Customer Reviews

Falling for Chloe (Signet Regency Romance)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A sudden rainstorm forces Gil and Chloe to spend the night in a nearby cottage. Then someone places a notice of their engagement in the newspaper, and the pair must seek a way to end their engagement that will not damage their reputations. Since Chloe wishes never to marry, she plans to release Gil from his obligations. Gil, however, doesn't want to saddle Chloe with the reputation of being a jilt. Besides, when Chloe comes to London with a new wardrobe and finds herself surrounded by admirers, Gil is struck by the thought that she would be the perfect wife for him. How frustrating that she seems to be attracted to the same rakehell ladies' man that is destroying his sister's marriage!

On her part, Chloe is beginning to look at Gil as more than an old pal as well, but doesn't believe he reciprocates, so she sets about trying to help her friend--Gil's somewhat addlepated sister--save her marriage. Tish has taken up with one of the smoothest rakes around in an attempt to make her husband jealous, but only succeeds in driving the two of them further apart. In an attempt to prove the rake's true character to her friend, Chloe flirts with him herself, but finds herself way out of her league with this practiced seducer.

In the end, it is up to Gil and Tish's very wise mother to set things to rights with these two troubled pairs. A delightful Regency romp for anyone with a romantic soul.

Diane Farr is excellent at writing couples who have no idea that they're in love with each other, even when everyone around can see that they're in love. In this book, Gil and Chloe have known each other for years. They're the best of friends, but have never seen each other in any other light. Until one night they're stranded together in a cottage. Although both protest that nothing happened, suddenly a notice of their engagement appears in the newspapers.

Gil can't jilt Chloe. Chloe doesn't want to humiliate Gil. So they agree to carry on for a while, and when they realise that Gil's (married) sister is being pursued by a rake, Chloe decides to pretend that the engagement is real in order to encourage the rake to flirt with her too.

Farr makes excellent use of jealousy in this book; there are some wonderful scenes in which Gil sees Chloe with Lord Rival and realises just what his feelings for his childhood friend are. But he still has the major problem that Chloe, for very good reasons, has no wish to marry...

There is a very well-written secondary plot - which is one reason why I found this book reminiscent of a Heyer (another is the extremely well-drawn cast of cameo and secondary characters). Gil's sister and her husband are well-drawn and Farr makes us sympathise with them in their difficulties. Gil's mother, who appears near the end, is also a wonderful character!

And, just to make the Heyer comparison even clearer, Farr has actually set this story in one of Heyer's books! Who else recognised Alverstoke and his sister, from 'Frederica', and recognised the ball Chloe attended as being the one Alverstoke threw for his cousin Chloe and Frederica's younger sister?

I definitely liked this book. The characters were amusing - at times (especially the ending), I found myself laughing at their interactions. And I must admit it was a great change not to have to deal with the usual sexual intonations (girl meets boy, boy and girl feel incredible sex appeal at first sight, etc), at least not between the primary protagonists. In fact, I very much liked the basis of the story of love on a steady and strong friendship, overall.

Here is a Regency I found pleaurable to read in every respect. If it had any faults, I definitely forgot them under the spell of its charm.
The 'forced' engagement undertaken by the couple with the intention of later breaking it, is almost a hoary old cliche in this genre. Sometimes it works and mostly it is just a yawn - one has read it all too often. Here, however, there was no such impulse or faint praise.
The characters were all sympathetic and believable - from the protagonists Gil and Chloe, to the important secondaries of Gil's sister, brother-in-law and Lord Rival.
Chloe actually matures in a believable way, she is made to see the error of her youthful attempts to make everything right as being foolish. She discovers how little she truly knows about those she loves the most and suffers as the result of grave misjudgments of her sister's marriage and relations with the rakish Rival.
However, the most interesting lesson she is taught, is at Gil's hands. His angry confrontation with her, that makes her realize the depths of her selfish lack of consideration for him and his opinions is very well done indeed. All too often the heroine in a romance does such things and escapes censure at the hero's hands, while the hero is always rightly brought to book.
Rival of course is the too-attractive semi-villain many love to sigh over. He very successfully almost overshadows Gil - but his undoubted paucity of active virtues put him into the category of the undeserving. Thankfully Gil was not 'too good to be true', no he was definitely very human and his realization of love was well drawn.
Of course the 'in' joke of the Heyer references made the reading all the more enjoyable.

A delightful book, with humor and believable situations. I agree with another reviewer that Gil's casual language is odd, even irritating, but he is such a positive person in other ways that it is minor.

I did love the deus ex machina nature of Lady Gilliland. She reminded me of the father who appears in several Loretta Chase books and serves as a secret matchmaker for each of his sons. A really delightful bit of humor and showing that the older generation knows better.

