola has two wonderful women who come to her aid--Mrs. Treadwell and the mysterious Madame, proprietors of Mrs. Treadwell's Academy for the Elevation of Young Ladies, to which Nichola's mother consigns her in despair. Little does Baroness Hainesworth know that Mrs. Treadwell and Madame founded their school in an effort to free the young ladies of England from that nation's stifling social conventions! Once Nichola is introduced to the sport of fencing and meets her instructor, the impossibly rakish Scottish lord, Brian Boru, her life veers in directions she could never imagine. When Boru and Nichola cross foils, they REALLY cross foils! There's so much of me--and, I suspect, of every girl at that awkward age between childhood and womanhood--in this book. It was tremendous fun to help Nichola discover her strengths, overcome her stultifying social shyness, and finally BLOOM under Boru's tutelage. And I loved the opportunity to create Mrs. Treadwell's academy and explore all the joy--and the cattiness--of girls together at school. I'm looking forward to telling the stories of many, many more of Mrs. Treadwell's and Madame's students. I hope you'll read this book, and let me know if you enjoyed it--or even if you didn't. After all, I'm still learning. But at least I don't have to worry about putting on that stupid bloomers outfit for gym anymore!
|
