Customer Reviews

Harlequin Historical - Large Print - A Very Unusual Governess

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"A Very Unusual Governess" is set in England in the Regency period. While the name "Lady Octavia Petrie" has me cringing because it sounds so stereotypically romantic fiction, the story was quick to draw me in. The reasons for Octavia to become a governess is actually logical, so it doesn't feel too Deus ex machina. It does feel a little like it's a good story and all of a sudden, Feelings start happening. Of course they do, it's a romantic novel, that's the whole point.

I like the character of Octavia, and I like Edward too (at times a bit Rochester-like). The two girls, Pip & Lisette, reminds me a lot a couple of my nieces, so maybe that also played a part in why I liked the book. And when I say liked, I mean that in a couldn't put the book down. Toward the end, I was looking at the number of pages left and wondering how the author was going to wrap up all the goings-on in that short time and at the same time dreading getting closer and closer to the end of the book.

There were a few elements to the book that seemed a bit on the supernatural side. Wychford, the house that Octavia inherited by an old lady who had a reputation for being a witch, and which the Barracloughs are now renting, is a character in its own right, and you can feel the spirit of the old lady infusing it.

From reading Jane Austen, I thought women weren't allowed to inherit property in those days (hence why Mr. Collins would inherit Longbourne, and why the Dashwoods are kicked out), but maybe it works if the person who died didn't have any men in the family tree to inherit, or something? That would be my only criticism.

It's well-paced, charming, sweet but not overly sweet, and has lots of Page Turning Quality (PTQ as they say in the biz, allegedly). You really are transported to another time, and can see the nature around Wychford and it's all very inspiring. A good read!

This is a moderately entertaining and amusing Regency take on one of the oldest chestnuts in the Romance canon.

E.g. the one in which a Princess/Noblewoman or other lady of high status visits a household where a new nanny or governess is needed for several orphaned children, is mistaken for an applicant for the job and offered it, decides to temporarily accept the position, and falls in love with the children's widowed father/guardian.

This story is set just after the battle of Waterloo. Edward Barraclough, a wealthy London gentleman has become the guardian of his two orphaned nieces when their parents, who were his brother and his sister-in-law, died in a carriage accident in the West Indies. The girls, Lisette and Phillipa (Pip), have been sent to England where the Barraclough family have arranged to rent a beautiful house in the country called Wychford. The arrangement to rent the house had been made with the previous owner, Mrs Carstairs, who has just died and left the property to her own niece, but the agent through whom the lease was arranged has confirmed that the new owner will honour the agreement.

Lisette is a beautiful and very sweet young lady, and Pip is normally a happy and delightful child, and Edward loves them both very much. But on the way to Wychford it soon becomes clear to hom that the girls are not at all themselves, and are naturally still very upset over the deaths of their mother and father. The governess who his surviving brother's wife had engaged for them is a strict and unfeeling woman who is completely incapable of providing the kindness and support which they need.

So he packs her back to London and advertises for a new governess. When Pip sees a pretty young lady arriving at Wychford a few days later, she assumes it is an applicant for the position and nobody thinks to challenge her assumption ...

Lady Octavia Petrie, youngest child of the Earl of Warnham, has just inherited Wychford from her aunt. She decides to take a quick look at her new property before the tenants arrive, but finds them already in residence having arrived a few days early - and before she can explain who she is, Edward Barraclough us telling her he will engage her as a governess for two months.

Octavia is about to tell Edward that she is the owner of the house he is renting, not a job applicant, but Lisette and Pip have taken a shine to her, and when they beg their uncle to appoint her, Octavia suddenly finds herself unable to disappoint them. But can she possibly cope with acting the part of a servant in her own house for two months?

In all candour, this story is quite exceptionally unlikely, but several of the characters are very charmingly drawn, particularly Octavia, Edward, and his two nieces, and I must confess that I did enjoy reading it.

This is not Jane Austen or eve Georgette Heyer, and probably not one to read if you enjoy detailed and historically accurate description of the glittering London society of what T.H. White called "The Age of Scandal." But it is an amusing way to while away an hour or so as a little piece of light reading.