{"id":3069,"date":"2020-11-13T15:45:20","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T15:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/?p=3069"},"modified":"2020-11-13T15:45:20","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T15:45:20","slug":"review-the-wicked-governess-by-mary-lancaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/2020\/11\/13\/review-the-wicked-governess-by-mary-lancaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Wicked Governess by Mary Lancaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Mary Lancaster\u2019s books are always entertaining, so I knew I\u2019d enjoy this right from the start. There was less in the way of piracy and other shenanigans in this book, which is very much a plus for me, and the romance, while a little insta-lust, is still very well developed.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the premise: Caroline Grey, the governess at Braithwaite Castle in the previous book, is summarily dismissed for an alleged misdemeanour, finding work at the sinister Haven Hall instead. Her pupil is mute, but not physically, so it\u2019s presumed there\u2019s been some traumatic incident. Also at Haven Hall is the slightly bonkers aunt and the child\u2019s darkly mysterious father, Javan Benedict. When Caroline arrives, the family is very reclusive, so needless to say, she attempts to draw them out into society. They are surprisingly willing (well, the book would be quite dull if they weren\u2019t), and so they are, inch by reluctant inch, rehabilitated.<\/p>\n

Caroline is a likable character, and although she\u2019s the wicked governess of the title, there isn\u2019t really anything wicked about her, except in the fevered imaginations of some Blackhaven residents. She does have some family issues, but they aren\u2019t terribly dramatic.<\/p>\n

Hero Javan, on the other hand, has a whole shedload of issues. We\u2019re into Beauty and the Beast territory here, since he\u2019s the wounded and scarred beast to Caroline\u2019s beauty. I\u2019m not a huge fan of the instant hots for each other scenario, but it\u2019s something of a feature in Lancaster\u2019s work, so I\u2019m used to it by now. There\u2019s also some fairly physical lusting and one graphic sex scene, so traditionalists beware.<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t anything wildly original about the plot, and readers can work out almost from the start how it\u2019s going to go, but it\u2019s nicely done, as always, it feels believably Regency, and there\u2019s enough action to sweep the plot along without overwhelming the romance. I liked Caroline a lot, and although I had less patience with Javan, I understood his reluctance to commit himself. Honourable mentions for Rosa, the mute daughter, who was a wonderful character in her own right, and the mischievous cousin, Richard. I hope we see more of him (and I\u2019m likely to get my wish, because the author loves to bring in characters from previous books).<\/p>\n

Great fun, and a nicely written book that fulfils all expectations of the series without becoming boring. Four stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mary Lancaster\u2019s books are always entertaining, so I knew I\u2019d enjoy this right from the start. There was less in the way of piracy and other shenanigans in this book, which is very much a plus for me, and the romance, while a little insta-lust, is still very well developed. Here\u2019s the premise: Caroline Grey, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[149],"class_list":["post-3069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-lancaster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3073,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3069\/revisions\/3073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}