Customer Reviews

Labor of Love (Signet Regency Romance)

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Skeptical at the premise of a love match between a brooding lord and a widow on the point of giving birth to another man's child, I had relegated this book to the bottom of my "To Be Read" pile until I read some very favorable reviews of it and decided to give it a chance. (Although pregnant women have been said to be "glowingly beautiful," I don't think they were talking about the last few weeks of pregnancy when they said it.) And, in all honesty, it WAS much more believable than I expected. The heroine on the front cover, however, is inexplicably not pregnant at all! Hmm!!!

All in all, it was NOT one of the worst Regencies I've read. But there was something about the heroine that bothered me. I guess I don't really care for fortune-hunting heroines who determinedly set out to snare their men to ensure a life of comfort. And who sneak around gossiping with servants and reading someone else's private correspondence trying to find out if a potential husband is guilty of a terrible crime. There are mitigating factors for this behavior, I suppose. Her late husband had left her with nothing, responsible for an unborn child and a sixteen-year-old sister. Women in those days didn't have a lot of options. And she had to make sure of his character before marrying him, especially after her miserable first marriage.

So, while she had excellent reasons for doing what she did, I couldn't really LIKE her very much, and that took away from the romance of the story. Like a previous reviewer, I wanted her to trust him long before she did, even though that might not be fair, under the circumstances.

Another thing that bothered me was the fact that she was turned out of her late husband's home by the new heir even though she was pregnant and that her child, if male, would BE the new heir! I find it hard to believe that a new heir would be installed under these circumstances, or that the pregnant widow could be tossed out into the cold like that.

And Olivia is MUCH too sure of her power to attract the brooding lord. Again, maybe understandable as she is no innocent miss, but certainly not very romantic.

Looking for a new author I bought this book because of the two previous reviews, both by reviewers whose tastes match mine. I can't make up my mind if I liked it or not. The plot is pretty well described by them, so I will not repeat it here. Instead here's what I liked and what I didn't.
Liked: the characters are well drawn and mostly quite believable - including the secondary ones; plus we get to "see" through several points of view. The plot is different and depends on the interactions of the characters to make it move forward - not on some outside villain or unbelievable coincidence.
Didn't like - I really had a hard time with the heroine's behaviour - sneaking around, questioning the servants, etc - and that made it hard to buy into her romance! Especially as we (the readers) were privileged to what "really happened" through the hero's point of view.
All in all - I'll probably buy the sequel...

Olivia, Lady Beresford, heavily pregnant, is on her way to live with an aunt following the death of her husband when her carriage has an accident outside the home of Lord Sheldrake. She is only outside his home out of sheer nosiness, incidentally. Sheldrake therefore is obliged to offer Olivia and her sister Susannah his hospitality - and not just overnight, since the local doctor says Olivia cannot travel until after the baby is born. Sheldrake and Olivia are thus thrown together at close quarters.

The first ludicrous element is that Susannah - only sixteen and an avid reader of Gothic novels - has told Olivia that Sheldrake is rumoured to have murdered his stepfather. And instead of dismissing this as unsubstantiated gossip which is highly unlikely to be true, Olivia actually believes it. Hence the sightseeing trip to his house. After Sheldrake rescues her and opens up his home to her, Olivia treats him with unmerited suspicion and is downright rude to him. Sheldrake, unbelievably, is nothing but polite to this unhinged, nasty woman and even finds her attractive!

Even more ludicrous, though, is the very swift development whereby Olivia does a volte-face and decides that she needs to remarry - and that Sheldrake is the only possible candidate. Uhh... how so? So she decides to pursue him, but only if she can believe that he is innocent of murder. So, incredibly, she asks him outright if he killed his stepfather, and when he tells her not to believe everything she hears, she sneaks into his study, breaks into a locked desk drawer and actually reads his private correspondence!

Sheldrake catches her in the act - but instead of throwing Olivia and her sister out of his home, or letting her remain on sufferance until after her baby is born, he actually continues to be nice to her and even courts her. Unbelievable!

Susannah is no better: she tells perfect strangers that Sheldrake murdered his stepfather.

I didn't like Olivia in the least - silly immature, self-absorbed, a dramatist and fond of ordering people around in a house not her own. I simply couldn't believe that Sheldrake would show the slightest interest in her, and that's one of the reasons I couldn't finish the book. I had no wish to see those two end up together.

Besides these flaws, the book is also full of Americanisms - and modern Americanisms at that - in dialogue, such that I kept getting jerked out of the (not very gripping) story to wince at dialogue I could not imagine any character of that era actually speaking. There were also grammatical errors, such as tense switches. Oh, and Mindel obviously doesn't know the difference between the title of `Lady Olivia Beresford' and `Lady Beresford'; she makes the error of assuming that these are the same title in respect of two different characters.

I bought this book on the strength of cover quotes from Maggie Shayne and, impressively, Jo Beverley. Admittedly, these referred to Mindel's first book, to which this appears to be a sequel. However, I can't believe that there could be such a massive difference in quality between the two. Incidentally, the hero of her first book appears as a minor character in this; from what I saw of him, I loathed him.

Not recommended at all.

Olivia Beresford married once for love, and as a result of her husband's profligate and uncaring ways, she's now a homeless and penniless widow, eight months pregnant, and has to somehow think of a way to support not only her unborn child and herself, but her younger sister, and aunt as well!

On their way to their aunt's cottage, Olivia contemplates her unfortunate state of affairs, and decides that since marrying for love has brought her nothing but woe, she was going to marry for money and security the next time. But of course she's going to have to wait until after she had given birth, and regained her looks. An angry storm and an accident however, cause Olivia, and her sister Susannah to seek shelter at the estate of the notorious Viscount Sheldrake, who rumour has it, got away with murdering his stepfather. The sisters are wary and cautious about being forced to seek hospitality from such a man, but Sheldrake's kindness and courtesy causes them to rethink their previous assumption that he is a vicious murderer. For Olivia especially this sudden stay at Sheldrake Hall is proving serendipitous, as Sheldrake is exactly the kind of gentleman she would like to be married to: kind, thoughtful, handsome and rich. If only she could discover if there is any substance to the rumours that he is a murderer! Otherwise, how can she afford to place the well-being of her unborn child as well as that of her sister and her aunt in Sheldrake's hands?

"Labor of Love" was a rather enjoyable read. Jenna Mindel did a wonderful job of portraying the inner turmoil that both Olivia and Sheldrake face -- Olivia wondering if she should ignore all the rumours and follow the promptings of her heart, and Sheldrake torn between his desire for Olivia and his need to keep the events surounding his stepfather's death secret. I'll admit however, that while I admired Olivia for her good sense in wanting to know more before she committed herself and her family into Sheldrake's care, I did get a little impatient for her lack of trust. Which was not really fair to Olivia: I had the advantage of knowing that this was a romance novel and that Sheldrake was the hero after all!

"Labor of Love" is a rather romantic novel that tells of how two scarred souls find love and solace in each other. Both Olivia and Sheldrake are prefect foils for each other in character and temperament, and it made for satisfying reading to watch them overcome all the obstacles in their path and find happiness. A truly satisfying read.