Almost a Lady [Kindle Edition]

Jane Feather (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

At 29, Meg feels constricted by the tight reins of English society, and her rapidly approaching designation as a spinster makes her yearn for excitement, which she gets in spades. While walking home from the lending library, sailors mistakenly identify her as a privateer. Their captain, Cosimo, decides to use Meg in his plot against Napoleon. With unusual sangfroid, she sees this interlude on the high seas as an adventure as they travel to the island of Sark in the English Channel. Cosimo intends to seduce Meg so that she will become a willing accomplice as they travel covertly through France. However, she balks when she discovers the nastier implications of spying, and Cosimo begins to wonder if the gently reared woman he is coming to care for is really cut out to live a spy's life. In her latest historical romance, Feather presents a multilayered story about society, love, and the personal consequences of war. Patty Engelmann
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description

In this exhilarating new novel of romance and intrigue, New York Times bestselling author Jane Feather tells the tale of an adventurous young woman and the hardened spy who is unexpectedly–and most inconveniently–captivated by her....

Independent and inquisitive, Meg Barratt wants nothing to do with any stifling society marriage. Meg yearns for the kind of passion that exists only in books–until a violent storm lands her on the high seas with the most dangerous and seductive man she’s ever encountered…or imagined.

For Cosimo, women are objects, to be manipulated for business or pleasure…sometimes both. But when the seafaring assassin accidentally kidnaps Meg on his latest mission, he must reconsider his position. Recruiting his unsuspecting captive for the danger ahead is far more challenging than he expected–and far more seductive.


From the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 338 KB
• Publisher: Bantam (December 27, 2005)
• Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000FCKKOY
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,877 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The heroine is unappealing, December 30, 2005

By 

Kathy Kaiser - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Almost a Lady (Mass Market Paperback)

I understand the need for romance writers to make their heroines more appealing to the 21st century reader, but it's a mistake for them to do so. Too many times, romance writers make their heroines promiscuous, and it is just not believeable in an historical time frame. Meg is supposed to have been raised in a strict society home and life, and yet she has had many affairs while still being an unmarried young woman. It turned me off. I enjoy the chase and seduction theme as much as the next person, but I need the plot to remain true to the historical context as much as possible. This just didn't do that. And, to top it off, Bonaparte himself is a character in the novel. Ridiculous. Don't bother with Feather's latest book.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars So help me, I wasted my money; I hate it, January 12, 2006

By 

C. Reeves "television and romance addict" (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Almost a Lady (Mass Market Paperback)

This is Jane Feather's worst book ever. I am more than halfway through it, and I can already see where this is going.

Meg Barratt is a relatively well-off young spinster living in Folkstone, England. Gradually the reader is expected to gather that she is somewhat intelligent, well-read, unconventional, and "free-thinking." At least that is what we are supposed to think. She comes across as short-sighted and thoughtless to me when she is suddenly brouhgt aboard a privateer's ship when she is accidentally knocked unconscious one night. She just kind of allows herself to be sweet-talked into staying on board with the good-looking but shifty captain, Cosimo.

From moment one, I didn't like this guy. It doesn't help that he is an assassin and spy for England during their war with France, under Napoleon's rule. He comes across as arrogant and just kind of selfishly drags Meg into the life of a spy to replace his former lover, Ana. Meg should have known better. Good sex doesn't excuse flaws like working as an assassin, lying, and holding her on a boat against her will. This isn't love. It's Stockholm Syndrome.

I agree with a couple of the other readers on this site that her seeming sensuality and sexual proclivity toward being loose is uncharacteristic of the time, and does nothing to enhance the story. Sometimes, the best things about historical romances are "deflowerings," and the build-up toward the heroine "becoming a woman." That should happen when the heroine decides to fall in love with the hero. It shouldn't just happen because the heroine is "just along for the ride," literally and figuratively.

Cosimo is passive-aggressive; all throughout the book he plays games with Meg, acts hostile when he doesn't get his way, and he never apologizes to her when he is in the wrong. I HATE that.

The only likable character in the story was Cosimo's macaw, Gus. That's sad.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Absolute Worst Jane Feather Book., January 28, 2006

By 

labby - See all my reviews

This review is from: Almost a Lady (Mass Market Paperback)

I can't believe the hero fell for the heroine. I thought Ana sounded like a real heroine by all the comparisons made by Cosimo. The idea that a woman during the time period was only supportive of killing a man that was a monster to her country out of love, vs. a woman that hated the tyranny Napolean represented was a joke. I felt that all the comparison's made between Ana and Meg were supposed to make us see that Meg was a better person for the hero, except they only made me see Meg as a shallow and self-absorbed woman by comparison and made me wish the hero to have Ana. Meg has got to be one of the most unlikable heroines I've ever seen in a historical romance. I was digusted by how it was foreplay when Meg flirted with other men in front of Cosimo.

I am sorry I wasted the money on the book, it was a terrible disappointment. The author has written a number of books that I've liked, but she is hit or miss. And this is definitely a miss on her part.

The hero puts England second to his "love", until she tells him a little late that he should continue. What a joke.

This was very lazy writing, poor history, modern cliches, and just plain awful.