An Inconvenient Beauty, by Kristi Ann Hunter, is the last installment of the Hawthorne House series. I've been waiting for this title for a long time, because out of all the Hawthorne siblings, I really wanted to know Griffith's story. He is the oldest sibling, and holds the position as the Duke of Riverton. Throughout the series, Griffith has been the responsible one who has been looking after everyone or everything that is under his care, including his mother, siblings, ward, tenants, and holdings. He is also a thoughtful man who thoroughly considers all the possibilities before deciding on what he believes will work out best for everyone involved.
After observing the matches all the members of his family have made, including his former ward (Amelia Pendleton, nee Stalwood, the present Lady Raebourne, whose story is told in Hunter's A Lady of Esteem), Griffith also desires to find a love match for himself. He applies logic to choose his future duchess and decides on Miss Frederica St. Claire. He hopes to gain her hand before the ton's matchmaking mamas realize that he is looking for a wife. Unfortunately for Griffith, trying to find time alone with Miss St. Claire is proving to be a challenge. More often than not, he finds himself in the presence of her cousin, Miss Isabella Breckenridge, this season's Incomparable. He is attracted to her, but doesn't want to get caught up in the drama of trying to compete with the rest of the throng clamoring for Isabella's attentions. He also is resistant to giving up the choice that he made from his decision making process, to the amusement and chagrin of his relations who know perfectly well that Griffith is a goner where Isabella is concerned.
While Griffith is struggling with his reluctance to set aside his pride in pursuing Isabella, Isabella is struggling with her conscience. She has come to London for the season to aid her uncle's political efforts, in exchange for financial assistance for her family. However, their plans require her to pretend and act in ways that conflict with her spiritual beliefs. By the time Isabella discovers that Griffith is the kind of man that she has always hoped to marry, she realizes that her actions in town will make any genuine romantic relationship between the two of them impossible. Who will Griffith make into his duchess? Will Isabella be able to be true to herself, and help her uncle achieve his political goals so that he is willing to help her family?
I like this novel. I like Griffith. If you are looking for a lot of stolen kisses, you won't find them in An Inconvenient Beauty...Griffith is a nice and respectful man. If it helps to draw you in, there is a secret dance on an upper balcony. In my opinion, Griffith is an attractive alpha male character who displays a satisfying amount of power in being able to solve problems and get things done. This is enough for me to award him a high swoon factor as a romantic hero. He's also self aware enough to realize that he can be arrogant due his station and upbringing, and that he needs to exercise his influence with care, so as to not abuse his position as a duke.
I found Isabella to be okay. She is a pleasant enough character who doesn't let her beauty go to her head. She cares for her family and is willing to sacrifice her reputation and be thought of as a coquette in order to help them.
It was fun reading some of the interactions between Griffith, his siblings, and brothers-in-law. Most of them know him quite well, and tease him over his courtship plans for Miss St. Claire. However, the love that binds them together is good and light hearted. It is nice to read about relatives who get along with each other and who try to help each other out. It was also nice to be able to visit with characters that appeared in earlier novels of the Hawthorne series.
Even though An Inconvenient Beauty is the last of the series, it can be read as a stand-alone book. In fact, I still haven't read Georgina's and Colin's story (An Elegant Façade) yet, although I have read all the other novels. I'm glad that I still have one more story to read about the Hawthorne Family. If you are looking for clean regencies that feature characters who have faith, then you may wish to consider reading books from the Hawthorne series if you haven't looked into them yet.
Wednesday 8 November 2017
Thursday 2 November 2017
Review: A Betty Neels Christmas by Betty Neels
"A Betty Neels Christmas" actually contains two stories written by, of course, Betty Neels. They are "A Christmas Proposal," and "A Winter Wedding." Both are stories about handsome, older, mature doctors who eventually fall in love with plain looking, gentle hearted women who believe that no one will ever ask them to marry. These two stories follow the same general plotline of practically every Betty Neels story that I've read so far: a plain looking woman (often a nurse) harbours an impossible attraction to an older accomplished and handsome man (usually a doctor, and usually of Dutch descent). Eventually, somehow, the plain looking nurse catches the doctor's attention, but is unaware of her effect on the doctor. She believes herself to be unable to compete with another gorgeous woman who appears to be a more suitable mate for the doctor.
