Customer Reviews

Hareton Hall: Richard and Rose, Book 6

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

 

 

I read the first of the Richard and Rose series by accident and fell in love. I had been reading Regency romances and didn't know what I was missing.

Lynne Connolly speaks with a true English / Georgian voice. I haven't noticed one anachronism that took me out of the time period. These are true romances (with a bit of mystery/who-done-it thrown in) with well defined characters that you come to know and love. There's too much already written by other reviewers so I won't tell all here, but I do urge you to give Richard and Rose a try. I find them eminently satisfying and will be quite sad when the series ends.

Yorkshire: Richard and Rose, Book 1
Devonshire: Richard and Rose, Book 2
Venice: Richard and Rose, Book 3
Harley Street: Richard and Rose, Book 4
Eyton: Richard and Rose, Book 5
Hareton Hall: Richard and Rose, Book 6

Rose's favorite sister is getting married, and so is her best friend. Richard and Rose return to Rose's childhood home HARETON HALL. A lot has changed since she last seen it. She's married now, a member of the peerage and a mother. Her brother, now a member of the peerage himself has renovated the hall and it looks little like what she remembers from her childhood. Now as she tries to reacclimatize with her neighbors and her new status as a mother, weird things keep happening. She and Richards arch enemies have rented a home in the neighborhood, a thief has entered the neighborhood, a rival smuggler gang has appeared on scene and the two fractions are feuding, and her other sister has a suitor. Is he all that he appears to be? It's up to Richard and Rose to use their connections to find out. If they'll live through it, because it appears that someone wants Rose dead.

Ms. Connolly is an excellent writer who writes with great historical detail. It's a given when you pick up on of Ms. Connolly's books that it won't be a waste of your time. Having said that, I can't help but think this series (which I have read each installment so that should tell you something there as I don't always do that) or at least this installment in this series seems to have lost its edge.

I do not know if I would be feeling the same way if I hadn't read all the other books, but for me at least it's lost some of the wonder that drew me to the awesome love story between Rose and Richard. The first three books in the series are some of my favorites. I actually wish I had print copies of them instead of just e-book versions.

Because it's a given that Ms. Connolly is an awesome writer (well at least to me she is), I'm just going to talk about what I didn't like about the book. And highly recommend that if you haven't read the series that you do so immediately.

At this point Richard and Rose have been married for two years and have a daughter who is several months old. They're relationship is as strong as ever and I enjoyed catching up and seeing what they've been up to since the last book. What frequently pulled me out of the story was how Rose mentioned things she's mentioned in the last several books. By this I mean, she's constantly talks about how she used to be a wallflower, that if it wasn't for Richard her life would have been so different and the girls who made her life miserable would've continued to do so. That now she's a peer and she's gotten good at being a lady. All this is fine, but she does it a lot and she did it a lot in the previous installments, so it got old for me personally.

Another thing that I thought was a throw away was who the villain was. It could've been just me, but I kinda figured it out right away. I don't know if it's because I was looking for this person everywhere since I had read the previous installments and it appeared this was the only loose end that needed to be tied up in the series. I wish more drama and action would've been added between one of the main characters and this person. Yes, I know I'm being absurdly vague, but to expound on the topic will be full of spoilers and I really hope that if you haven't begun reading this series that you do so, if anything to see what a great historical writer Ms. Connolly is.

Bottom line is that I love her writing, but I didn't love this book. Of course, I will still rush out and get the next installment in the series, but I won't be rushing to get it the minute it comes out.

Review courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques