Daphne's Diary (Signet Regency Romance) [Paperback]

Patricia Oliver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2, 2002

Studious Lady Daphne prefers her books over men, so when Lord Alexander Heathercott assumes his good looks will win her over, he'll soon realize how far he'll have to go to unlock her heart...

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Signet (July 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451203992
• ISBN-13: 978-0451203991
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 3.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,533,411 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars she saw something nasty in the folly..., July 2, 2002

By 

tregatt (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Daphne's Diary (Signet Regency Romance) (Paperback)

"Daphne's Diary" has, I think, the distinction of being one of the worst books I've ever read. The heroine (Miss Daphne Hightower) is a melodramatic twit, and the hero (Lord Alexander Heathercott) is a silly fribble -- there was nothing redeeming or likable about either of these two characters -- while the main plot is one of the weakest I've ever come across. Truth to tell I found it hard to believe that the same novelist that wrote "An Unsuitable Match" & "An Inconvenient Wife" (two novels I really loved) also wrote this really trite piece.

Daphne was a starry eyed fifteen year old when she saw something nasty in the folly. Shaken (and terribly stirred), she decamps from her sister's house (she had, up until that point been living with her heavily pregnant sister, Sophia), and makes for her grandfather's home, firmly determined never to marry. Men, Daphne's decided, are all brutes and cads and have unspeakable lusts. The novel than moves ten years forward. Daphne is now twenty-five, and considers herself to be an intelligent and sensible young lady. But she still has two particular bees in her bonnet -- 1) that she was 'damaged' by her youthful experience, and 2) that all men, except her grandfather, are beasts. Now however, her beloved grandfather, whom she had always considered her rock, is making noises that she must get married. Daphne is aghast, but her grandfather seems adamant. Will she be able to sway him to her way of thinking?

And this is where our 'hero' enters the picture. The younger son of a duke, Lord Alexander Heathercott spends his time moving from conquest to conquest. And one day while he is in the park, and on the lookout for his next mistress, he spies Daphne with her dog, and falls promptly in love with this mysterious but aloof beauty, and that she will be his next conquest. (What a gem, this man is!) What follows then is rather predictable storyline that follows Lord Alexander's attempts to woo Daphne, and her attempts to freeze him out. Will Lord Alexander succeed in his plans to seduce Daphne? Will Daphne overcome her fears of men and their lusts and give in to the handsome and intriguing Lord Alexander? And what will happen when Lord Alexander finally realises that Daphne is not some young lady who lives on the fringes of society but is actually an heiress in her own right?

Do we even care? I certainly didn't. I just didn't take to either Daphne or Lord Alexander at all. Take Daphne for example. She saw something shocking. I understand that as a gently nurtured young girl, what she saw really distressed her. But what follows is high melodrama at it's worst. Suddenly she has to flee from Sophia's home before she's 'damaged' more. She departs without leaving a note for Sophia (remember that Sophia is about to give birth at any minute), and flees as if the hounds of hell are after her. Never a thought of how this disappearance would have affected Sophia, because Daphne feels that Sophia is at fault for not having protected her from such sights and knowledge! (And why Daphne's abigail and her grandfather keep indulging the nitwit in her tantrums also flabbergasted me.) Daphne is so bitter at Sophia that she refuses to write or see her for ten years! Talk about holding a grudge. And then there are her diary entries: for a 25 year old, these ramblings are really juvenile, and were written in a mock-gothic manner. At least I hope they were mock-gothic. That Patricia Oliver may have meant for Daphne's musings to be taken seriously is almost too much to bear. As for Lord Alexander, he's just the typical rakish hero I have very little time for -- the kind of [guy] who assumes that every woman not of his social class must be open for some kind of liaison. And his sudden ascent into likeability and responsibility, towards the end of the book, cut no ice with me.

"Daphne's Diary" also had several other minor plot thread involving Daphne's inheritance, the return of a dirty dish of an uncle, and Patricia Oliver's attempts to make Daphne more grown up and likable, and to justify Daphne's behavior towards Sophia. But none of these threads made me change my original opinion of the book or characters. My advice: if you must read it, find a library copy, and save your hard earned money for some other Regency novel.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not so bad, July 1, 2005

By 

Woodbuckley (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Daphne's Diary (Signet Regency Romance) (Paperback)

Having read several quite cutting reviews and also the list here, I realized this book was panned badly. Finally I have been able to get a hold of it and found it to be far better than most of these reviewers have allowed.
Daphne is indeed a young woman who allowed a shocking experience to cloud her life for ten years. However I do not think this damns her as a believable or sympathetic heroine. I suspect this violent antipathy by critics to be more a case of modern sensibility being unable to cope with a revulsion for sex by a very young girl's experience. Maybe a trifle too strong, but understandable under Daphne's circumstances. For her grandfather leaves her to hide from it and so the problem is left to fester until first, she meets Lord Alexander and second, her grandfather finally realises his own mortality.
From then on, she is pushed and pulled into the real world and does indeed grow from her enforced private world that had no counter to the folly experience.
Oliver does this well, if a trifle fast. The diary plays a role here to reveal Daphne's progress. It also helps in her final resolution with Alexander.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Terrible book from one of my favorite Regency authors, July 13, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Daphne's Diary (Signet Regency Romance) (Paperback)

I have no idea what has happened to Patricia Oliver. I had just re-read three of her older "Seven Corinthian" Regencies when this one hit the bookstores, and so the difference between her older work and this one was particularly striking. Daphne is a ninny, you get no sense of the individual personality of the "hero," no one's motivations make any sense AT ALL, and this book is just a mishmash. I honestly wondered several times if this really WAS written by Oliver at all!

I am submitting this review anonymously because I'm a coward and don't want to offend someone whose work I normally enjoy tremendously. I strongly suggest reading her older books instead.