The Ambitious Baronet

Rating:
Summary: a new and superior series
Review: "The Ambitious Baronet" is the first book in a projected series featuring the Barlow sisters and a magical locket. I liked this book, and based on what I've read so far, I'd say that this could be the best series that April Kihlstrom has written to date -- definitely superior to the series based on the Westcott sisters and that of the Langford brothers.

The Barlow sisters live in seclusion on their country estate trying valiantly to keep a roof over their heads and rescuing children from abusive situations, while their father leads the high life in London. The book opens with the village healer, Margaret, giving the eldest Barlow sister, Alexandra, a locket that Margaret says belonged to Alex's mother. The locket is supposed to have magical powers: you're supposed to wish for your heart's desire and then open the locket. And when Alex does this, she catches a glimpse of a man she has never seen before and whose eyes haunt her. Little does Alex expect that when she wishes for her heart's desire that her life as well as that of her sisters would go so terribly awry, for the sisters soon receive news that their father has gambled away their home and committed suicide, and that they are now penniless, homless and orphans. Nor does she expect that the man who effected all this upheaval would be the very one she saw in her locket. Can Alex open her heart to a man who seems, on the surface, to be a carbon copy of her father? And what of the children that she and her sisters have rescued and secreted on the estate? Will he demand that she return them to the hell she took them from?

Sir Robert Stamford never expected for things to pan the way that they did. He had sought out Lord Henley Barlow because he had a secret mission to carry out: to discover who was kidnapping children in Barlow's neck of the woods. Sir Robert rather hoped to loose enough money so that he could finagle an invitation to Barlow's estate. Instead he now owns it! Of course he now has the perfect right to nose about the neighbourhood in search of the kidnappers. What he didn't quite count on was to find himself falling in love with Alex, or that the hunt for kidnappers would lead to the Alex's front door! Now Robert has to think of a way to save his lady from criminal charges and to protect the rescued children as well. But can he get Alex to trust in him implicitly?

This is a novel about two scarred souls (Alex and Robert) and how they each learn to trust and open their respective hearts to each other. Both Alex's and Robert's characters are well developed and the blossoming of their relationship is deftly handled. This is not a romance novel with a mystery subplot. You know from the very beginning that Alex is behind the mysterious disappearances of the children. Rather, this is a novel that deals with the healing of two wounded spirits and the love and trust they find in each other. A good read and one that is worth the money spent (in my opinion anyway).

Rating:
Summary: a new and superior series
Review: "The Ambitious Baronet" is the first book in a projected series featuring the Barlow sisters and a magical locket. I liked this book, and based on what I've read so far, I'd say that this could be the best series that April Kihlstrom has written to date -- definitely superior to the series based on the Westcott sisters and that of the Langford brothers.

The Barlow sisters live in seclusion on their country estate trying valiantly to keep a roof over their heads and rescuing children from abusive situations, while their father leads the high life in London. The book opens with the village healer, Margaret, giving the eldest Barlow sister, Alexandra, a locket that Margaret says belonged to Alex's mother. The locket is supposed to have magical powers: you're supposed to wish for your heart's desire and then open the locket. And when Alex does this, she catches a glimpse of a man she has never seen before and whose eyes haunt her. Little does Alex expect that when she wishes for her heart's desire that her life as well as that of her sisters would go so terribly awry, for the sisters soon receive news that their father has gambled away their home and committed suicide, and that they are now penniless, homless and orphans. Nor does she expect that the man who effected all this upheaval would be the very one she saw in her locket. Can Alex open her heart to a man who seems, on the surface, to be a carbon copy of her father? And what of the children that she and her sisters have rescued and secreted on the estate? Will he demand that she return them to the hell she took them from?

Sir Robert Stamford never expected for things to pan the way that they did. He had sought out Lord Henley Barlow because he had a secret mission to carry out: to discover who was kidnapping children in Barlow's neck of the woods. Sir Robert rather hoped to loose enough money so that he could finagle an invitation to Barlow's estate. Instead he now owns it! Of course he now has the perfect right to nose about the neighbourhood in search of the kidnappers. What he didn't quite count on was to find himself falling in love with Alex, or that the hunt for kidnappers would lead to the Alex's front door! Now Robert has to think of a way to save his lady from criminal charges and to protect the rescued children as well. But can he get Alex to trust in him implicitly?

This is a novel about two scarred souls (Alex and Robert) and how they each learn to trust and open their respective hearts to each other. Both Alex's and Robert's characters are well developed and the blossoming of their relationship is deftly handled. This is not a romance novel with a mystery subplot. You know from the very beginning that Alex is behind the mysterious disappearances of the children. Rather, this is a novel that deals with the healing of two wounded spirits and the love and trust they find in each other. A good read and one that is worth the money spent (in my opinion anyway).

Rating:
Summary: I really enjoyed April Kihlstrom's writing style.
Review: How you feel about an issue being discussed in a book is always a main criteria in how much you will enjoy a book, any book, but all the more so in the Regency genre, where the plot and issues discussed are the main focus of the book.

April Kihlstrom writes in her afterward that the issue discussed in this book (child abuse) is one that is close to her heart, and I have to admit, that it is close to my heart, too. That, and another issue discussed - acceptance by society - is the reason why I gave this book five stars.

