Customer Reviews

Lord Will and Her Grace (Signet Regency Romance)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Miss Sophie Somerset is twenty-nine years old. Her deceased uncle has made her heir to a title and fortune, but only if she weds a proper aristocrat by her thirtieth birthday. Since she grew up as a vicar's daughter, the title and wealth would be nice; however, if she can't find true love in time Sophie would not really miss it. Fortune hunters have been after her, but she has no interest in them. Her behavior at the Season's balls has placed her in the gossip columns almost daily. Having enough, Sophia retires to Burnham-by-the-Sea, a small seaside village.

Lord William "Will" Barclay is the younger son of a marquis. After seducing so many females he should have been an expert at avoiding the marriage hungry ladies. Yet having slipped up and been caught, Lord Will flees London. In Burnham-by-the-Sea, he learns about Sophie. Perhaps he will not be bored after all.

**** In this regency romance, the heroine is a bit hard to believe. She does not seem to care for anything practical, such as money, and seldom considers how her actions in the present may affect her future. The hero is VERY easy to believe. The author did a terrific job of proving to the reader that he is a playboy and that he enjoys the title. If you are looking for a romance to enjoy while sitting outside on a sunny day, this is it! ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Twenty-nine-year-old Sophie Somerset went to London to find a husband who satisfies the conditions set forth in her late uncle, the Duke of Cornwallis's, will. If she does so before her next birthday, she will meet the unusual requirements that allow the duchy to pass to a female. But despite her status as a potential heiress, Sophie, who is very tall and curst with an ample bosom, does not take. Not only that, she is embroiled in one indiscretion after another. None of them were her fault, but her reputation is in tatters, and she retreats to the seaside with her cousin.

After narrowly evading an attempt to compromise him into marriage, Lord William Barclay, the younger son of the Marquis of Granville, seeks refuge in the most remote locale he can think of, the seaside home of his old friend Charles Mornington. Tired of the antics of females, Will is delighted to hear there are no eligible young ladies in the district, save for a disgraced heiress who recently arrived from London. While he can't help but sympathize with her plight--repairing a ruined reputation is demmed near impossible--he's been involved in too many scandals of his own to assist her. Unless, of course, she's interested in a discreet, simple dalliance.

Sophie's and Will's first encounter is not an auspicious one. Both have visited the linen draper's shop--Sophie dressed in her oldest, most comfortable gown and boots, Will, who escaped in his nightshirt and dressing gown, is attired in his valet's colorful raiment. Sophie looks like a washerwoman; Will, like the most foppish of fops. Sophie wants a coat and pantaloons to wear while fishing; Will needs an entire wardrobe. Neither is pleased to learn that the village's only tailor won't return for a fortnight. Will guesses who Sophie is, but her assumptions about him are far off the mark. Their second meeting, at the Morningtons' home, where Sophie and her cousin have been invited to dinner, isn't much better. Will and Sophie's third encounter is even worse . . . and even more intriguing.

LORD WILL & HER GRACE is a delightful tale of two people who fall in love when they least expect it. Will is a charmer, but he's not the scoundrel he appears to be. He has a serious side few people have ever seen, and even fewer know that the half-French former soldier repeatedly risked his life for the Crown. Sophie is a social misfit--a Welsh clergyman's daughter with little knowledge of the ton and its ways, and even less interest--but she needs an aristocratic husband in order to secure her title and fortune. Will fits the bill in all respects--or would, if he weren't a notorious rogue. At first glance, Will and Sophie are a most unlikely pair, but at heart, they are perfectly matched. A diverse cast of secondary characters adds depth and texture to the tale. The most colorful of the bunch--literally and figuratively--is Will's foppish valet, Jack Farquhar. He and his pug, Miss Tickle, are responsible for some of the story's most humorous moments.

Sophia Nash's wit and talent shine through in LORD WILL & HER GRACE. I highly recommend this book.

This is one of the best historical romances I've read in a long time. Filled with humor and emotional, gut wrenching passages, I finished it in one sitting and loved it.

Nash is evolving as a writer. Each one gets better and better. Her last book A Passionate Endeavor was a great read, highly emotional and romantic with hints of humor. My bookclub read it and gave it our highest rating last summer. This new book is a masterpiece of dry wit and filled with sexual tension and passion. The characters are wonderfully drawn and period perfect - Nash's heroes are especially good. Even the secondary cast of characters is memorable, each has distinctive characteristics that makes you want to get to know them better with books of their own. This is an author to watch and her newest is a keeper.

Sophia Nash knows what I like and she serves it up with great style and wit in LORD WILL AND HER GRACE! This is the third book I have read from the author and it's her best offering yet, though I love every one she has written. Her immaculate use of the time period always impresses me, and I believe it rivals my other favorite author Mary Balogh. However, her writing style is all her own, and this particular story is a feast for those who love romance, the Regency, and a bit of fun. She cleverly uses elements from the popular sitcom WILL AND GRACE, but fashions them into a unique plot that serves both the characters and the Regency that I love so well. I also find the author as audacious as the characters she writes for she is not at all reticent in introducing the conventional Regency audience to a healthy dose of lovemaking, as she has in all her novels, while retaining the overall Regency flavor that keeps us devoted to the genre. I find this new perspective on the Regency refreshing, and it's another reason I look forward to her books.

My own personal enjoyment of any book relies on its characters, and Ms. Nash chose two very unlikely ones to fall in love in this story. Regardless, Lord William Barclay and Miss Sophie Somerset, a reported rake in need of a fortune and an heiress running away from fortune hunters and sporting a bruised reputation, keep themselves and us amused throughout. Lord Will initially pursues the fair Sophie because he is bored and desperate to escape his present circumstance. However, he discovers that she is made of stronger stuff and then the fun truly begins. I loved the chemistry between the couple. Ms. Nash is one of the best at creating sexual tension and pulling it tighter as she weaves her well-told tale. Desire fairly crackles each time Will and Sophie are together, and while she always uses humor in her stories, this one is the wittiest of the three, and therefore the most diverting, to use the Regency vernacular.

I highly recommend any book written by SOPHIA NASH and especially LORD WILL AND HER GRACE. Ms. Nash brings the Regency period alive in her books and breaths life into the characters they inhabit it. I've heard her earlier books have all won awards for excellence, and I have no doubt that this one will reap its own surfeit of awards. The icing on the cake is its cover. I absolutely love it. It's my favorite of all her books. I'm convinced that Ms. Nash's talent will have us reading her books for years to come.

I read all of the reviews of this book and agreed with the professional reviewers and the readers who rated it highly - this was a great, fun, and well-paced read. I enjoyed both hero and heroine, as well as the interesting secondary characters. Ms. Nash has a deft hand with building a believable plot, tangling her characters up in it and then getting them out again. She writes with wit, humor, and wonderful detail. I enjoyed this one tremendously. If you're a Regency Fan, keep Sophia Nash on your Amazon Alert list!

The book that I just finished CAN'T be the same one that I've read such good reviews about - it just can't! Perhaps my book was missing the 50 or so pages that covered Will and Sophie falling in love. To me, it seemed as if they met each other three times - once at the drapers, once at a dinner party, and then when they meet for "lessons" (though I don't know why they were drawn to each other enough to do that) - and suddenly they were in love. Huh? He knew he loved her because she kissed innocently, not like the fallen woman he was expecting, and she fell in love with him because he whipped off the contraption that was keeping him from feeling her up? Really? That's it?

It was all I could do to get through this book. There was a part in the middle where it seemed that the book was picking up and I might actually like it. But sadly, that feeling passed quickly. Will and Sophie spent more time apart than together in this book and what little time they spent together didn't help me buy into the fact that they were in love. I TRIED to buy into it, but couldn't.

Maybe I am just missing something. I've seen very few bad reviews for this book out there on the internet, but I just don't understand why people like it so. Perhaps I am missing the "fun" over the Will & Grace spoof: Sophie believes Lord Will is gay but makes out with him anyway and falls in love. Oh, and don't forget the gay valet, Jack/Jacqueline and his pug, Mrs. Tickle (who goes to a masquerade and yes, they put the pug in a costume). Then there is the oversexed and condescending lady's maid, Karine. But never mind, they were rather annoying characters so yes, let's forget them.

