Seeking Celeste

Rating:
Summary: Never really took off...
Review: Every so often, I try an author new to me, and try to judge her by her writing, characterization, and so forth. The story is that of a governess who is attracted to her employer, except that she is not really a governess and he is also attracted to her from the start.

So, this is a governess-employer romance, with a little bit of intrigue thrown in. Not spy intrigue, but romantic intrigue, with the Earl fending off a too-interested former lover, and with the governess Anne Derringer fending off a couple of oafish would-be suitors.

The children were not bad, and were reasonably realistically portrayed. That, and a minor character Ethan Clarke, were what kept me reading. However, this book had so many disappointments.

Firstly, the exact relationship of the Earl to his siblings was not explained. It appears from the fact that the younger brother had his own title (Viscount Tewkesbury) that the Earl's mother had remarried. This would be confirmed by the fact that the Earl's sister is not "Lady" but referred to as "Miss". [A Honourable Miss X is always called "Miss", the "Honourable" is only written in addressing a letter and so forth]. I wish the author had let on a bit about the hero's past and how he came to be in charge of his siblings. All we learn is that he was very young when he fell for an unsuitable woman who has since been pursuing him.

There are some mistakes with titles - the "other woman" is referred to as Lady Caroline Dashwood, and sometimes as Lady Dashwood (which she would be only if she were a peeress in her own right, or the widow of a peer or a baronet or knight). Since she is described as never-married, she is probably Lady Caroline Dashwood. This character is never really fleshed out, and appears pretty much two-dimensional - obsessed with becoming a countess (Countess Edgemere), and obsessed with getting some valuable diamonds. We learn that she was not a virgin when she seduced the young Edgemere, but nothing very much about her past. She is well-liked by the Almack patronesses and has a high social position. And she can be pretty mean. That is all we know.

The Earl's fear of getting entangled with his former paramour is understandable, but his methods seem decidedly ineffective (apart from the trick with the diamonds). In face of such a campaign, I would have thought he would have proposed a sham betrothal to the governess. The thing that stands in the way of his courting her, apart from the fact that she is employed by him, is that she is too low in the social scale - she *is* a governess. So naturally, the governess must regain her fortune.

Anne's own background was not fleshed out either. She has the usual gambler father and wastrel brother who sold off their estate and gambled away her dowry. She herself gambles, by putting all her small fortune into one ship. She is obssessed by astronomy. [Unfortunately, this last part, so skillfully done in Sheila Simonson's LADY ELIZABETH'S COMET, is largely ignored in this book except as a talking poin from time to time].

I was undecided whether to give this book one star or two stars. The higher rating is because there is a romance (and we can see the attraction between the couple), there is a half-way credible plot, and some engaging secondary characters. The book failed to take off and sparkle for me, but it might work well for a different reader.

Rating = 1.8
Not recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Never really took off...
Review: Every so often, I try an author new to me, and try to judge her by her writing, characterization, and so forth. The story is that of a governess who is attracted to her employer, except that she is not really a governess and he is also attracted to her from the start.

So, this is a governess-employer romance, with a little bit of intrigue thrown in. Not spy intrigue, but romantic intrigue, with the Earl fending off a too-interested former lover, and with the governess Anne Derringer fending off a couple of oafish would-be suitors.

The children were not bad, and were reasonably realistically portrayed. That, and a minor character Ethan Clarke, were what kept me reading. However, this book had so many disappointments.

Firstly, the exact relationship of the Earl to his siblings was not explained. It appears from the fact that the younger brother had his own title (Viscount Tewkesbury) that the Earl's mother had remarried. This would be confirmed by the fact that the Earl's sister is not "Lady" but referred to as "Miss". [A Honourable Miss X is always called "Miss", the "Honourable" is only written in addressing a letter and so forth]. I wish the author had let on a bit about the hero's past and how he came to be in charge of his siblings. All we learn is that he was very young when he fell for an unsuitable woman who has since been pursuing him.

There are some mistakes with titles - the "other woman" is referred to as Lady Caroline Dashwood, and sometimes as Lady Dashwood (which she would be only if she were a peeress in her own right, or the widow of a peer or a baronet or knight). Since she is described as never-married, she is probably Lady Caroline Dashwood. This character is never really fleshed out, and appears pretty much two-dimensional - obsessed with becoming a countess (Countess Edgemere), and obsessed with getting some valuable diamonds. We learn that she was not a virgin when she seduced the young Edgemere, but nothing very much about her past. She is well-liked by the Almack patronesses and has a high social position. And she can be pretty mean. That is all we know.

The Earl's fear of getting entangled with his former paramour is understandable, but his methods seem decidedly ineffective (apart from the trick with the diamonds). In face of such a campaign, I would have thought he would have proposed a sham betrothal to the governess. The thing that stands in the way of his courting her, apart from the fact that she is employed by him, is that she is too low in the social scale - she *is* a governess. So naturally, the governess must regain her fortune.

Anne's own background was not fleshed out either. She has the usual gambler father and wastrel brother who sold off their estate and gambled away her dowry. She herself gambles, by putting all her small fortune into one ship. She is obssessed by astronomy. [Unfortunately, this last part, so skillfully done in Sheila Simonson's LADY ELIZABETH'S COMET, is largely ignored in this book except as a talking poin from time to time].

I was undecided whether to give this book one star or two stars. The higher rating is because there is a romance (and we can see the attraction between the couple), there is a half-way credible plot, and some engaging secondary characters. The book failed to take off and sparkle for me, but it might work well for a different reader.

Rating = 1.8
Not recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Had promise but...
Review: It was a nice change of pace in the beginning of the book that the two main romantic characters, Anne Derringer and Lord Edgemere, were attracted to each other and the attraction was even acknowledged. But the novel fell apart for me, and bored me to tears, after page 107 with the ridiculous situation with Lady Caroline, who claimed that Lord Edgemere must marry her as he supposedly asked her to marry him when he was in his cups. Do regency authors consider regency readers unsophisticated? That we must have to read about broken hearted folks to enjoy a romance? To spend the next 150 pages reading how miserable Anne and Lord Edgemere are over his engagement to Lady Caroline is plain stupid. And one must wait practically to the last page to have the situation resolved. Don't waste your time.

Rating:
Summary: Had promise but...
Review: It was a nice change of pace in the beginning of the book that the two main romantic characters, Anne Derringer and Lord Edgemere, were attracted to each other and the attraction was even acknowledged. But the novel fell apart for me, and bored me to tears, after page 107 with the ridiculous situation with Lady Caroline, who claimed that Lord Edgemere must marry her as he supposedly asked her to marry him when he was in his cups. Do regency authors consider regency readers unsophisticated? That we must have to read about broken hearted folks to enjoy a romance? To spend the next 150 pages reading how miserable Anne and Lord Edgemere are over his engagement to Lady Caroline is plain stupid. And one must wait practically to the last page to have the situation resolved. Don't waste your time.