All you have to do is substitute the names of Bertha Soames (who is not a nurse, but rather a sheltered young woman who is also plain looking), and Oliver Hayes-Smith (an English doctor, not Dutch) into "A Christmas Proposal." Bertha is competing with her step-sister, Clare, for the attentions of the doctor. In "A Winter Wedding," Emily Seymour, a plain looking, but competent nurse, and Professor Renier Jurres-Romeijn (definitely a Dutch doctor) are the characters that appear in that story. Renier has to convince Emily that he is not interested in two other girls who vie for his attention, one of whom is her own sister, Louisa.
Both stories are contemporary, but they seem to take place (in my opinion) in the sixties...maybe up until the eighties. There is no mention of the electronic devices that we are familiar with today (no cell phones, smart phones, Blackberry machines, iPods, etc., although there are references to getting bleeped (I assume this is from a pager of some sort). Social media is not mentioned at all. Of course, Betty Neels passed on in 2001, before the advent of Facebook.
I like that Betty Neels' stories are clean, but I find some of her heroines to be pushovers. Bertha Soames falls into this category. Other heroines are more belligerent when the hero says something that hurts their feelings as Darcy does to Elizabeth in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice when he declares that she is not handsome enough to tempt him. Emily Seymour fits this type.
As for Oliver and Renier, both act similarly enough in that they really make it difficult for their respective objects of affections to realize that they are interested in them...especially when the men appear to continue paying court to the competition. I sometimes find this a bit annoying: when the men discover that their ladyloves misunderstand the nature of the relationships with the competition, they often continue to allow the heroines to remain unenlightened about their real feelings. Often there is a big reveal later, which is usually tied to some big romantic gesture that the men do to demonstrate the depth of their affections. There's only so much extra angst that I can take, and I think that reading the same formulaic development in each of these stories has left me rather unenthusiastic about the women being kept in the dark and having their romantic suffering prolonged every time. I wonder what would have happened if a male lead actually revealed the truth of his feelings right when he realized that there was a misunderstanding, or if a female lead recognized the feelings of the hero rather than remaining obtuse and clueless.
That being said, I will probably still continue reading Betty Neels' books. As I mentioned before, they are clean, and I enjoy the romantic tension that is built between the heroes and heroines in her novels.
All you have to do is substitute the names of Bertha Soames (who is not a nurse, but rather a sheltered young woman who is also plain looking), and Oliver Hayes-Smith (an English doctor, not Dutch) into "A Christmas Proposal." Bertha is competing with her step-sister, Clare, for the attentions of the doctor. In "A Winter Wedding," Emily Seymour, a plain looking, but competent nurse, and Professor Renier Jurres-Romeijn (definitely a Dutch doctor) are the characters that appear in that story. Renier has to convince Emily that he is not interested in two other girls who vie for his attention, one of whom is her own sister, Louisa.
Both stories are contemporary, but they seem to take place (in my opinion) in the sixties...maybe up until the eighties. There is no mention of the electronic devices that we are familiar with today (no cell phones, smart phones, Blackberry machines, iPods, etc., although there are references to getting bleeped (I assume this is from a pager of some sort). Social media is not mentioned at all. Of course, Betty Neels passed on in 2001, before the advent of Facebook.
I like that Betty Neels' stories are clean, but I find some of her heroines to be pushovers. Bertha Soames falls into this category. Other heroines are more belligerent when the hero says something that hurts their feelings as Darcy does to Elizabeth in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice when he declares that she is not handsome enough to tempt him. Emily Seymour fits this type.
As for Oliver and Renier, both act similarly enough in that they really make it difficult for their respective objects of affections to realize that they are interested in them...especially when the men appear to continue paying court to the competition. I sometimes find this a bit annoying: when the men discover that their ladyloves misunderstand the nature of the relationships with the competition, they often continue to allow the heroines to remain unenlightened about their real feelings. Often there is a big reveal later, which is usually tied to some big romantic gesture that the men do to demonstrate the depth of their affections. There's only so much extra angst that I can take, and I think that reading the same formulaic development in each of these stories has left me rather unenthusiastic about the women being kept in the dark and having their romantic suffering prolonged every time. I wonder what would have happened if a male lead actually revealed the truth of his feelings right when he realized that there was a misunderstanding, or if a female lead recognized the feelings of the hero rather than remaining obtuse and clueless.
That being said, I will probably still continue reading Betty Neels' books. As I mentioned before, they are clean, and I enjoy the romantic tension that is built between the heroes and heroines in her novels.
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