{"id":5533,"date":"2024-06-16T20:43:06","date_gmt":"2024-06-16T20:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/?p=5533"},"modified":"2024-06-16T20:43:06","modified_gmt":"2024-06-16T20:43:06","slug":"review-the-peers-roguish-word-by-kate-archer-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/06\/16\/review-the-peers-roguish-word-by-kate-archer-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Peer’s Roguish Word by Kate Archer (2021)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"Hugely enjoyable, and a great contrast with the previous book, where the two principals were obviously well suited by their common love of horses. Here, they couldn\u2019t be more different, but the author makes it work beautifully.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the premise: Miss Kitty Dell is an intellectual, more interested in science and her books than dancing. Still, it\u2019s time to put aside her books and enjoy her first season in town, and perhaps she\u2019ll meet a like-minded gentleman amongst the members of the Royal Society? Certainly she\u2019ll never marry anyone like Giles, Marquess of Grayson, who is a frivolous dandy, without a serious thought in his head beyond the folds of his excessively starched cravat. Besides, he may flirt a lot, but he never offers marriage. But Giles is piqued by Kitty\u2019s disdain, and sets out to charm her as only he knows how. Meanwhile, there\u2019s something odd going on at the Royal Society\u2026<\/p>\n

I think my favourite book of this series is book 2, but I liked this one almost as much and for the same reason. The hero here has a relaxed, easy-going approach to life. He\u2019s one of the world\u2019s charmers, a pleasant, likeable fellow, and yes, he\u2019s a terrible flirt and a bit of a dandy, it has to be said, but he\u2019s good company. And when Kitty refuses to be drawn in to his flirtations, he\u2019s a little bit piqued, because he charms all the ladies, so how can she be immune? He then sets out to win her over in other ways. He drops the grandiose and eye-rollingly silly compliments, sends her presents that he thinks she will like (a book! Smart man, although not that smart) and he even takes an interest in the troubles at the Royal Society, and finds creative ways to help out. He\u2019s not an intellectual, but he\u2019s not stupid and he sets after Kitty with single-minded determination, but always being his charming self. Some heroes are so up their own rear ends they\u2019re impossible to like, but Grayson is a straightforward, sunny chap, the sort it\u2019s impossible to dislike.<\/p>\n

I liked Kitty as well, for being so sensible about things. Even though she\u2019s painted as a rapid intellectual, she recognises that for the few weeks of the season, at least, she has to focus on dances and gowns and shopping and being pleasant to people she doesn\u2019t even like too much. Happily, she has parents who are nice, sensible people, acting to protect their daughter and steer her gently without ever pushing her or disrespecting her. It\u2019s lovely to see in a genre which is overflowing with thoroughly nasty parents and step-parents. I did think Kitty had some logic failure towards the end of the book, though, in suspecting Grayson of various crimes. And having correctly deduced that an invitation to meet a gentleman in the garden at a ball is Not A Good Thing, she then does it anyway. Silly girl.<\/p>\n

The mystery isn\u2019t particularly mysterious, since the identity of the villain is obvious from his first appearance. It\u2019s still fun, however, and again Grayson is creative in resolving it. I particularly loved the letter from his distant relation. I must also applaud the author for imbuing her minor characters with such original ideas for balls. I love the mask lady, and the recreation of Valhalla would be spectacular. I\u2019d love to see that in a TV recreation.<\/p>\n

There were only a few anachronisms – sidewalk (Brits have pavements), psyche (not used in the psychological sense until 1910), and again, London town houses don\u2019t have front gardens. Most of them don\u2019t have ballrooms either, since space was at a premium, but it\u2019s so convenient I can let that pass. But these are very minor irritations in a series that I\u2019m enjoying enormously. I don\u2019t remember the last time I read an entire series back to back, since I usually get jaded after two or three, but Archer keeps creating interesting pairings in a style that\u2019s amusing and easy to read, without losing too much Regency authenticity. Five stars and straight on to see how Lord Dalton meets his doom.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hugely enjoyable, and a great contrast with the previous book, where the two principals were obviously well suited by their common love of horses. Here, they couldn\u2019t be more different, but the author makes it work beautifully. Here\u2019s the premise: Miss Kitty Dell is an intellectual, more interested in science and her books than dancing. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[267],"class_list":["post-5533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-archer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5533","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=5533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5537,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5533\/revisions\/5537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}