This book infuriated me. I think it was meant to be whimsical and amusing, but I just found it weird. I slogged through the first half purely to see how on earth the author was going to bring about a romantic ending for two characters who rarely met and seemed to hate each other with a passion. Somewhere around the midpoint it livened up a bit and became genuinely funny, only to fall flat again at the end. It managed three stars only because I laughed so much at the roof incident. There were few other redeeming features.
Here’s the premise: Wendy Harris… no, let’s pause there, because I hate this name so much. I suppose the author gets away with it since it’s short for Gwendolyn, but the name Wendy was officially invented in 1904 for Peter Pan. Ugh. Anyway, Wendy Harris lives in genteel poverty with her widowed mother in a grace and favour cottage owned by Wendy’s brother-in-law, Lord Menrod (another horrible name; I actually wondered whether the author had originally given him a sensible name, then found out at the last minute there was a real lord by that name and had to change it. But I digress). His lordship insists on them keeping everything in their cottage exactly as it is, with no changes, no matter how inconvenient, since it’s historical. They are all awaiting the arrival from India of Wendy’s orphaned niece and nephew, whom she hopes to raise herself, but Lord Menrod decides he’s going to raise them. Wendy thinks he’s unfit, on account of the string of mistresses, the constant travelling around and the fact that he’s arrogant and tyrannical. Lord Menrod gets interim custody, so Wendy engages an attorney to fight the case.
Now, written out like this, you’d imagine that Wendy… no, I can’t keep writing that. Let’s call her Miss Harris. Anyway, you’d imagine that Miss Harris would be a sympathetic character, a put-upon spinster only wanting the best for her nephew and niece. But no, she’s a pretty horrible person, actually, who’s determined not to give Lord Menrod any credit for proper feeling, or admit that actually the children will be better off with him, on account of the whole rich lord thing. She’s also incredibly rude about Mr Everett, a rich lumber merchant with a vast mansion stuffed with expensive but tasteless Stuff, who is simply an easy-going guy who wants to marry her.
Lord Menrod is also a pretty unpleasant character in the early part of the book, being just as tyrannical as described. It’s only when the children arrive and he is forced to spend more time at the Harris’s cottage that he begins to mellow a bit. In fact, he becomes the most sensible character in the book, still determined to have the children, but prepared to adjust his lifestyle accordingly. And he never tries to cut the Harris ladies out of their lives. In fact, he is all sweet reason, if a little grumpy when Miss Harris continues to be obnoxious.
He also discovers for himself all the deficiencies of the Cottage That Must Not Be Changed, with unusable fire irons, a dangerously dark stair, a smoking chimney and a decaying thatch roof. By the time he’s burned himself, been smoked out of the house and fallen through the roof (a glorious scene!), he’s become rather a fun character, especially when he lounges around the cottage all day to avoid a persistent lady admirer.
The ending is sadly typical of this era, that is, there are one or two oblique hints of a change of heart on his part, a reference to hate and love being two sides to the same coin, after which he sweeps her into his manly arms and kisses her, whereupon she says: oh, all right then. The end. Very, very annoying. I confess, though, that the biggest problem I had throughout the book (apart from obnoxious Miss Harris, who never does redeem herself – run away, Lord M!) is that I never worked out Lord M’s age. He’s described in such terms early on that I imagined he must be an elderly man, or at least middle aged, but it only gradually dawned on me that he’s possibly only meant to be thirty-something. It’s quite an adjustment to make.
So this really didn’t work at all for me. Nevertheless, if you don’t mind the old-fashioned and rather dry approach to romance that was standard at the time, and are brighter than I was in working out Lord M’s age, it’s a well-written tale with some fun characters (I particularly liked Mr Everett and the mother, and the children were amusing too; oh, and Lady Whotsit who was pursuing Lord M; and the attorney was funny; in fact, in retrospect it seems far more fun than it was when I was reading it). But for me it’s only three stars.