Customer Reviews

Barely a Lady (The Drake's Rakes series)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I could make a list of ten things in this book that readers might say have been overdone (spies, check, the author's afterword says "blame it on Richard Sharpe"; amnesia, check; Waterloo, check; the big mis, check; etc.). However, Dreyer has built characters and a plot that held me to a solid read in which my interest never flagged from when it came in the mail yesterday evening until I went to bed waaaayyy too late. That's what a good author can do for the reader.

Not everyone will like it. Not one single person in the book is perfect (although one of the secondary characters comes close). Certainly the hero and heroine are not perfect, although the heroine is much-put-upon.

Warning: This review is not spoiler free.

I was initially so excited about this one. The author was new to me and I haven't read a historical romance in a while. I had no expectations, though, but to be entertained. Unfortunately, the feeling that I was left with wasn't that pleasant one obtained upon finishing a satisfying read. Instead, I'm pissed at the characters and, to some extent, the author for giving me such an infuriating story. I actually didn't make it to the end by straight-forward reading. After a while, I had to skim the darn thing in order to avoid permanently throwing it down and make it to its end. It all started with Mimi.

Who's Mimi, you say? Why, she's the mysterious woman that the hero, Jack, is enamored with throughout the majority of the novel. Even while his feelings for Olivia (his ex-wife) are rekindled. You might not think this is such a big deal, but I had a difficult time choking down a romance where the most romantic feelings that the hero had were for someone other than heroine. In fact, so romantic were his feelings for Mimi that he was often repulsed by the heroine's nearness and/or touch. On top of this, he's constantly angry with Olivia and he has lingering feelings of doubt about her from their past. A past in which, as he learns slowly during his recovery from amnesia, includes him believing lies about her and subsequently throwing him out on her PREGNANT behind. Apparently they hadn't been married for long when this all happened. They were still in the honeymoon stage which, in my opinion, makes Jack even more loathsome. Overnight the love of your life goes from the sweetest girl in the world to a lying whore? And you take this for fact based all on one person's word? And you don't even have the guts to ask her about it? What a sorry excuse for a man.

Olivia's no better. Sure, she's wary of Jack and her love for him. She (rightfully) no longer trusts him. But as the story progresses she begins to make excuse after excuse for him, ultimately forgiving all of his heinous crimes against her and their (formerly unborn) child. Crimes that led her family to reject her and caused her to live life on the run away from her child while barely scraping by. She's not an unlikable woman altogether, but one can't even properly sympathize with her due to her silly acceptance of Jack.

I'm all for flawed characters - who wants a boringly perfect pair in a romance? But these people were utterly ridiculous. I have no problem with Dreyer's writing style, however, nor do I have anything against the secondary characters that will star in the next Drake's Rakes book. Just don't expect me to pick it up.

I gave the book 3.5 stars because I was too curious to put it down. I didn't even like the book towards the end, but still I read on! The character responses were patently unbelievable in places, and the plot line was very confusing at times, but still. You just had to keep reading to see what else would pop up! Yes, this book was a romance, but there was a good bit of mystery involved as well. Unfortunately, it was a poorly explained mystery, and there were a great many different ones throughout the book. When one question was answered, it left the reader with a feeling of 'huh? when did that happen? what's going on!?" rather than an "AHA! So THAT'S how they did it!"

****Spoilers Ahead*****


For instance, the reader was led to believe throughout the entire novel that the heroine's little boy had been poisoned and killed by the evil cousin. Even when reading the heroines point of view, it never even hinted that her son was alive. Imagine my surprise when she just blurts out that oh yes, he's alive and well. I could understand hiding his continued existence from all the heroines dialogue, but even in her thoughts?! She would even think about how sad she was that he had died, how she missed him so, how she couldn't bear to think of her poor little dead boy, etc,etc...This was all THINKING now, not her actual words. I might be mistaken, but generally, the reader gets the truth when seeing a scene through a main characters eyes. This is just one of the many examples of poor solved mysteries I mentioned above.

