{"id":6295,"date":"2026-08-15T16:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T16:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/?p=6295"},"modified":"2026-08-15T16:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T16:34:15","slug":"review-sketches-by-the-serpentine-by-rosanne-e-lortz-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/08\/15\/review-sketches-by-the-serpentine-by-rosanne-e-lortz-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Sketches by the Serpentine by Rosanne E Lortz (2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"This follows directly from the previous book in the series, and although it\u2019s a little silly in places, it doesn\u2019t have quite the same farcical feel to it.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the premise: Felicity Comfort\u2019s older sister Cassie is now married, her brothers are away with their regiments and she\u2019s at a loose end. Happily, her impoverished parents are happy for her to come out a little early, on her eighteenth birthday. That way she can finish her sister\u2019s season and reuse her expensive clothes, thus saving a little money. She just has to wait a few weeks until her birthday. To amuse herself in the meantime, she\u2019s acquired an unruly little dog, which she walks in Hyde Park.<\/p>\n

There the dog has an unfortunate encounter with an artist busy sketching the waters of the Serpentine lake. Felicity\u2019s vivacious charm soothes his spirits, and the meetings become a regular event. She discovers his name – Magnus Blackstone – but it means nothing to her. At first, Magnus doesn\u2019t tell her the tragic story that has driven him to become a recluse, but when he does, she is sympathetic, not horrified.<\/p>\n

Of course, we can see where this is going, but there are complications, naturally. Magnus\u2019s guilt from the past is a big one, which leads him to see himself as unmarriageable, even though in normal circumstances he would be highly eligible. Then there\u2019s some confusion in his mind about Felicity\u2019s affections, and whether, given the parlous state of her family\u2019s finances, she will choose to marry a lecherous elderly duke instead.<\/p>\n

Happily Magnus\u2019s mother is a sensible woman who sees the potential in Felicity straight away, and Felicity is not someone who sits quietly at home instead of reaching out to grab her own happiness by the scruff of its neck. Between the two of them, and a little heroism from Magnus and the dog, the lecherous duke is seen off, the misunderstanding is cleared up and all\u2019s well that ends well.<\/p>\n

There are a few Americanisms in the grammar, and I was very confused by one character being presented with bunches of snowdrops and roses on the same day, but on the whole, there was nothing to frighten the (pedantic) horses. Four stars.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This follows directly from the previous book in the series, and although it\u2019s a little silly in places, it doesn\u2019t have quite the same farcical feel to it. Here\u2019s the premise: Felicity Comfort\u2019s older sister Cassie is now married, her brothers are away with their regiments and she\u2019s at a loose end. Happily, her impoverished […]<\/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":[283],"class_list":["post-6295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-lortz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6295","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=6295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6297,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6295\/revisions\/6297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}