Customer Reviews

Barely Proper (Zebra Regency Romance)

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

 

 

Here's what I enjoy most about Regency romances written by Shannon Donnelly: she always takes the time to develop her characters, their relationships and the various settings. And with "Barely Proper" these three strengths melds together to give a somewhat much used plot premise a wonderful new lease on life.

Terence Winslow has always been a scapegrace, in and out of trouble either because of his gambling or his womanizing. So it should have come as no surprise to him that he's now been challenged to a duel by Lord Dunscombe for his affair with Lady Dunscombe. Except that when he arrives at the agreed upon spot, he finds that Dunscombe's been shot in the back. The next thing he knows, Terence is facing a charge of murder. Unable to believe his infernal luck, Terence knows that he has to somehow discover who really murdered Dunscombe before charges are formally placed against him. Fortunately for him, his neighbour and friend, Sylvain, is at hand, willing to help. Sylvain knows full well exactly what Terence is capable of, and shooting someone in the back is definitely not one of them. And she's determined to help Terence clear his name. But Sylvain has also long nursed a secret love for her neighbour. And she cannot help but fear what will happen if Terence guesses her secret...

"Barely Proper" rounds off the trilogy that focuses on the Harwood sisters and the Winslow brothers. All three novels feature stories that are not really startlingly new; on the other hand all three novels make for worthwhile reading because of the manner in which Shannon Donnelly tells her tales. In "Proper Conduct" the manner in which the authour draws into the shabby genteel world of the three Harwood sisters who are on the verge of spinsterhood because of their father's folly -- the relationship between the sisters and how each sister's character has been shaped by their circumstances -- was what made reading "Proper Conduct" such fun. Ms Donnelly did the same with "Proper Mistress" -- only this time she drew us into the world of the Winslow brothers, showing us how life with a perpetually angry and judgemental father had made the two brothers rather wild, and how the younger Winslow brother (Theo) is able to change thanks to love and acceptance of his "improper" fiancee. With "Barely Proper" she does for Terence what she did for Theo in "Proper Mistress" -- allowing for Terence to redeem his character and to become to individual he was meant to be. Discovering who the actual murderer was and exonerating himself of the murder charge was only incidental to the main focus of this novel which was all about how Sylvain and Terence act on the feelings they have for each other and how Terence changes most of his scapegrace ways.

With an intelligent story, engaging characters and a good prose style, "Barely Proper" turned out to be a truly enjoyable read.

I wont give the plot here because others have done it in their reviews and there is no need to rehash it. I did enjoy reading this book.

I loved it that Terrance had grown up as a neighbor to Sylvain. Included were some sweet childhood stories that gave nice depth, but didn't drag on too long. The characters were well developed with enough personal flaws to keep it interesting. I loved the ending!

I would recommend this book if you like your romance books with real characters, mild to moderate mystery, plenty of plot, and mild blush factor (kisses only).

4 stars for story, I appreciate a romance that focuses on a good plot rather than the bedroom,
2.5 starts for editing which sometimes caused me to have to reread parts to see that a wrong word was used, etc.

Shannon Donnelly's latest novel is "Barely Proper" which is filled with characters from her previous novels (including "Proper Mistress" and "Proper Conduct")

The heroine of the novel is Sylvain Harwood, the shy, reserved sister from "Proper Conduct." Sylvain, a gentle spirit, spends her time wandering about the woods, tending to wounded animals. The hero is Terrance Winslow, the trouble-making rogue from Donnelly's two previous novels. He thinks of Sylvain as his friend, and has known her since she was a little girl.

Terrance, a notorious womanizer, has landed himself in a spot of trouble. A jealous husband challenges him to a duel... and then winds up dead. Terrance, now a suspect in a murder case, ends up gravely wounded--and it's Sylvain who tends to him.

I was really looking forward to this book, mainly because of sweet Sylvain. She was always an intriguing secondary character in Donnelly's last novels (and I would recommend both of those). However, I was a bit disappointed. I didn't think Sylvain and Terrance interacted enough; therefore, their romance came across as a bit tepid. Also, their romance was overshadowed by the "murder" plot, which I didn't think was overly intriguing.

But it was still enjoyable, and I'm glad I read it. And I would recommend "Barely Proper", especially if you've read its predeccesors.

The premise for the book was interesting and the only thing that kept me reading since there were grammatical and/or spelling errors on each page. I found myself forever re-reading sentences and whole paragraphs trying to make sense of what was written or in most cases trying to determine what was intended. Who edited this book? If it was done by a professional, then fire that person! Future tense mixed with past and present throughout the book. If any proofreading was performed, it was by by spell check only, which as anyone knows will not catch the use of wrong words (i.e., to vs. too or hear vs. here, etc.). The author should do herself a favor and hire an editor or at the very least a good proofreader who is familiar with this time period (especially in creating dialog that transports you).

I have liked all of the books in the series and really enjoy reading Shannon's books. This book however would have made it a 5 but there where a lot of grammer issues. I had to edit while I read. I was thinking it would have been good to use as a grammer correction project. Other then that it was great. I would give it 4.5 stars, .5 star lost to grammer.

I quite enjoyed this last book in the Proper trilogy. The story was interesting and the plot and characters moved along at a nice pace. In Sylvan you have a heroine who's not a shrew, a twit or an idiot. This makes such a nice change in romance novels. Our hero, Terrance's trouble making exterior hides a core of gold.

I won't go into details of the plot, many others have all covered it nicely, except to say it was interesting and kept my attention.

The big letdown of this book was the horrendous formatting, it had pages of underlined text to wade through and the grammatical errors left me sitting here wondering what I was reading. Whilst this is no fault of the author, it detracts from the enjoyment of the book and therefore reflects badly on her.

I found Barely Proper to be a fun-filled romp of levity! Sylvain was a marvelous heroine to the wonderfully rakish Terrance. I had expected this book to be slightly more serious and was plesantly surprised at the wit and humor. Besides the lovely romance, Barely Proper had a nice mystery plot with many terrific characters (including Trace), with none as the villain, unless you count the dead man of course, was practically perfect, and was a pure delight to read. It looks as though Sylvain's sisters have had their own books, as well as Terrance's brother, so I'll have to check and see because I will definitely read more from Shannon Donnelly. :)

I cringe when someone gives a book a bad review because of editing issues. Generally I buy the book anyway and find that yes, a few editing issues exist, but nothing that takes away from the book. Until NOW. This book is horrible (I don't know if its editing or the move from print to Kindle). I could not get through two pages together without having problems figuring out what was being said or done, due to editing. There are some sentences that have no ending, some that end with a completely different idea like part of the book was skipped. There are wrong verb tenses, wrong words used (lose instead of loss, to name one of a hundred). It was difficult to get through this book because of all the errors. I like this author. Her stories are good and characters well developed, but I won't read another one of her books until someone cleans them up before they offer them for sale. I hope the author reads these reviews and fires whoever is in charge of editing them. The author should download the Kindle version of this book and see if she can even recognize it as her work. Ghastly!!!!

I loved the book, I haven't read the previous books in this series, but have already purchased them. There was one problem with this book, Ms. Donnelly or her publisher needs to hire a proof reader. The errors do detract from the enjoyment.