Marriage at the Manor (Thorndike Large Print General Series)

Rating:
Summary: Trite and deadly dull
Review: Grange ventures away from the Regency period here into slightly more modern times and the Edwardian era.
She sets up a familiar scenario, the last of a well established old, aristorcratic family is forced by debt to sell her home to a newly monied self-made man. In this instance it is it Miss Cicely Haringay who it the former and Mr Alex Evington the latter. Swirling in the background is a mystery associated with businessman Alex regarding the real reason he has purchased Cicely's home - Oakleigh Manor.
These two of course start out with the usual set of angry prejudices about the respective classes to which each belongs. She hates him for buying her precious home, his ignorance of its traditions and feels a repugnance for a social climber. He dislikes her for being brought up in luxury and ease and shakes his head at traditions he has no real wish to understand.
A much used plot that often works well. Here is does not - alas it is not even close to working. The two leads have some charm and are each likable. However the plot runs off the road in much the same way Cicely's bicycle does in the excruciating scene where the pair first meet. She is made to work for him, he is made to consult her about the manor.
It ought to work - but does not. It is deadly dull and poor Cicely and Alex ought to run off together to a more interesting book.

Rating:
Summary: Makes a change
Review: Marriage at the Manor has all the hallmarks of a great romance. There's love, humor and a good cast of characters, led by a very likeable hero and heroine in Cicely and Alex. I laughed out loud when Alex knocked Cicely off her bicycle in the opening scenes, something I don't often do, and from there on it was an enjoyable ride throughout the book.
The story starts with Cicely meeting Alex when she is forced to sell her beloved home. He's a money-grubbing cit, or so she thinks, but there is more to Alex than that, it just takes Cicely some time to find it out.
Like all Amanda Grange novels, there's an absorbing plot as well as a romance. Here it takes the form of a robbery. Someone is stealing jewellery from wealthy house party guests, and Alex's sister - working as a maid as the family was poor at the time - was unlucky enough to be framed for a previous robbery. Now that Alex has made a fortune he intends to hold his own house party - which is why he needed to buy a posh country home - so that he can track down the thief and restore his sister's reputation.
Sparks fly between Cicely and Alex as poverty forces Cicely to take a job as Alex's secretary, and the Edwardian setting adds novelty to their sparring. Cicely's father collected boneshakers, and the two of them try to ride them with hilarious results. Humor brings them together, and a love rival, in the form of Eugenie, drives them apart. The Edwardian setting then takes them to Marienbad, a spa in what would now be, I guess, Austria or Germany, as they follow the thief abroad. I really loved his part of the book. It made a really unusual setting, and I could almost smell the pine trees. In the end they catch the thief (with the help of one of my favourite minor characters, Cicely's cousin, Sophie)closing what is a very enjoyable book.
Amanda Grange usually writes Regencies - my favourite is The Silverton Scandal - but this is just as good.

Rating:
Summary: a great romance
Review: Marriage at the Manor has all the hallmarks of a great romance. There's love, humour and a good cast of characters, led by a very likeable hero and heroine in Cicely and Alex. I laughed out loud when Alex knocked Cicely off her bicycle in the opening scenes, something I don't often do, and from there on it was an enjoyable ride throughout the book.
The story starts with Cicely meeting Alex when she is forced to sell her beloved home. He's a money-grubbing cit, or so she think, but there is more to Alex than that, it just takes Cicely some time to find it out.
Like all Amanda Grange novels, there's an absorbing plot as well as a romance. Here it takes the form of a robbery. Someone is stealing jewellery from wealthy house party guests, and Alex's sister - working as a maid as the family was poor at the time - was unlucky enough to be framed for a previous robbery. Now that Alex has made a fortune he intends to hold his own house party - which is why he needed to buy a posh country home - so that he can track down the thief and restore his sister's reputation.
Sparks fly between Cicely and Alex as poverty forces Cicely to take a job as Alex's secretary, and the Edwardian setting adds novelty to their sparring. Cicely's father collected boneshakers, and the two of them try to ride them with hilarious results. Humour brings them together, and a love rival, in the form of Eugenie, drives them apart. The Edwardian setting then takes them to Marienbad, a spa in what would now be, I guess, Austria or Germany, as they follow the thief abroad. I really loved his part of the book. It made a really unusual setting, and I could almost smell the pine trees. In the end they catch the thief (with the help of one of my favourite minor characters, Cicely's cousin, Sophie)closing what is a very enjoyable book.
Amanda Grange usually writes Regencies - my favourite is The Silverton Scandal - but this is just as good.