I rarely write reviews but was compelled to encourage others to sample Ms Farr's wonderful writing in this genre! It had everything a good novel should, and more. Brilliantly fleshed-out characters, and 2 separate plots running concurrently, good length, plus enough about the "villain" to make you really want to read his story, in "the Fortune Hunter". Needless to say I just bought it & can't wait to start. If you enjoy authors like Barbara Metzger & Laura Matthews, then add Ms Farr to your list! Also free of typos, a nice change! A note to the author - please keep writing Regency Romances, you have really captured the period & bring refreshingly original plots & characters to the table. Thanks for a great read! :-)

What a delightful read! I find that I grow tired of the boring dime-a-dozen romances whose only plots consists of misunderstanding after misunderstanding to the point where the reader can come to no other conclusion than that the hero and heroine, originally intended to be written as strong and intelligent, can be judged as no other than irredeemable idiots. Imagine my intense pleasure in falling upon this beautifully done confection. It was invigorating, well paced, with witty dialogue and chock full of characters I fell thoroughly in love with! Don't expect anything too terribly deep and you will be rewarded with this read. It had me smiling to the end and well after the last page was turned. Definitely a keeper.

Diane Farr's upbeat and good-spirited Falling For Chloe displays the same wonderful characteristics of all Diane Farr novels: a bright, likeable heroine, a hero we can all fall in love with, an absorbing plot delightfully progressing through emotionally charged situations and wonderful clever dialogue, and--most important of all--a genuinely warm, loving, understanding, and sparkling tone that reaffirms the basic goodness of the world and all people in it. Even the villain is somewhat sympathetic and definitely redeemable. The reader comes away from this and all Farr novels feeling hope and love for humanity.

In Falling For Chloe, childhood best friends--now young adults--Gil and Chloe are caught in a compromising situation that leads family members to hatch a plan to make them wed. The trouble is, neither Gil nor Chloe have any desire to marry. In the meantime, Chloe--a very able, strong, and innocent young woman who runs her own country estate--goes to London to the rescue of her now unhappily married close friend Tish, Gil's sister. This throws her together not only with Gil but also with a group of eager eligible young men, the most dangerous of whom is Lord Rival, a notorious rake and handsome operator who can mesmerize any female who comes his way. His latest target is Tish, whom he shamelessly charms and wins huge amounts of money from at cards. Chloe decides that she can solve two problems at once--release Gil from his forced engagement with her and end Tish's reckless liaison with Lord Rival--by making Lord Rival fall in love with her. But Chloe has completely underestimated her own city savvy as well as her true feelings for Gil.

Falling For Chloe is a wonderful, entertaining, uplifting read that is sure to please any Regency romance fan and many others. This is a book to offer to people who think they don't like romances--it will certainly change their minds. Diane Farr is a bright voice in a too often cynical world. She is one of those bringing more light and love onto the planet. Join her by reading Falling For Chloe and her other novels and let them lead you into a world of goodness and love that we can all create.

Farr definitely writes with the flavor of Heyer, and the story starts out with great promise. Unfortunately, the more I read, the more I was disenchanted by it.

Chloe is supposed to be vibrant, independent, and innocent; more often, she comes across as ridiculously naive and reckless, lacking in common sense. I want to like to her, and at times succeed, but she can be so hare-brained! She often longs for a man to take the burden off her shoulders; rightly so, since she usually makes a mess of it. However, her failure to recognize Gil's growing romantic feelings, her conflicting responses to Lord Rival, and her concern for her sister-in-law are well done.

Gil, her best friend, is a lovely young man who is almost too perfect. His greatest fault is a tendency to let Chloe run wild (and roughshod over him). Some of his finest moments come when he puts his foot down. Although Chloe obviously needs him, I almost felt that he was too good for her.

The sister-in-law is irresponsible and annoying, while her husband receives most of the sympathy in their troubled marriage. Thankfully, Tish & Gil's mother saves the day; she's an interesting character, but she did something totally wrong in society's eyes while being presented as the paragon of social mores. Also odd is the "fact" that she and her husband have a wonderful marriage (and he's a wonderful man), but the reader never sees Sir Walter.

The most interesting character, however, is the "villain," Lord Rival. The dashing rogue is the most complex character in the book: jaded, bored, not particularly praiseworthy, but he has begun to lament his life and his choices. There's a depth to his character that is missing from the others. He vacillates too readily between these two aspects of his character, though, and eventually just walks out of the book. I'd love to read a story about him and an equally complex heroine.

Sometimes the wording is stilted (too many uses of "one" for example -- one can do what one......) Sometimes the historical social context is faulty in order to further the plot. And I cannot for the life of me figure out why Gil's friends are his friends; they seem to have nothing in common with him.

It's a nice story that I wanted to like more than I actually did. As I read, I just became more disappointed. I'm not sure I'll be happy with the rating I'm choosing simply because I'm so conflicted about the book. I suppose if you like simplicity and flagrant historical/social errors don't make you want to hurl the book across the room, you'll like it better than I did.

This was a great read. I am really looking forward to seeing Lord Rivals story in the near future, what a name!!. His character really caught my attention and he definitely could use some "reforming"...hint... hint.