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Another fascinating and refreshingly different tale from this author, who never fails to surprise. Not for her the well-worn tracks of Regency tropes leading to the predictable conclusions. Every book is a unique read, and while some are more absorbing than others, I\u2019ll read anything she writes.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the premise: Kate Carteret has been left in an awkward position by the untimely death of her sister and brother-in-law, leaving behind four small children. A kindly (but not that kindly) relation lets them have a cottage on his Sussex estate at a peppercorn rent, but Kate must earn a living to support them. Her cousin Bella is left in charge on the domestic front, while Kate goes to London, initially as a companion to an elderly lady, but when that falls through, as a singer on stage, since she has a magnificent singing voice. But then Bella elopes with a naval officer, and Kate has to return to the village of Fairlea to take charge of the children. Conveniently, her theatre is closing for the summer anyway, so she has several months to rescue the situation and decide how to look after the children in the future.<\/p>\n
I have to confess, this is one of the more implausible openings I\u2019ve come across. Kate\u2019s musical talent is unsuspected, even by her family, since she was never allowed to sing \u2018forcefully\u2019, and her identity was successfully concealed on stage by make-up and a wig. This leaves her able to return to Fairlea as just another impoverished spinster. Meanwhile, two of the admirers of her operatic persona in London now appear in the neighbourhood, Sir Anthony Chiswick and Lord Maule. Sir Anthony merely gave her flowers, but Lord Maule has been pressing her to become his mistress. Yet somehow neither of them recognise her.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a lot of potential here for conflict, especially with Lord Maule, but somehow the author shies away from that. Instead, she throws an enormous cast of peripheral characters into the mix. Sir Anthony\u2019s unhappy sister-in-law. The vicar\u2019s pushy and spiteful daughter. Lady Plum and her five unmarriageable daughters, together with an appropriate number of potential suitors. And one couple I was delighted to see – Hervey and \u2018Fliss\u2019 from \u2018Felicity\u2019, now happily married with a brood of their own.<\/p>\n
All of this generates a surprisingly conventional Regency, with invitations for Kate to al fresco breakfasts, dinners and even a ball, with the usual romantic interludes. The main romance, between Kate and Sir Anthony, proceeds slowly but inexorably to its rather low-key conclusion. Although Kate dithers about whether she\u2019s suitable marriage material, or whether he\u2019ll walk away when he hears about her stage performances, somehow none of it ever comes to much more than her own inner thoughts. I would have liked at least one confrontation between them, at least. As it is, the road seems a little too smooth.<\/p>\n
The real interest in the book for me is with some of the peripheral characters. The unhappy Lady Sybil is one whose story could have been a little deeper, and less easily resolved. The friend Iris, another respectable gentlewoman reduced to earning her living, was another I\u2019d like to have seen more of. And then there were the two most fascinating characters in the book, the livewire youngest of the Plum brood, Gracie, and the seemingly unreformed rake with the surprisingly complex back story, Lord Maule. A whole book on those two wouldn\u2019t go amiss. Lord Maule\u2019s actions at the very end took me completely by surprise (and that\u2019s a good thing – I love to be surprised!).<\/p>\n
Overall, this isn\u2019t one of Speers\u2019 best outings, and the romance was far too flat to be interesting, but the glimpses of more intriguing stories amongst the walk-on parts brings this up to four stars. And now on to L.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Another fascinating and refreshingly different tale from this author, who never fails to surprise. Not for her the well-worn tracks of Regency tropes leading to the predictable conclusions. Every book is a unique read, and while some are more absorbing than others, I\u2019ll read anything she writes. Here\u2019s the premise: Kate Carteret has been left […]<\/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":[93],"class_list":["post-5839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-speers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5839","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=5839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5845,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5839\/revisions\/5845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}