The Adventuress (A House for the Season, Book 5) [Paperback]

Marion Chesney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1988

Followers of the series will notice in this volume some personality changes in the odd assortment of retainers who keep the infamous house at 67 Clarges Street, in London's Mayfair, at the ready for whatever entrepreneur will rent it as a launching pad into the London social season. This time the renters are an unlikely couple, the Goodenoughs, apparently father and daughter, she a great beauty, he silent and mysterious. Their secrets eventually become known to the downstairs troupe, but the indomitable butler Rainberd rallies the support forces. When Emily Goodenough's social gaffes and earthy winsomeness capture the ton's most eligible bachelor, another successful season at the house comes to a close.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This fifth volume in Chesney's A House for the Season novels is characteristic of the author honored as "the outstanding Regency series writer" of 1986. Although she writes to formula, Chesney is inventive in the limited milieu. Followers of the series will notice in this volume some personality changes in the odd assortment of retainers who keep the infamous house at 67 Clarges Street, in London's Mayfair, at the ready for whatever entrepreneur will rent it as a launching pad into the London social season. This time the renters are an unlikely couple, the Goodenoughs, apparently father and daughter, she a great beauty, he silent and mysterious. Their secrets eventually become known to the downstairs troupe, but the indomitable butler Rainberd rallies the support forces. When Emily Goodenough's social gaffes and earthy winsomeness capture the ton's most eligible bachelor, another successful season at the house comes to a close.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: St Martins Mass Market Paper; First Edition edition (September 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312910614
• ISBN-13: 978-0312910617
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #721,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lowly maid the CATCH of the Season? ?, October 10, 2000

By 

Ruth A. Caldwell "Highland Princess Mum" (Walnut Creek, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Adventuress: A Novel of Regency England (A House for the Season, Book 5) (Hardcover)

Beauty is a powerful magnet and if done properly can fool all of high society's gentility. Emily shares in a bequest and becomes the darling of society, however, rumor begins that she is a runnaway maid and her "uncle" a former butler. The fifth volume of "A House for the Season" is delightful and fun. Emily gets into a tangle that only the servents can pull her out of.

3.0 out of 5 stars worst in the series, but still worth reading...., March 2, 2008

By 

retroredux - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Adventuress (A House for the Season, Book 5) (Paperback)

I am reading Chesney's "A House For The Season" series in order. Book 5-The Adventuress, is, in my opinion, the worst so far of the series, and a book I'd only recommend to die hard Regency or Chesney readers wanting to read the whole series.

Chesney seemed to "jump the shark" with this particular book as she had everyone-hero, heroine, and sadly some of the servants-behaving in absolutely asinine and "too stupid to live" ways.

The heroine, Emily was a throughly unlikeable woman in relation to the other heroines in the series. She is very naive, gullible, vain,and very greedy. Her behavior while lying to the Earl, but not telling him the truth because of her greed at becoming a Countess was frankly sickening.

The Earl is not much better. He has an irrational hatred of servants since the death of his first wife. It seems his staffs gossiping almost sent him to the gallows for her murder (that he's innocent of BTW)-but he carries his, frankly weird, hate for ANY servant with him-for the next EIGHT YEARS. He treats the 67 Clarges staff-whom the reader has grown to love-heartlessly and rudely. Honestly-both hero and heroine are some of the worst I've seen in a Regency-totally unlikable-you won't CARE how their story ends.

Finally Chesney's decision to have one particular servant behave 360 degrees from their behavior in the past four books had me rushing to finish this book and move on to book 6.

Only minor, glimmering moments of good writing as we've seen in the other books has convinced me not to give The Adventuress less than 3 stars. And it is those moments only that would recommend this otherwise bad book.

3 stars.