Customer Reviews

Dedication (Signet Regency Romance)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Romance readers looking for a fresh, new voice that's worth taking note of can rejoice, because Janet Mullany's debut novel is definitely something to take notice of. However, a word of warning, esp for readers who prefer to usual Signet Regency romance format -- "Dedication" is much more meatier read. It possesses a few rather graphic love scenes and some rather frank conversations about sex. But if you're willing to accept this more sensual than usual offering from Signet, than you're in for a treat: for "Dedication" is full bodied, fully textured and completely absorbing read.

When Adam Ashworth receives news that that his ward, Viscount Tillotson is keeping his mistress in his London house, Adam immediately makes for London in order to exercise some damage control. What Adam discovers on reaching London is not a scandal the making, but that Tillotson is sitting for an allegorical portrait. True, Tillotson seems quite smitten with the talented but plain artist, Miss Elaine Twyford, but the Miss Twyford doesn't show signs of reciprocating Tillostson's feelings. No, the scandal and awkwardness doesn't lie there but rather in the person of Miss Twyford's duenna and patron, Mrs. Fabienne Argonac Craigmont, and someone that Adam has a past with.

About twenty years ago Fabienne Argonac was a young and innocent emigre when she fell in love with the rakish Adam Ashworth. But their relationship ended badly with both parties blaming the other for the bad and bitter ending. Now, here they are, thrown together again all these years later. Can they put they're past behind them and start again? After all, they are different people now (Adam is a staid grandfather and widower, while Fabienne is a sophisticated patroness of the arts); and yet neither finds that they can forget or forgive the past. But as current affairs push them into each other's lives, Adam discovers how much he still is in love with Fabienne and how much he needs her. Now if only he could get the stubborn woman to admit that she still loves and needs him...

"Dedication" is a fairly complex and textured read, with quite a few subplots and characters. The previous relationship that Adam and Fabienne had and how it ended spawns several subplots that deal with the secrets that Adam and Fabienne have kept since then and that involve quite a few characters in the story. The author's capability and brilliance shines through when you realise that you've read most of the book without once having lost the drift or forgetting who a certain character was and how (s)he fitted into everything. I liked that this story focused on an older couple (one who was a grandfather), and that it was still a very compelling and slightly edgy read. Neither Adam nor Fabienne are ready for rocking chairs and knitting yet! I also rather liked that even though their older, the author doesn't portray them as wiser -- Adam and Fabienne are still impulsive and passionate individuals, still capable of jumping the gun and making mistakes (yes, there are several BIG MISUNDERSTANDINGS) -- fortunately, this time around, they're able to work through everything and achieve their happier-ever-after ending.

All in all this was truly full bodied, multi faceted and very special read, worth touting. I'm really looking forward to future novels by this author

DEDICATION is a fast read, and has an intriguing plot with unique, complex characters. I appreciated the older hero and heroine, along with issues most parents deal with, whether in Regency England or modern times. Ms. Mullany has a way with words that I found enchanting, and her vivid descriptions are beautiful. I highly recommend this book!

Janet Mullany forges new territory with Dedication. Adam and Fabienne are mature, compelling characters with a past. They are passionate people with incredible depth. They have drunk life to the dregs and now are back for more. Sensual (very) and charming, adventurous and suspenseful, I loved every minute of it!

Period details and witty period dialogue give this something like the feeling of a Georgette Heyer Regency. There's quite a cast of characters for such a short book, but all are deftly portrayed, realistic characters. Adam and Fabienne are highly original, unique individuals and the plot features an amazing number of threads and twists.

Unlike Heyer, though, this is a hot read, not for those who find sex offensive. The attraction between Adam and Fabienne is strong and their sexual encounters daring and refreshingly frank. It's also a delight to see a hero and heroine who are both older than the norm, who have already had a range of relationships, from painful to healing, and now bring both emotional maturity and youthful hotness to their lovemaking.

I grew weary of Regencies, for a simple reason - no matter how good they are, they just blended in my mind. When I finished one, they soon faded into the "Regency Collective", sort of like the Borg on Star Trek! So, it's delightful to see one standing out from the crowd. And this one does. So a big hand for this first time writer - Janet Mullany.

