Customer Reviews

A Wicked Gentleman

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Lately, I've been enjoying some lighter reading, namely several new historical romances by authors that I know will usually turn out a good product. Long time author Jane Feather is one of those writers that I trust; while a few of her novels have bombed for me, most of the time she can keep me interested and entertained enough to finish her stories.

Ms. Feather has started a new series with A Wicked Gentleman, set in the Regency period of London, England. Three ladies, Cornelia, her sister-in-law Aurelia, and their cousin Livia, decide to go to London, each one for different reasons. At first uncertain how they will afford it, a surprise legacy from an unknown relation provides them with a house on the fashionable Cavendish Square.

This particular story centers around Cornelia, the widowed Lady Dagenham. Desperate to keep her two young children with her, Cornelia happily agrees to chaperone Lady Liv, and London provides a welcome respite from the threats of her uncle, who seeks to keep her son, Lord Stevie, from any hint of trouble. The idea of having her son taken away from her haunts Cornelia, especially when the proposed tutor is a bit of a sadist.

But London isn't seeming to be that much of a haven either. For one thing, the townhouse is a wreck, along with three aged servants who have their own attitudes about how things ought to be run. But what may be worst of all is the presence of Harry, Viscount Bonham. Besides being devastatingly handsome (aren't they always?), Harry has quite a few secrets of his own, and he and Nell keep crossing paths.

Unhappily for both Nell and Harry, his secrets, including the rather lurid death of his former wife, and his own reasons for seeking out the trio of ladies may prove to be too much for any hope of romance to survive the ugly truth. It's a tried and true plot that is usually found in romantic historicals, but Jane Feather manages to breathe some new life into the story.

For one, the heroine, isn't the usual sort of ninny that is found in this novel. Cornelia is a grown-up, with a previous life that has left her with children, a touch that is rarely found in these sort of novels. She also has another rare trait -- a sense of humor, and there are several scenes in the novel that are laugh-out-loud funny. Harry is a little too perfect, always managing to show up at just the right moment with hardly a hair out of place, but by the end of the story, there's enough emotional tension going on to overlook that stumbling block. Too, the author doesn't fall into the pit of turning this into yet another book where it's nothing but sexual bouts between the leads, and the plot goes to the wayside. While there are quite a few dangling issues left at the end of the book, it's satisfying enough that it can be read as a stand-alone novel.

The main plot besides the romantic aspect involves a band of French spies trying to get into the house on Cavendish Square to find an object that is hidden there at the begining of the book. For those who might think that this sort of thing is far-fetched and an aristocratic nobleman is working to stop them, the truth may surprise them.

The secondary characters, Aurelia and Liv along with Harry's assistant, Lester, and the children, are fairly well-fleshed out, and provide some lighter touches and help to keep the story a bit more balanced than a constant 'he-said, she-said.' One interesting thread involves Lady Sophie, the desceased previous owner of the house, and the little clues that are scattered throughout the novel that indicate that she may not have been everything that she seemed. I can only hope that the future novels in the series will explore this angle a bit more.

Ms. Feather's writing style is fluid, and clear of anachronisms. Her knowledge of the time-period -- the early nineteenth centure -- is evident in how her characters behave and act. Regency society was one of those where reputation was everything and unlike most modern writers, Ms. Feather puts it to good use in the story.

Summing up, it's a good novel of this type, and better than most to be found in this genre. One of the best parts about this writer is that she works to maintain her consistancy of writing good stories that provide an evening's entertainment. I will continue to look for her forthcoming novels in her Cavendish Square series, as yet unnamed.

Cornelia is a widow with two young children who moves with two friends into a house in London. These woman move into a dilapidated home with unusual servants. They are quickly wooed by Harry, a viscount who ultimately falls in love with Cornelia. Cornelia initially dislikes Harry, but seems to be overcome by his charms. There is a subplot regarding a mysterious thimble and French agent that creates additional tension.

I love the idea that the character is a mature woman with a family. This makes the story different and enjoyable. Additionally, there are a number of fun characters, such as the unusual butler and the yappy dogs that are quite humorous. However, I didn't like Feather's development of the relationship between Harry and Cornelia. I didn't care that they got together-- in fact, I felt that he was deceptive and she might be better without him. Given that I generally didn't like their relationship or the hero, the novel fell a little flat for me.

I found A Wicked Gentleman to be a good read. I liked all of the characters, the plot had a slightly different spin (i.e., heroine did not despise her first husband), and was good enough to make me want to read the stories of Aurelia and Liv.