I will grant that this book is different in that it is not just kisses and hand-holding. The initial sex scene between Sophie and Will was very well written. There was also a waltz scene that was enjoyable to read. But when the characters weren't having sex or dancing the waltz, I just didn't care what happened to them. And sadly, neither activity happened more than once until the very last pages of the book. By then, I didn't care if Will finally caught Sophie or ended up catching a cold.

A penniless adventurer and a womanizer, Lord William (Lord Will) Barclay, finds himself in a veritable pickle when his latest host, Lord Tolworth uses his sixteen year old daughter to try and entrap Lord Will into marriage. Not one to take to such stratagems, Lord Will and his valet escape to Lord Will's best friend's, Charles Mornington's estate in Burnham-by-the-Sea. Resigned to being bored out of his mind during his stay in the country, Lord Will is intrigued to learn that the Season's latest heiress and scandal, Miss Sophie Somerset (also known as the Hoyden Heiress) is also in retreat at Burnham-by-the-Sea. Needing a fortune himself in order to restore his family name, the appearance of Miss Sophie Somerset, seems a godsend. Sensing an opportunity to recoup, Lord Will sets off to woo Sophie. But in Sophie, Lord Will may have met his match; for never has he met so beguiling, so honourable and so trusting a woman. Could Lord Will, the cynical womanizer, actually be falling in love with an innocent?

"Lord Will & Her Grace" is an extremely well written book with fully realized and multi-faceted main characters. That said, I have to admit that it was not nearly as compelling a read as "A Passionate Endeavor." Part of the reason why may lie in the fact that "Lord Will & Her Grace" was a much simpler story. But Sophia Nash's ability to spin a good yarn and to engage the reader's interest and to one care as to whether or not Lord Will and Sophie will sort through all their misunderstandings and bruised feelings in order to achieve their happily ever-after ending, was evident. Fast paced and engaging, Lord Will & Her Grace made for an excellent 3 ½ star read.

Did you ever wonder what would happen on the television program "Will & Grace" if Will only pretended to be gay in order to spend time with Grace? Sophia Nash obviously spent some time pondering the question. Her book "Lord Will & Her Grace" is about characters Will, Her Grace (Sophie), Will's flamboyantly gay valet/friend Jack (whose flair for colors seems reminiscent of the movie "Zorro: The Gay Blade"), Her Grace's sex-crazed maid/employee Karine (who does very little work and pushes her employer around), and Karine's friend - a little lower on the employee chain - Rosario. Do the names seem familiar?

How strange to see the characters from the tv program in a romance novel. Her Grace meets Will at a time when he is forced to wear Jack's outrageously gay attire, so she assumes Will is gay, too. This might have been an amusing way for Will to gain her confidence and love, except that the premise wears off after a few chapters, when Will is unable to keep up the farce. The plot then veers into usual romance novel mode.

This is an odd little book -- half a joke and half a "real" romance novel. It works as neither, although it is a quick read and not an entirely bad way to spend an evening.

Olivia Parker wrote "At the Bride Hunt Ball," a "what if the television program 'The Bachelor' were set in an earlier century" novel. That book is far more consistent, witty, and worthwhile.

Both fleeing scandals and the the notorious ton of London, Lord Will and Miss Sophie Sommerset meet in the quite refuge of Burnham-by-the-sea. She's an odd one, a breeches wearing heiress (if married by her 30th) who likes to go fishing. He's intrigued and sets out to seduce, only to be seduced himself. Mis-understandings abound, a wager is placed, hearts are broken and scandals insue. Plenty of angst and action here. Its a wonder that there's a happy ending -almost wasn't.

I liked this one. The depth of scandal in this book is more than any other regency I've read recently and I'm not so sure its realistic the way everything is resolved, but its a good book. Sophie was a bit too bitter from the last third on, but that made the ending that more special. Not a deep intellectual, emotion-gripper like McNaught, but worth a read.

This is one of the American Library Association's Top Ten romances of the year. It was a terrific book - very romantic, funny, and even a tear jerker at one point. I was surprised by how much I was moved by the demure heroine who had to grow into a mature woman when faced with a windfall. And her counterpart was superb, a dark hero with a scandalous past. If you like books set in this time period, I highly recommend this one.
I bought all the Top Tens this year and of the ones I've read so far my favorites were Jill Marie Landis' Heartbreak Hotel, Dangerous Passions by L. Kerstan, Stolen Magic by MJ Putney, and this book.