Fabienne was a fresh-faced seventeen-year-old when she first saw rake Adam Ashworth. With the sparkling passion of first love, she gave him everything, her innocence...her heart, only to have both treated with little value. So when they meet again, twenty years later, Fabienne still feels the sting of Adam's betrayal.

Now widowed, Adam lives in the country, but is summoned to town because his ward has developed an obsession to a young female artist. Fabienne has become a patroness of the arts and is the sponsor for the young woman. She defends her protégé against Adam's slanders.

While Fabienne is very popular in society with her elite salons, she is a widow and feels very along. She finds solace in correspondence with a reclusive author, Mrs. Ravenswood. Through the letters, their friendship deepens to where Fabienne reveals her stinging pain of Adam's betrayal, how the pain of the young love still hurts her heart. Need a bond to another, Fabienne sets out to find the recluse. Instead, she finds Adam. She assumes Mrs. Ravenwood is Adam's mistress, so is destroyed to find the one person she has revealed her pain to is likely laughing at her. Her betrayal is receiving another turn of the screw and she is so hurt.

Adam is Mrs. Ravenwood, but he is not sure how to confess. He hoped to draw Fabienne to him through the charade, but now sees it as a mistake that could destroy any chance he hopes to have with Fabienne. Despite all this, Adam and Fabienne are pulled into a relationship.

Brava for Mullany eschewing the darling belle of the ton just coming out for giving us an older, more mature woman. Her writing is sexy, savvy and she has created a story of adults who have been hurt, who want love, but cannot see to get past the pain to the love still there. Adam and Fabienne are living,
breathing characters not Regency stereotypes. They have a full range of emotions and complexities that draw the reader and will keep this Regency living in your mind.

This book shows confidence way beyond a first time writer and should mark Mullany as an author to watch.

One of the best Regencies I have read in years.

I've never read a Regency that's so sexy! Readers who insist on
chastity in their Regency characters might want to stay away.
But readers who are fine with believing that a twice-widowed
woman of 37, and a widower of 42 or so, might know a thing
or two from their experiences not be quite as fuddy duddy as
their children assume, will have a fun read here. There are a
lot of interesting historical details, too, and new twists on
classic plots. Definitely recommended.

I don't read that many traditional Regencies as I find many of them to be so tepid these days. I've enjoyed some of Nancy Butler's and I loved Emma Jensen's but she no longer writes. This debut effort by Janet Mullany is quite unique as trad Regencies go. Really, if not for the packaging, I would not have considered it in that genre. Her hero and heroine are both over thirty-five years of age and both have had a lifetime of experiences both wonderful and painful. There's also discussion of, thoughts of and the actual act of sex so if you like your Regencies chaste, this may not be your cup of tea.

Fabienne Craigmont is twice widowed, thirty-seven years of age and a woman of style and experience. She came to England from France as a child, a refugee from the post-Revolution terror. As a very young and naive woman she met and fell for Adam Ashworth who fancied himself a rake and who seduced her and then moved on. Devastated, but with a sense of duty to wed well for her family's sake, she married and sailed for India with her new husband. Now, many years later she has returned to England and immersed herself in the arts scene in London. She has become a patron to young painter Miss Elaine Twyford and this patronage leads to a reunion with her first, painful love Adam Ashworth as Elaine is currently painting Adam's Godson, Viscount Tillotson. Oh, Lord why did he have to still look so good after all these years?

Adam Ashworth is a forty-three year old widower, grandfather and gentleman farmer. Seeing Fabienne again is a shock and brings back many memories. As he remembers it, Fabienne rejected him all those years ago and stung, he returned home to marry the woman his family intended. Though he married reluctantly, with time he found himself falling in love with his wife and living happily with her until her death a few years ago. He has found it difficult to let go of her memory and lives a very quiet, staid life in the country. But he is called to London when it looks as though his young Godson is keeping a woman under his roof! He arrives at Tillotson's home only to find a young woman working on a painting of Luke along with her patroness/companion - a woman he has not seen in years. Oh Lord, why did she have to still look so good after all these years?