Jane Feather's V-series is still my favorite, but this entry is far better than Jane's previous two books. Give it a try.

Rather tame, actually. And for a supposed spymaster/codebreaker the hero wasn't all that bright either.

Either was the heroine. She was insipid and easily distracted (so was the story with too many incompletely used secondary characters cluttering it up). I could see the "conflict" at the end coming from Chapter One. Which doesn't always kill a genre romance, of course, but unfortunately the journey there wasn't interesting or fun but ended up boring and irritating instead. Their encounters weren't passionate but rather laughable and unrealistic -- despite the daring use of the "p" word! LOL!

Halfway through I started skimming (never a good sign) just to get it over with. Even for fluff reading, try something else instead of this one.

The story:
Widowed Lady Cornelia "Nell" Dagenham, her widowed sister-in-law Lady Aurelia Farnham, and cousin (I believe) Lady Livia Lacey have one shared desire: Go to London for the Season to gain Livia a husband. This isn't the easiest thing to do, as the elderly gentry who hold the fortune of Nell's son (five year old Stevie, now Viscount), are unwilling to give them the necessary funds. Luck is on their side, it seems, as Livia becomes the inheritor of a house in London thanks to a late relative, and the three pack up the children and head to town. There, they meet the widowed Viscount Harry Bonham, who attempted to buy the house in order to search for an item hidden by a mysterious man within. When he finds the house is not for sale, he then finds himself trying to ingratiate himself with the ladies of the house in an effort to find it. Neither Harry nor Nell expect the attraction to flare between them, but flare it does, and romance flows side by side with intrigue and making a house fit for visitors while getting them settled in town and with the fashionable people of the Ton.

My thoughts:
Sounds like a lot doesn't it? Interest, intrigue, and nicely long story to boot, right? Except it's kind of not. The story is cute, but there's so much set up! They don't even meet one another 'til more than fifty pages in. I kept waiting for interest, and intrigue, and action, but this book just dragged on and on. I finished it because I wanted to find how it ended, but was ultimately left unsatisfied. Additionally, the ending felt a bit contrived as well as rushed. I know this is the first book in the series, but after this book, I must say I have no real desire to read the other two.

The rushed ending and amount of loose ends to tie up just kept me from enjoying this book. Definitely a library read.

I rate this book 2 stars, with the sexy bits at 1 star.

(For the complete version of this review, follow the link on my Amazon profile page to my blog. The complete version does contain spoilers, and I cut out those bits as I deemed them Not Safe for Amazon. Thanks!)

I'd read tow other Jane Feather books and did not like them, but decided to give her one last try. Now I've realized what the problem is.

Her stories lack emotion, passion, and, well...intrigue. She can't write. And I cannot relate to a heroine with Cornelia's mood swings. First off, she was flat out rude. Then suddenly she starts acting all nice and sweet and innocent, for a like two chapter. Then suddenly she's behaving as if she's his mistress. Then she's pissed. Then she's this. Then she's that. We never even get to see how she's feeling. There are none of those paragraphs where the character questions things, her own actions, what she should do, how the other person would react if she did this, what would happen if she did that, etc.

Second of all, the fact that she'd already had a child and had sex bothered me. Usually it's alright, and I try to ignore it, but the first scene that they actually did the deed was too quick. She gave it up too fast.

Third, the story just wasn't interesting.

As usual, Jane Feather continues to deliver a good story line with believable characters. I rarey find myself trying to rethink her character's actions and reactions.

I have enjoyed Jane Feathers tri before, but this set I have to agree with others just sort of slowly drifts along. A Wicked Gentleman, really wasn't wicked and the plot was lacking to say the least. You knew what was going to happen with little to no surprises. The lead lady was not very interesting nor was her leading man, more boring than most. Overall a ok read, but I will not keep it to reread. The love sequences if you could call them "love" were a bit vulgar for my taste, the book could have stood a lot more romance and a lot less decriptive words that left the characters seeming cheap.

This book is not horrible, but it goes at a snails pace. I'm on page 120 something and I had to stop reading to post this review. I will not finish this book. It's too slow. Some books start off slow and pick up, this book doesn't even give a glimpse of anything to come. I have two other jane feather books from the library. I'll try but I don't know if I'll get into them if they are anything like this one--I don't think so. She a good writer but this book is not very exciting. I will give her another chance with the other books...we'll see. If you haven't started reading this book yet, don't, unless you like a lengthy meandering read.

I love Jane Feather's books. I enjoyed this one too and will continue to purchase her interesting books.