Also, to be honest, I found the hero and the heroine disgusting and unbelievable by turns. The hero, and I use the term loosely, threw his pregnant wife (the heroine) out the front door of his large home with nothing but the clothes on her back. This would be after he shoots and killed her beloved cousin out of misplaced jealousy. Oh, and did I mention he also believes her to be a gambling hooker? His cousin told him so (the evil one) and he believed him immediately.
Her family also throws her out (of course) and she spends 5 years trying to find work to feed her baby. She's all angry, until, of course, she gets one look at the hero's face. Then she forgives him. And when the hero gets amnesia (I merely rolled my eyes at this plot twist)and can't remember the last 5 years and thinks they're still married, she goes along with it, because 'it might kill him to be forced to remember'. Also, because she wants to spend time with him. Because she loves him so. Well he's certainly worthy of it! (not)
For the hero's part, he spent the last 5 years doing spy work for Britain. And before you think he's so noble, let me assure you, he found himself a new woman that he swore he loved, while his pregnant starving wife wandered around. He's injured and he keeps calling for his new woman, right in front of his ex-wife. In a moment of 'passion' he called out his mistress' name. The heroine merely shrugs it off as if it were nothing and continues to take care of him and be very concerned for his welfare. The author also tossed in some lurid sex scenes of the heroine remembering of how it 'was' with her husband, you know, before he threw her out.
Quite frankly, I thought the 'hero' was a shallow, stupid, worthless excuse for a man. The heroine was naive, stupid, and just so sweet and charming that she forgave her ex-husband without a pause and slept with him some more. I can't decide which part of the plot I find the most ridiculous, but I think it's the heroine's reaction to the hero. No actual woman would just forgive someone without a pause who had treated them so very very badly. The heroine's face was also cut badly towards the end of the novel and apparently left a large scar on her face. It was mentioned in one sentence, then never again. So this woman, who has so little self-respect that she lets such a poor excuse for man take complete advantage of her, has no worries about a huge scar on her face? Nothing? Not even a 'will he still find me attractive?" Sheesh.

*************

I know I just ripped the plot apart above, but all that being said, I really couldn't put it down. It was just so ludicrous, I had to know what victim-based notion the heroine was about to do, and what hateful thing the hero was going to say that the heroine would immediately forgive him for. Some of the mysteries were somewhat interesting, and I have read many worse old English romance novels than this one. The writing could be confusing, mis-leading, and vague, but it wasn't necessarily poor writing, just poor plot choices. I love romance novels and read then constantly, and I must say, I have never had such dis-like for the hero EVER. I've dis-liked other heroines in other stories more, but this hero really took the cake. I found myself hoping he would die about half-way through the book so maybe the heroine could try and find a little self-respect. In the end, I am unsure whether I recommend this book or not. Hence the 3.5 stars, instead of a high ranking. I read it through to the end very quickly, which I don't do with books I hate, but the characters were so un-likable that the fact that I read it so fast still surprises me. So as to if you should read it or not, I guess I say 'its up to you'.

I borrowed this book from the library. Thank Goodness. I won't spend money on this one. After read it once and went back again to make sure I didn't miss any plot. Yep! This is a pretty bad one. This plot is jumping all over. So many characters were brought in but won't tight together. And the happy ending..is it really a happy ending?

Here we have 1. A jerk hero (Jack) who A.always listened to and totally believed in his cousin (Gervaise) and his family like a 5 years old boy; B. accused our poor heroine (Olivia) of gambling, having an affair, then chased her out of the house, divorced her and never ever wanted to see her again, had a dearest mistress (Mimi) in France whom he loved so much that he even thought of her while sexually engaged with our poor Olivia. C. Most of his time thought of Mimi's laughter, beautiful "blond hair, big blue eyes, breast like pomegranates". Got enough of the jerk? More in the book!

2. Our heroine (Olivia) has no bones (or brain). Though got trashed by Jack over and over-- he left her for 5 years (again never planned to see her and, had a love of his life with Mimi), she found him almost death, brought him back to heal him,. found out he lost his memory and he still thought they were married. In his delirious state kept calling for Mimi. It didn't matter for her, because she loved him so much, decided to have sex with him. Later his memory returned, he called her "back-alley whore" and much more. All what she could do while he yelled at her was "closed her eyes struggling against the rancor, squeezed her eyes shut, desperate that he should never see this new anguish" She has to be the lowest heroine in the romance novel.

