Customer Reviews

A Comfortable Wife

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This book is NOT a Cynster novel. It is the last current book
in the series that runs "The reasons for marriage", "A Lady of expectations", and "An unwilling conquest"...

The book also runs along the regency style of writing, not the
more risque/explicit Cynster writing. The love themes through the book restrain themselves to the usual regency passionate kisses and breast fondling scenes. The "bridle" night does not get explicit, merely poetic. So, if you are looking for Cynster spicyness, wait for Amanda's novel in April 2002, "On a wild night".

If you are looking for "tame" regency style romance, this is the book for you. How Antonia Mannings finds out what Philip truly wants in a wife is very entertaining. At no time is the heroine portrayed as flighty, blind, or cowardly. She is portrayed as very astute and intent on having Philip as her husband. Philip balks at manipulation, but in the end, its fun watching him do the pursuing.

Enjoy!

Ruthven and Antonia are more mature, less prone to flightiness than many romantic couples. One problem with the characterizations is that we are told that Ruthven is a rake, but we see no events that prove it. Antiona, however, is near perfect as a heroine: strong and warm, but wrong in some of her beliefs. They make a good couple, but I would have liked more evidence of their friendship as youngsters.

There's a minor subplot involving another couple and one with Ruthven being a role model for Antonia's younger brother, but the primary focus is definitely on the hero and heroine. There are no steamy love scenes, but a great deal of romance, friendship, honesty, and genuine affection. In some ways, it's a much more realistic story.

It's not Laurens' best book, but it's a welcome departure from the redundancy that eventually accompanies reading Cynster book after Cynster book. Published in 1997, A Comfortable Wife is more in the mold of Georgette Heyer than the newer, racier novels. I liked it, but rated it 3 stars for missed potential and it not being her best.

I started reading stephanie laurens with her cynster series. I grew real used to the sensuality and explicit sex scenes. I was originally disappointed with the somewhat tame nature of this novel. I then discovered that regency novels were different from the historicals. I gave this novel three stars because I prefer her other style of writing. However, this novel is very good. The heroine is a strong female, just like in her other novels. The sex scenes aren't very steamy, but she is talented writer and the novel is very captivating. If you are looking for a novel like the cynster series, I wounldn't bother with this one, but if you are looking for a good regency romance novel, then I highly recommend this novel.

This is another of Laurens' earlier - and thus much better-written - novels. A Comfortable Wife pre-dates the Cynster series by some years, and thus carries much more in the way of an authentic `feel' about it. It is also far less formulaic than her later work. In that case, it should be much, much better as a novel - and yet it is not.

Antonia Mannering has been shut away in the country taking care of her sick mother for many years; thus, she is in her mid-twenties and still not presented and has not been in Society much at all. Now orphaned, she is visiting her godmother, the Dowager Countess Ruthven - who is stepmother to Antonia's childhood friend Philip, Lord Ruthven (*not* Lord Philip Ruthven, as the cover claims). Years ago, Philip and Antonia used to play together, but will he still remember her when they meet again? Antonia has decided that she would like to marry her old friend, and that she would make him the sort of comfortable wife he needs. In his early 30s now, he is a rake, but he needs to settle down and have an heir for his estate.

Philip, on first seeing Antonia again, is struck by her beauty and remembers how much he enjoyed her company. Reluctantly - for he suspects a plot - he is drawn to spend more and more time with her, and realises that he wants to marry her. (He's fallen in love with her, but - as with many of her other books - Laurens fails to *show* him falling in love, realising he's in love and deciding what to do about it). The proposal comes less than halfway through the book. Result: romantic tension at an end.

Antonia agrees to marry Philip, but only if he will keep their engagement a secret until she's been to London for the Little Season. As she explains, she's been out of Society for so long that she has no idea how to behave. She's worried that she'll be a bad wife to him, that she will somehow disgrace him by not knowing how to behave. Thus we have half a book-full of misunderstandings, mishaps and pointless silliness while Antonia finds her way through the traps of the Polite World. And just as we think the torture is over, yet another pointless misunderstanding occurs.

Laurens would have been better off making this book a novella, lengthening the courtship in the first few chapters and eliminating just about everything after the couple arrives in London - it would have been a far better story that way.

wmr-uk

Where to start? I hate this book. I would give it negative stars if I could.

This book is a horrible caricature of a true Regency novel. It's not witty, compelling, or sophisticated like the novels of Georgette Heyer. To compare this author to Ms. Heyer is a gross injustice. There is enough brow raising and chin lifting in this one novel to fill hundreds of Regency stories. The writing is atrocious, and the dialog is repetitive. Overuses of the word "inveigle," "subsumed," and a handful of other ten dollar words convice me that the author is in love with her thesaurus. There are sentences with no verbs. Other poorly constructed sentences such as "let her senses slide into a world of sensation," run rampant, ...

About 40 miserable pages into this novel, I decided to start over. Since I was deriving no enjoyment from it whatsoever, I wanted to really examine the writing. The result was gorge rising. I was lost in a world of the most purple of prose. Where to focus? Perhaps the overuse of the word "gaze" (I stopped counting once the word was used 100 times) or maybe the tendency of our heroine's chin to lift or tilt all the time (she should have a doctor look at that), but what really grabbed my attention was how many times the characters lifted their respective brows. I counted. The hero lifts his brow sardonically, haughtily, resignedly, and every other way you can imagine 55 times. The heroine raises hers only 22 times and the other characters hit the all time low of 5 times. In a given exchange, the hero can raise his brows up to 4 times. This is completely ridiculous. ...

I loved all the Bar Cynster novels! When I saw Ms. Laurens name on this novel, I assumed that this novel would be of the same strain as the others!! How wrong could one person be?? This book by far was the most boring I have read in several years. I sat through thinking it was going to get better, it finally got better when I finished reading the last page and closed the book!I went and re-read one of her other novels just to get the "bad taste" out of my brain from reading this novel! I do not recommend this book at all!

This is a good book in the way of regencies. Antonia is a mature, beautiful woman and I'm thankful that this is not a regency in which the main female character is an indecisive brat. I've read the other reviews in which the people were disappointed with the book, but this is because the type of book they were reading was different from what they expected.

A "regency" is a romance with rules. There's rarely any blatant sensuality and if you read regencies published in the '70s or '80s (now out of print, they can be found in your local library or purchased used), you oft won't even see a kiss between the heroine and hero until the end. A "regency-era historical" is the classification for Cynster books. They are romances set in a time period of the author's choice.

I have read all of Ms. Lauren's book, and this was far and away the most boring. As one of the other reviewers noted - yes, it is more like a "Classical" Regency novel. In other words ... it's a snooze-fest.

I read this book in its original print edition. The story is well crafted and the characters have depth that makes their eventual coming together believable. For those who started (as I did) on the wonderful 'manners' based novels of Georgette Heyer the style will be welcome. Laurens has great talent in making the story and language fit with the era. Many other novelists merely transfer the mores and language of modern characters into an historical setting. Laurens makes it real!
A very feel-good read that I think many will appreciate for its warmth of feeling.

I love Stephanie Laurens and have read every single book she's put out. This one, however, was a big disappointment. There didn't seem to be a plot. She wants to marry him, he wants to marry her. She wants to wait until after the Little Season. He agrees. That's it. They go to parties and he's proud of the way she handles herself, she feels she can make him a good wife and at the end, they're in love. I just saved you reading the book, aren't I helpful?
But please, read all of her other books!!