Customer Reviews

The Accidental Countess (Harlequin Historical, Accidental Series Book 1)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I hate to be the first one to review this book and give it such a poor review. I decided to give this book a try based on the summary - the Earl of Whitmore wakes one day to realize that he has no memory of the last three months, including his marriage to childhood friend Emily. An interesting mystery; I was interested to see how this would pan out. The answer, unfortunately, was that it would pan out badly. From the beginning, Emily Chesterfield is wishy-washy, whiny, and unbearable. Even after the earl begins to regain some of his memories and begins to thaw towards her, she still is still unbearable, creating problems out of nothing. I dislike books where much of the conflict could be resolved, or avoided, if the characters merely listened to what the other was saying, and this book had these situations in spades.

Aside from my dislike of the heroine, I also had complaints with the writing itself. It is extremely stilted, consisting mainly of dialogue and awkward jumps from one scene to another. There is practically no background to the story and the reader is left to piece together almost everything based on the few casual mentions that the author gives. One thing that particularly stands out in my mind is Emily's constant talk of the children. Whose children? It took me at least three chapters to figure out to whom they belonged as there certainly had been no mention of it the first time they were spoken of. That the author had to write a prequel to the novel as a novella is a testament to the shoddy plotting and writing of this novel. There are also many grammatical mistakes and mistakes with punctuation - I wonder if there was an editor for this novel, and if there was, he or she certainly did not do their job very well.

My last complaint is with historical inaccuracy. I know that when reading historical romance, I should not expect great sweeping chapters about the historical background. However, aside from a few mentions of corsets and lords, this novel could have been set in the present day. What is worse is that when the author does try to include something historical, namely about clothing, it is grossly inaccurate. The numerous mentions of Emily's thin clothing grated on my nerves because a simply trip to even Wikipedia would have revealed that women wore layers and layers of clothing during the time period in which this novel was set. Also annoying was the use of recipes from Emily's recipe book as chapter headers. This was a very cute premise, I will say. However, the way that the recipes were written, primarily using cups and teaspoons, is not accurate to how they were written during the 1850s. It is especially frustrating because, had the author simply taken the five minutes to use Google to find Victoria recipes, she could have avoided such mistakes.

I thought of giving this book two or three stars because it did indeed have an interesting premise and an ending that was not bad. However, it seems to me that the author squandered such an interesting idea for all of the aforementioned reasons, and therefore I gave it only one star.

Unlike one previous review, I found this book to be a good mystery with a little romance and sex mixed in -- but very little really. OK, I'm a man who does not normally read romance novels. I realize they are not written primarily for men. But I am a reader of Michelle Willingham, and of the books by her that I have read, this was by far my favorite.
The writer of the one negative review is right about one thing: Many of Emily Chesterfield's worries would be solved if she would just have an honest conversation with her husband, and I also get frustrated when she acts so stupidly. But that seems to be typical for characters in these types of books.
I was far more interested in the mystery than in the romance. That's primarily why I kept reading. I wanted to learn what exactly was going on and how it was going to be resolved. The book also takes place in 19th century England which to me in a lot more interesting than 12th century Ireland where Willingham's previous books were set. With this book, I am convinced Willingham expanded her horizons and moved toward a genre that will appeal to readers onf non-romance novels.
JB

This book was an endearing love story wrapped up in a mystery. The two plots intertwine and create a very interesting story overall of a woman trapped in a bad situation that inevitably risks her life and the life of her new husband. The ending was far from predictable, which is a rarity for me, but the book leaves you wanting more of the wonderful characters and their stories in the end. The story has a prequel and a companion novel that continue some of the same style. I highly recommend all three.

This was an enjoyable read. I could relate with the heroine in that I would be furious if my hero had forgotten he married me. I read a book for enjoyment and to take me back to a time in history where you can put yourself into the book and relate to the characters. This was Michelle Willingham's best book yet!

Really loved this book. Stephen and Emily's story was so beautiful, which at times it was sad too. But I loved how their love for each other just kept growing. Wish to have read more of Stephen and Emily. Really was worh my time reading this book!!!

At the start of our story, Emily is recently married to her childhood friend Stephen. But after abandoning her a week after their marriage, he finally shows up 3 months later with no memory, a tattoo on his neck and an unwanted wife. As Stephen tries to remember what has happened for the last few months he realizes that someone is trying to kill him and it all has something to do with a missing ship's cargo.

When I picked up this book, I expected something sweet, light and fun. Nothing could be further from the truth. This book is dark and depressing and for the first half of the book my heart was breaking because of Stephen's treatment of Emily. He wasn't "mean" but he did stomp on her feeling with little regard for more than half the book. The second half of the book, Stephen finally acted like something approaching a hero, and then poor Emily had to take a too stupid to live pill to compensate. She put herself into all kinds of danger with utterly irrational excuses for doing so.

One of the few aspects of the book I thought was done well was the character of Royce, Emily's nephew she's been raising since her brother's death. He was a believable child character, and is more as just a plot devise to give the heroine a family. I disliked Stephen's behavior about the custody issues with Royce and his baby sister Victoria. He was very cool and unfeeling and I was expecting her to leave him over those issues and was really shocked when she didn't.

One of the things that really did bug me about the book is when 9 month old Victoria started to call Stephen and Emily ma ma and da da. It is just ridiculous! A child has to learn what their parents are called, they don't just learn by osmosis that so and so is their father, and since not even Royce was referring them as mom and dad there was nowhere for a baby to even learn those names. That really bugged me.

This was a mildly entertaining read, if slightly boring towards the middle, that got too caught up in mysteries and murder for my taste. But if you like slighty soapy romances this might just be the one for you, but sadly it wasn't the one for me. I like things a little more cheerful.

2 1/2 stars.

I wish I had not purchased this book! It was a waste of my time. The story line was good and this book should have been a page turner... but the dialog was poor, interaction between the characters not plausible. The entire story was weak and shallow. There is nothing to recommend this book except to have a good writer add some substance to what's already there.