3. The plot is worse. You have to guess who do what. We know for sure Gervaise was up to something bad. Later we found he and Mimi were lovers and he was a traitor. His character was not quite make sense, he wanted Olivia, chased after her all over the country, then told the "Surgeon" to kill her (P.343). 4. The surgeon; who is he? Who did he work for? Was he a part of "Lions"? How did he get information about Jack's and Olivia's escape? He didn't get it from Gervaise. Was Mimi his superior? (she trained him to use knife). 5. Mimi, Was she a part of "Lions"? Why did she kill Gervaise? So he wouldn't speak out? Against whom? What about Jack? Why didn't she kill Jack while they were lovers? If she worked for the secret service she must have known what he was doing then (he got a list they all wanted). After she killed Gervaise, I thought she would show up in Jack's life either to harm Olivia or Jamie. That will be a good way to end the relationship with Jack and Mimi ie. She tries to harm Olivia and Jack has to choose his loyalty between his wife or his mistress. Nope. She killed Gervaise and walked home.(which mean she was living in London not Paris at that time.) No mention about her again. 6.Jack lost his memory. We didn't know how. While he tried to regain his memory..no one...no..one could gave him a peep of what happened to him because it could "kill" him. I just got to laugh. What kind of plot is this? The whole story was about waiting for Jack to regain his memory. 7. Jack was in jail for 4 months (why?) They knew he got a list why not killed him then? (Mimi could have done the job) Then he just joined the French army after his escape? How? What a joke! Oh! some times while in France he found out Gervaise was a traitor and he was wrong about Olivia (p.354-355) but he still carried a picture of Mimi with him. Can the plot get worse than this?

4. What guarantee Olivia have that Jack will always faithful to her? None. The issue with Mimi never been discussed between them. The author went over board to describe Jack's strong feeling toward Mimi but never resolved Jack's feelings toward her at the end. He heard from Gervaise she was also Gervaise's lover. Then the issue was brushed off. This is the key issue for building trust and love between Jack and Olivia. He told Olivia she was the love of his life but he also told Mimi "I loved you, Mimi, to distraction " Does this sound like a man whom you can trust , love, happily live your life with forever? I guess not.

There are many more frauds in this book but these have to be enough for me. The author kept put one plot after another but no resolve, no answer. I can't believe the author won so many awards in the past. This book is a mess. Maybe she plans to resolve these problems in her next book (story of Grace and Diccan). But I can't read her work anymore. It's too frustrated.

You can always tell when the reviews range from one to five stars with most in between that there is something amiss with the romance. This one is no different. This is a first in a trilogy (Barely A Lady, Never A Gentleman and Always A Temptress) and the author's first Regency romance. Dreyer writes very well, both the language, descriptions and characters are true to the time period. A lot of research went into this one. For that she gets full marks. The story is set in an interesting time in history, has a good plot, a fair amount of suspense, great villains, and interesting and varied members of the ton for amusement. However there are issues...as I describe below...which detract from what could have been a five star romance if they had been corrected.

The story is set in 1815 in Belgium and England and begins on the eve of Waterloo with the hero, Jack Wyndham (who we later learn is the Earl of Gracechurch), facing battle as an officer on a mission. But why is he being addressed in French? We don't know. The heroine, Olivia Grace, is a fallen woman--Jack's disgraced ex-wife, who is working as a governess for a shrew of a woman just to make ends meet. While helping the wounded after the battle and searching the battlefield for a young woman's father, Olivia finds Jack lying wounded and dressed in a French officer's uniform. He treated her so badly she is tempted to leave him there but she doesn't. Instead, she brings him back to the home of her new friend, the beautiful Dowager Duchess of Murther, Lady Kate. When Jack wakes, he has amnesia--and thinks it's five years earlier and he is still married to Olivia. When the doctors tell them they must not tell Jack all they know or it may kill him, Olivia agrees to resume the role of loving wife. In fact, she does love the man who wronged her and threw her out of his home when she was pregnant and without a penny and chose to believe the lie that she was unfaithful to him, and gambled and so on.

