Miss Truelove Beckons (Zebra Regency Romance)

Rating:
Summary: A very good consideration of difficult issues
Review: Here is a well told story of PTSD in a regency setting and it is very well done indeed. Here is a story of a man's mental anguish, self doubt and difficult path to recovery. How often we read of dashing heros at Waterloo: how infrequently we see them as real people, full of the inevitable self loathing a sensitive man might bring home as a souvenir.

Our heroine is sweet but not cloying, a clergyman's daughter with high ideals but a strong streak of self-knowledge - a woman well up to helping a man in torment to find some inner peace and utterly deserving of the deep and abiding love he develops for her.

This is also a novel about mother love. Sadly, the previous reviewer here misses the point - yes Lady Leathorpe is a good "mom" (!!!) but she is firmly fixed in her own regency timeframe and she makes decisions wholly credibly in this historical context and social strictures of the times.

Donna Simpson is an interesting writer; she deals with issues that are slightly different in her books and often not quite what one would expect. I adore the regency genre but sometimes, too often in fact, it is hard to find a novel with a slightly different perspective. This one is different but well pleasing. A satisfying and worthwhile read on a cold winter's day.

Rating:
Summary: boy this story dragged
Review: I really thought this story was so-so. The characters are all so ordinary. Anyone who reads regencies knows these characters well: the handsome hero, who is wounded on the inside and outside; the selfish beauty; the silly, pompous friend; the scheming prospective mother-in-law; the incredibly, naive, sweet heroine and the mother who only wants what is best for her child, who goes about it in the wrong way. Yep - that sums up our story here. Nothing new in this story. No clever writing or characters. Just so bland. Obviously, the author takes pains to make Arabella, Drake's (our hero) perspective wife, both mean and, underneath her selfishness, actually nice, as I am sure she too will have her own story. Almost every page has a moment where Truelove bites her tongue over something Bella says. Please...while she might be a Vicar's daughter does that mean she has to be a doormat? Also, Drake's Mom. She proclaims that she wants him to marry and be happy. She is concerned for his mental health. Yet, even after she witnesses the peace he has with Truelove, she tried to get him to ignore True and make a match of it with Bella. Why? Sure, True was not a Baron's daugher but she was respectable, noble blood in her veins. Any real Mom, seeing how happy he was with her, would have pushed True in his path, not out of it.

Rating:
Summary: Starts slow.
Review: When Viscount Drake meets Miss Truelove Becket, he mistakes her name for Truelove Beckons. For Drake, the lady's sweetness and purity of spirit do beckon. Wounded in soul from the war and his near death at Waterloo, Drake is plagued with nightmares. With Truelove he finds peace. As their friendship evolves into love, the couples' families resist. Drake's parents expect him to wed Arabella. Lady Swinley, who is Arabella's mother and Truelove's cousin, does not want Truelove to steal this prize. Truelove will seem either refreshing or unrealistically good, depending on the reader. Arabella is an interesting companion wavering between being the sweet child Truelove recalls and the simpering, scheming creature Lady Swinley has instructed her to be. The story gets off to a slow start, but the pace picks up midway through the novel.