Customer Reviews

The Colonel's Lady

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

 

 

For the first half of this book I found it a little disappointing, especially after 'Lord Gresham's Lady,' 'An Unsuitable Match' and others by Patricia Oliver. The heroine, Regina, seemed to be a spoilt and selfish little madam, which is unusual for Oliver: her heroines are usually sensible, intelligent women with a well-developed sense of humour. However, Regina did improve later in the book, and I ended up enjoying it.

It was interesting to encounter both Gresham and Wolverton in a book set before both of their own stories; I would also love to see Oliver write a book with David Laughton as the hero. He has cropped up in a few of her books now, and he sounds intriguing as well as having a mysterious and sad past.

I am surprised by many of the reviews of this book. I rather liked the spoiled Regina. Too many Regency heroines are so perfect, it makes me gag. Instead, Regina was rich, spoiled, used to getting her own way but had the luck of falling in love with a total loser. Richard, who ended up marrying her to save her reputation and protect his philandering brother Charles (the loser), has his own imperfections. He distrusts most women he meets when his real enemy (and betrayer) was his own brother.

There were a lot of misunderstandings which made the book a little long and laborious to read through. It also took Regina an awful long time to realize the truth about Charles but in real life it seems to take forever to admit the man you love is unworthy. Instead, forced into an unwanted marriage with the (seemingly) cold Richard, Regina finds what an honorable man is like.

I liked the secondary characters. I loved that Regina's four brothers were so protective and I liked that Richard and Charles got a little taste of her brother's love.

I always find Oliver's books interesting. This book was different from other Regencies she has written, but I liked it and would not have missed it.

I bought this book a couple of years ago because of its place in the series of Oliver's Corinthian books. I started it but never finshed it - except for skipping to the end to see how it came out. Why - I thought the heroine's behaviour was so childish and self-centered that I lost patience. I find that my enjoyment of any book - but any romance most of all - depends on the development of the principal characters. If I don't like the people, then... so long. I have lots of other books waiting to be read.
PS - I was reminded how much I disliked REgina when meeting her again in Oliver's latest - about Daphne (another loser, sorry to say).
PPS - Please don't be put off the entire series by these two books - the first ones are excellent!

Lucky Lady Regina. Having fallen in love with the wrong man - and having considered herself secretly engaged to him for two years (during which time he gives her only a paltry garnet ring and never writes one single letter), on a whim, Lady Regina dashes off to Brussels during the Hundred Days to meet up with her "fiance" and demand that he marry her. She bursts in on Wellington and claims that she is engaged to his Staff Officer - one Swinburne. The only officer by that name is her "fiance"'s older brother Colonel Sir Richard Swinburne, whom Regina disliked on sight. He is not thrilled to find that Staff gossip has him engaged to a duke's daughter.

Despite her mistake, and despite the fact that her "fiance"'s loathsome character is soon revealed, Lady Regina insists on sticking around, so that Charles Swinburne will do the right thing - not by her, but by a governess he has seduced (and why not the other two non-English women?). Her angry father and two of her brothers arrive and force her to marry Swinburne. Richard agrees principally out of honour - to save his family name and to protect his brother (who he has been protecting all his life). Lady Regina is furious with this enforced marriage and storms back to England. She spends the next few months with her aunt and refuses to meet her father.

When Colonel Sir Richard Swinburne returns from Waterloo, he finds his wife missing and collects her from a dance. They return to his estate when Regina is pleasantly surprised to find that she likes her mother-in-law, a gentle if ineffectual lady. She also finds her husband reluctant to consummate the marriage, not surprisingly given that she has told him that she finds him distasteful to her, and has implied that she has known pre-marital bliss with his younger brother. Charles is a downright cad who clearly should have been thrown out long ago; he had seduced Richard's first fiancee and had promised marriage many many times to young girls around the estate. Regina does not bother to correct Richard's impressions of her relationship with his brother, nor does she sit down to have a serious talk.

Instead, she returns to see her ailing father only under duress (when her husband forces her to go). During that time, she spills the beans about her unsatisfactory marital status. When she returns to the Swinburne estate, she has been reconciled with her father but she still is not sleeping with her husband. it is not until Charles returns and implies that he has known Regina intimately, that Regina has a serious quarrel with Richard (whom she told earlier that Charles was her lover, remember?). She decamps to her family, and her four brothers proceed to beat up her husband - although he gives a good account of himself. Charming, isn't it?

Regina does mature by the end, but only a little. Richard is a hero who clearly regrets his leniency towards his lying wastrel brother and the scene where Charles is beaten up (shown briefly) is deeply satisfying if long overdue. Despite this one weakness (and another, that he failed to ask some much-needed questions of his first fiancee), Richard Swinburne - a mere baronet - is an admirable and honourable man. Lady Regina is however, not just her daddy's pet but a heroine who seriously needs to grow up. By the end of the book, we do see her carrying out some of her obligations as lady of the house - but on her father's estate.

Personally, I felt that the couple were mis-matched, that Richard deserved a far better wife, and that the spoiled Lady Regina not only needed to grow up but that she was lucky in the husband she had forced on her. I did not find the romance between Richard and Regina credible; it was a story of Richard making the best of a bad situation, and Regina realizing how lucky she was in marrying the "wrong" brother. Some of the characters were very strong, particularly the duchess who could not relate to her only daughter and the jealous and over-protective brothers. Unfortunately, this romance had the wrong heroine.

Rating = 2.6 (D+)
Breakdown = romance 1.0 (F); plot 2.8 (C-); characterization 3.0 (C); writing 3.8 (B)

I was a little disappointed in this book. When I recognised the names of some of the characters, I was initially delighted because of the connections to other books in Oliver's Seven Corinthians series. For instance, Regina Heathercott is the sister of Robert Heathercott, the Earl of Gresham (Lord Gresham's Lady), and is a good friend of Guy Hawkhurst (An Unsuitable Match) - not that either of these men play much of a part in this book, unfortunately.

Regina begins the book - and remains for at least half of it - as a spoilt, selfish and demanding brat, which was very disappointing, since Oliver's heroines are normally more likeable. She did improve later and became a genuinely nice, considerate person, but by then I'd lost sympathy with her and all my sympathies rested with poor Richard, who'd been forced to marry her. (Incidentally, 'arrogant'? Hardly! ).

The last couple of chapters were amusing, largely for the opportunity to meet Regina's brothers, but overall, while I've read almost every other Oliver I possess at least twice, this one still hasn't cried out for a second read.

Ms. Oliver knows how to bring characters to life in her stories the same way that Patricia Veryan does. In The Colonel's Lady, Regina learns that a handsome face doesn't always have a caring heart. This story has great pacing, fight scenes, love scenes, secondary characters, and composition. It's a very enjoyable read.