There are a fair number of secrets withheld from the reader and some of the negative comments by reviewers relate to when and how those are revealed. (The "tell all" at the end is a bit overwhelming.) And I found some of the characters' angst a bit repetitive. But the major issue relates to the hero and heroine. In many romances the hero is a cad at the beginning and then gradually realizes what a gem the heroine is and finally falls in love with her. I'm ok with that as long as his "conversion" is believable. In this one, however, Jack is kind of a cad until the end (really just a jerk in many places) and that didn't sit real well. When he does come around in the end and realizes he loves her and always did, it is so dramatic it rings a bit false, particularly since he recalls at one point that it ("it" is not explained) was better with his mistress than Olivia, his wife. (I really could not figure out just why the author felt the need to put that in; wasn't it bad enough he had a mistress and didn't pine for Olivia instead?) . The heroine is pretty much a saint. Even when she gets angry she never really loses her temper and in the end she seems to forgive the bastard an awful lot.

I was tempted to give this 3 stars but the writing is much better than most I give 3 stars to. And for me, 3 stars is almost the kiss of death. I give those away. So I decided to give this 4 stars because it held my attention, was well written and was correct in so many ways (history, language, customs, accents, etc.). In other words, I can recommend it. But I couldn't give it 5 stars for the issues.

I gave this book two stars instead of one only because it was very well written and actually kept my interest but I just couldn't get over some of the things in it. The "hero" seemed so lame. He treated the heroine so horribly and I am not even sure he was planning on going back to her. In the beginning it says something about getting revenge, so it seemed to me that was the only interest he had in her till he lost his memory. I think it even said in the book he felt he had been happier with Mimi than he ever was with his wife. In a romance novel you don't really want to feel like the heroine is the runner up and there was to much of his obsession with Mimi that it did feel that way to me. It was confusing to me how he could suddenly feel so much for Olivia when he continued to be preoccupied with Mimi. The other thing that bothered me was how Olivia just seemed to forget about the whole past. I still liked her character but actually found myself wanting her to get a backbone and go find a man that would treat her right. I didn't think Jack deserved another chance with her. I wanted her to go find someone, be happy and have him watch it all and be miserable. Maybe that is a little cruel but I just didn't like his character.

The premise of Barely a Lady, the first book in the Drake's Rakes series, was interesting: the hero Jack is an earl and he marries Olivia, a vicar's daughter. They had eleven months of a passionate wedded bliss but his family was against the match and did all they can, with a lot of help from Jack's manipulative evil cousin Gervaise, to separate them. They finally succeeded when Jack found Olivia in the arms of her "lover"--Jack promptly divorced her and tossed her out without a backward glance. Her own family disowned her and Olivia was left with nothing and had to survive on her own as a ruined woman. For five years, Olivia took a different name and hid from society because Gervaise was still after her and she being divorced left her a social pariah. Olivia was in Brussels helping to nurse soldiers when she found a wounded Jack (wearing the uniform of the enemy) close to death in the battlefield. Olivia takes him in but soon found that Jack lost his memory and thinks they are still married. Now, Olivia, who finds herself still attracted to her husband, must help Jack recover his memory before Jack is found and hanged a traitor.

I was really looking forward to reading this book because the hero and heroine were already married and are getting a second chance (one of my favorite romance themes), it is the author's first foray into historical romance (prior she wrote romantic suspense) and I saw it recommended on Publisher's Weekly. I ended up really liking it but I did have issues with the two leads. First, Olivia--she was too perfect and too nice--a long-suffering martyr! After all Jack and his family did to her and the hardship she endured because he didn't trust her, she just took him in. Even at the risk of not only her being charged of aiding a possible traitor but also of her new friends. When Jack recovered his memory and started accusing her of cheating on him again, I wanted her to hurt him or scream at him but all she did was clench her fist and took it. As for Jack, it seems like he will believe everyone else before he believes his wife. He did do a lot of grovelling in the end and that made me feel better but before that I wanted to shake him and knock some sense into him! These two frustrated me at times but they did have a lot of touching scenes together that made me go "awww..." In the end, I believed in their love (even though I haven't entirely forgiven Jack and I thought Gervaise got off easy) and I rooted for them to work things out.