I also enjoyed the way the h/h communicate. Not for them the silences, and misunderstandings of the characters of the other romance books, they communicate in an emotionally honest, yet polite and positive way - exactly the way I would love to communicate if I could remember to do it right! If you are looking for a positive role-model in good communication skills, you can't do better than read really sweet book by April Kihlstrom.

Miss Alexandra Barlow, the eldest of the three Barlow sisters, has determined never to marry - she is twenty-five - on the shelf, after all, and then, there are the children. . . Margaret, the mysterious woman who lives alone in a cottage in the woods, keeps handing her children that she has rescued from abusive circumstances, and never one to walk away from such pain, Alex takes them in - first there is one, then two, then three, then - how many? The author doesn't say, but there are quite a lot. Until circumstances - her father's financial ruin and suicide - force her to reconsider. Henley house is no longer there's, and where will they live now? And what will they do? For herself, and her sisters, there could be a solution, but then what will be with the children!

Sir Robert Stamford is on a mission to discover what is happening in the countryside - children are disappearing and it is up to him to find out what is happening, why it is happening, and especially, to find those missing children, and return them to their proper homes (parents, or masters). During his investigations, he turned up Lord Henley as a possible link in the mystery - and when he wins the estate from Lord Henley, and Lord Henley promptly blows his brains out, Sir Robert is now the reluctant owner of a new estate, along with Lord Henley's daughter (or is it daughters?). And he is no closer to finding out what happened to the children . . .

I liked the way Ms. Kihlstrom writes. I like the way she handled the issues raised in this book. I liked the way she dealt with the problem of children being abused - although I think that her quick and easy solution was to some degree a bit too quick and easy. Even today, there is no quick and easy solution to the problem of child abuse. Taking away the child, while it seems to solve the problem most completely, comes with a host of new problems. Children who were abused are not so easily handled, they have "issues", they can be hard to deal with - unlike the children in this story who seemed to be almost unnaturally well-behaved. (I have children, and it happens that they are relatively well-behaved, but these *perfect* children exist only in dream-world). Real abused children can act out in many ways, which is why an older child is so hard to place. And they can be homesick, believe it or not. They were rejected by their real parents, but they may want their real parents back, even with everything. They can act out against their caregivers. It seems that Ms. Kihlstrom glossed over these issues, but okay, this IS a story, after all, and I will allow the author some poetic license. (And what about the easy solution about the problem of the *authorities*? Today, what Alexandra did would mean a jail-sentence - were times really so different in those days?) And what about the cost of feeding all those extra mouths? And clothing? Even today, feeding children is expensive, it must have been much more so back then.

I really liked the way the other issue in this story - acceptance in society - was handled. In this story, our hero was raised in an orphanage, and to him, his dream always was to be able to go out in society, to be accepted by everyone who had shunned him because of his background. Marrying our heroine will get him accepted in society - he thinks. Then he realizes that one of her conditions would be go give up the very acceptance of the society he so longs for. Which is stronger - society, or love? Although this may seem to be a dated issue; and our world today - where everything goes - is a very far cry from the proper London society portrayed in these Regency tales; yet, I found myself identifying with the problem Sir Robert grappled with.

As a formerly-working, and now stay-at-home mother, I have had to take a hard look at myself, and my value system, when I first had my children. I, too, had to make that choice. The choice between being accepted by society, and feeling good about my great job, or doing what is really best for my loved ones - and turning into a nobody in the process. (People automatically assume, that because I am "just a mother", that I have no skills, no brains, nothing at all. What do you do? Nothing. Nothing? Who are you?) Even though I work much harder now than I ever did in the office. In this story, Sir Robert faces exactly that dilemma - a choice between being accepted by society, or doing what would be best for "the children" - and the answer, which may seem like a no-brainer, is actually a much harder one than it seems on the surface. Indeed, most people, then as now, do make the choice of being accepted by society as opposed to doing what is best for themselves, or their loved ones.

I found this book to be a very enjoyable read. Thank you, Ms. Kihstrom!


Rating:
Summary: not the greatest
Review: This book had the potential to be a really great book, but it wasn't. The plot was well thought out about 3 sisters that were left pennieless by their drunk father who gambled away their home to the hero Sir Robert, and then the father shoots himself so that way he does not have to face his daughters. The daughters know that their father is a waste. But the eldest Alexandria along with her aunt, are saving children that are being beaten and abused by either their families or employers. Our hero, who just so happens to be Sir Robert who now owns Alex's home, is also an imformant that has been sent from London to discover who has been stealing children from family's and employers. There were a few problems I had with the book. First of all, in the middle of the book Mrs. Kihlstrom brings up that Sir Roberthas been betrothed before to a lady named Pamela. She is brought up in one sentence and never mentioned again. Which left this reader wondering what happened to this mysterious Pamela?? Did she break his heart? The other thing that bothered me was that throughout the book Sir Robert uses Alex's christian name and she not once, even after they're married, uses his. Overall I give this story 3 stars. Like I stated before, the plot was well thought out but the overall book wasn't really that good.