Their brief reunion in London ends when Adam returns to his country home and quiet life working on writing a "mathematical treatise" in his study each evening. Meanwhile in London, though surrounded by acquaintances, Fabienne finds herself lonely and begins a correspondence with Mrs Sybil Ravenswood, a popular author of Gothic fiction and a woman Fabienne believes to be Adam's mistress. She finds herself confiding things to Mrs Ravenswood that she has shared with no one else and becomes determined to meet with her in person. She is thwarted in her attempts but finds herself sharing the society of Adam Ashworth when her protege Elaine falls for his Godson Luke. Their time together brings back memories and new interest though both are reluctant to get involved with one another again for various reasons. For both have secrets both painful and wonderful, that will change their relationship should they be revealed. Will they take a second chance on a love that never really died?

I really enjoyed this book and the hero and heroine were likeable and amusing. What keeps this from 5 stars for me is a bit of choppiness in the story and some incongruous situations. But I understand that this book was originally a good bit longer and the author was asked to cut it down to Signet's page length requirements. A shame as the full book was likely super! A new author that I hope has a bright future.

Twenty years ago, 17-year-old French émigré aristocrat, Fabienne Argonac Craigmont had fallen in love with the rakish Adam Ashworth. She'd given him her innocence, he'd given her his heart, and both had been so cruelly manipulated that when they met years later the sting of betrayal and rejection would make that surprise reunion an uncomfortable and awkward meeting. Adam is now a widowed, respectable country gentleman, summoned to town to discover that his ward and godson seemed to have formed an unsuitable alliance with a young female artist. Fabienne who had become a sophisticated patroness of the arts, sponsored the young female artist who was her newest protégé and the object of Adams' disparagement.

In spite of the popularity of her salons Fabienne was at heart, a lonely widow and wanting to add another to her salon began a correspondence with the highly popular yet reclusive author, Mrs. Ravenswood. During the course of their correspondence, Fabienne grew close to the woman and disclosed 'secrets of her heart'. When she set out to find and meet Mrs. Ravenswood, she finds instead an evasive Adam Ashworth and concludes that the authoress must be Adam's mistress. While subsequent meetings with Adam left Fabienne torn between mistrust and longing, Adam agonized over how to confess the charade he'd initiated and which now threatened any possible reconciliation with the woman he now knew held his heart.

*** Whew, finally a novel that puts to rest the theory that lust and highly sensual encounters belonged solely to the young. Bravo to this author for showing us that `mature' does not signify dead! Not only has she presented a refreshingly creative (not to mention pretty darn sensual) plot but a very well written story featuring two complex individuals who will elicit several stages of reader emotions from humor, to anger and tears as the author peels back the layers of their past and present lives. Additionally, with a fair amount of likeable secondary characters one can only hope to hear that some may get their own story, like Adam's widowed daughter Babs. Simmering with sensuality, this original debut novel is certainly one that I can HIGHLY RECOMMEND for a most entertaining read! --- Marilyn, for [...]---

great, fast read! This is a wonderful contemporary regency-by that I mean if you are looking for the traditional, mild regency story-this is NOT it. What it is is a sensual, mature love story with wonderful subplots, a realistically flawed hero and heroine, and super spicy love scenes that are sexy as well as downright funny at times. Glad to have read this great new author after recently reading a series of duds.

Highly recommended for the non traditional regency fan.
4.5 stars!

I really enjoyed this new author's writing ability but I had a problem suspending reality enough to believe a person would write the kind of excessively sexual letter this heroine did to a person she had never met and hadn't written to forvery long. If I ever received such a letter even in this day and age, I'd think the writer was a complete nympho with some possible psycho issues. The allusions to a possible future lesbian relationship didn't bother me personally but I found it extremely incredible that a person would take such a risk with no greater degree of knowledge of the other person, not to mention open themselves up to blackmail. The whole thing just kind of stopped me in my tracks and cried What the heck is this doing here? The hero was was very well done. Mullany created a credible character with humor. I found that my patience with the heroine started to rapidly decrease toward the end when this mature woman of the world acts like a silly nitwit with no common sense whatsoever. It seemed out of character. I gave this book only three stars because these flaws jarred me enough to pull me out of the story completely. They were major story points so couldn't be glossed over nor compensated for by the exceptional writing.