Overall, it was a good read and I really liked it. It's a fast-paced historical and it has interesting secondary characters whose own book I'm itching to read. The intimate scenes were surprisingly spicy, though most were flashbacks from the time Olivia and Jack were married. I thought the novel well-written and I like the author's voice. I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series.

Wow. I was really impressed with Barely a Lady- I have to admit, when I see a cover like this, I don't normally think it will be one that I'm going to love. But I got into it- Lots of suspense! When will I ever learn to stop judging a book by its cover?! This book had me on an emotional roller coaster ride right up until the last page. Dreyer throws you into her inventive, dramatic love story of betrayal and fast plotting immediately... there is non-stop action.

Olivia's heart is ripped from her when she is both betrayed and abandoned by her husband. She's tough, but her strength is tested when she is forced into the world on her own... with an unexpected pregnancy. Five years after surviving alone with her child, she runs into her ex-husband. But something has changed. He thinks they're still in love? He can't seem to remember their cruel past. Hmmm... What's Olivia to do- Will she turn her back on him? Or does she take the opportunity to return to the life she wished she had never lost?

Although this plot has been done before, I can't complain because Dreyer's writing was gripping and the characters were vividly playing their roles in my head. The stories main focus was not on the intimate moments between Jack and Olivia, thankfully- which is why I kept wanting to turn the pages. There was an immense amount of plot twists and suspense, I couldn't stop thinking about the truth behind Jack's situation. This couple has a lot of growing up to do, but with all their obstacles they try to find a way to forgive and stick together through thick and thin. Loved it... can't figure out how Olivia still loves Jack! But I'm a little more stubborn than she ;)

Jack and Olivia aren't the only engrossing characters. The supporting characters are just as entertaining and delightful. They all have their own quirks and stories of pain.

Overall, the storytelling was well written and researched- I would suggest this one to any Historical Romance junkie! Definitely planning on reading the next in the series, can't wait to read it!

I liked this one a lot. It had so much suspense in it. The build up to find out Olivia's secret was so great. In the mean time we're introduced to quite a few characters who all seem to have some kind of secret of their own. This one really had me guessing all the way through it. Jack's memory loss makes finding out the secrets so much better.

I have to say that this one had a lot of anticipation build up. But I think the ending was well worth the anticipation. The pay off is well worth it.

The writing was great, the main characters were well developed. The secondary characters weren't as developed but they still had their own stories and they felt like they were real people. I think my favorite character was Lady Bea, even though she doesn't play a huge role she was very interesting, to say the least. Lady Kate was also a great character. She could have come off as being a brat, but I ended up really liking her. Although it did take me a while to warm to her. Then there's Olivia and Jack. There was so much suspense there. So many questions as to what happened in their lives that have led them to where they are now.

This one really did have everything; romance, suspense, thrill, anticipation, and a great climax. It seems some of the books I've read lately have been so anti-climatic that this one really sticks out too me.

Olivia lost her standing in polite society following her divorce from the Duke of Gracechurch. The scandal left Grace with few options. Currently she is a stay out of the Ton's way companion with a young son.

She accompanies her employer Mrs. Bottomly and her three daughters to Brussels where much of the Ton has temporarily relocated from London as the war heats up in nearby Waterloo. Once the battle ends, Olivia tries to help the wounded when she finds her former husband Jack, lying unconscious wearing the enemy's uniform. Stunned that Jack would betray their country, she nurses him, but he has limited amnesia; unaware of what he or Olivia has done for the last five years; in fact he believes they remain married. She pretends to be his wife in order to learn if her ex is a traitor. As they fall back in love, someone lurks in the shadows ready to destroy both of them.

Barely a Lady is a thrilling Regency romance with an intriguing beginning as the Ton has relocated to be near the battlefield, but the galas continue even with blood flowing. In fairness some of the nobles die during the battle, others like Jack are injured and some of the ladies volunteer to help. The story line is fast-paced from the moment Olivia finds Jack and never slows down. Although amnesia is a frequently used matchmaking mechanism, Eileen Dreyer keeps her plot fresh with the underlying question of whether he is a traitor.

Harriet Klausner