29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
3 1/2 stars: an engaging and refreshing read, December 26, 2005
This review is from: The Lord Next Door (Avon Romantic Treasure) (Mass Market Paperback)
This, I'm guessing, is the first installment in a trilogy involving the Shelby sisters; and what a good and promising first installment it proved to be as well. Though, perhaps, "The Lord Next Door" may not be to every romance reader's taste. To begin with it is more of a sweet love story that unfolds over the course of a couple's first few weeks of marriage. There are very few explicit bedroom scenes, although those that are in the book are rather sensual. Also, aside from the usual plot gambit of the hero and heroine not trusting each other completely, there is practically no plot conflict involved at all. This could all have led to "The Lord Next Door" being a rather lackluster read. Fortunately, however, Gayle Callen provides us with a heroine, Victoria, and a hero, David, that captured my sympathy and had me rooting for them to work through their problems and so achieve their happily ever-after ending.
Victoria Shelby was ten when she started corresponding with her neighbour's (the Earl of Barnstead) cook's son, Tom. Over the next few years, even though the two never met, both Victoria and Tom became good friends until Tom mysteriously vanished. Which is why, when a twenty-six year old Victoria faces the fact that she must marry in order to save her ailing mother from a life of penury (her father had died and left the family quite penniless), she decides to knock on her neighbour's door in order to ask for Tom's whereabouts. Imagine her horror and chagrin when she discovers that Tom never actually existed and that she had been corresponding with David, Viscount Thurlow, the earl's only son all along. Imagine also her shock when Viscount Thurlow turns up at her doorstep the next day proposing marriage. With a family name almost synonymous with scandal, the up and coming Member of Parliament and businessman needs a respectable and demure wife who will run his household smoothly and hostess the many dinner parties he must give. Victoria was brought up to be exactly such a wife. And while Victoria knows that she cannot afford to refuse David's offer of marriage, she nevertheless quails at the thought of tying herself to the boy who betrayed her trust by pretending to be someone he wasn't all those years ago. But the more she gets to know him the more she realises that David needs her help and her understanding. And Victoria quickly resolves to become a wife that will be an assert to her husband, as well as to win her husband's love and respect. Unfortunately, also in the mix is a secret she promised never to reveal. Can two people have a successful marriage when there is a secret between them?
What's really well done in "The Lord Next Door" was the manner in which the author allowed for the characters to develop -- for example, one reads with appreciation of how Victoria's mother, Mrs.Shelby comes out of the cocoon of her grief in order to give her daughter some good advice and support during some uncomfortable stages in the marriage, and of how the Earl becomes less of an ogre and is revealed to be an unhappy old man in pain. I also liked the manner with which she developed the relationships between her characters, like the one that developed between Victoria the cantankerous Earl, and of course between Victoria and David. Mostly however, this was a sweet story about the love and respect that develops between two people who were emotionally wounded individuals that are a little leery about trusting each other. Nothing else. It is well crafted and well told (even if the language was a tad too modern in spots. And readers looking for something a little different from the usual fare that seems to be heavily populated with heroes and heroines that annoy might want to consider "The Lord Next Door."
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Doesn't Disappoint, December 26, 2005
This review is from: The Lord Next Door (Avon Romantic Treasure) (Mass Market Paperback)
I bought this book while looking for something to read one night. The heroine, Victoria, is struggling to keep her family off the streets in the wake of her father's shady death.
As a child, Victoria, who was never good at the genteel things (sewing, watercoloring, dancing, flirting) at which her sisters excelled, befriended a neighboring servant boy named Tom and the two corresponded through a journal for nearly six years.
Suddenly, Tom stops writing, years pass, Victoria's father dies and she's faced with the choice of being kicked out of the family home (along with her mother) or marrying to secure a place in the world. So, out of desperation, she ventures next door and asks to see Tom (the two never met because of their differing social classes) only to be confronted with Viscount David Thurlow, who tells her immediately that he pretended to be Tom all those years ago.
Family scandal has ruined many of David's chances to secure an advantageous marriage and, after finding out about Victoria's situation, he offers to marry her in order to solve both their problems.
For a while, the marriage is in name only because Victoria wants time to get to know David and he agrees to her terms, but this gives the book time to build characters and sexual tension between the two.
The flow from chapter to chapter was consistent and I never grew anxious because of a slow pace, but I did find myself wondering at minor issues of plausibility.
For instance, when they were children, Victoria and Tom wrote to each other in a journal...for FIVE years. Unless that journal was the size of a college dictionary, I honestly don't see how they corresponded that long and only went through one journal and STILL had blank pages to write on in adulthood.
I was also rather skeptical about the 360-degree turnaround of the relationship between David and his father, the earl. The older man is sick and near death and bitter, but suddenly, Victoria reads to him for a week and he's making apologies and explaining his actions? Hmm.
I also didn't think that for the amount of weight given to the deep, dark family secrets kept by David and by Victoria, that the secrets were all that dark. Once the truth came out, everyone involved basically said, "Oh, that's not so bad," but if these were things that Victoria and David truly felt m ight ruin their relationship, I think the secret OR the reactions should have been more profound.
All in all, though, I thought this was a very charming love story about childish affection maturing across time; one of those "meant to be" loves that won't disappoint the casual reader of regency romance.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Nice Diversion, March 28, 2006
This review is from: The Lord Next Door (Avon Romantic Treasure) (Mass Market Paperback)
Ms. Callen's latest effort is a nice diversion if nothing else. This story doesn't pop like some of her other titles but it's also not a story I'd go out of my way to avoid. Plainly put this read will entertain while you read but not exceptional with it's character development.
Victoria Shelby and her two younger sisters and mother have been left destitute after the death of their bank father/husband. The two younger girls have left home in order to obtain positions as a governess and as a companion. This leaves Victoria home alone to care for their mama. Things are beginning to turn desperate. A cousin will be returning to take the house and Victoria needs to find a place for her and her mother before they are left homeless. Remembering her childhood confidant Tom, she walks next door to see if perhaps he could help her. He had always been there for her in the past. A cook's son he was her friend first and foremost. Imagine her shock and surprise when she finds out the boy who she once shared her thoughts and dreams with through a diary is not a cook's son but rather the son of an Earl. When David Thurlow offers her marriage she is once again surprised. Why would this lord want to marry her? Having no choice she accepts the proposal hoping she is not making a big mistake.
David needs a wife. His father has ruined the family with a horrid scandal that is still whispered about years later. Trying to find his place in life he is surprised when his childhood friend turns up on his doorstep just when he needs her most. He needs a wife she needs a husband. They will suit well enough and the fact that his wife is scandal free is another incentive to convince Victoria to marry him. But will these two be happy? David is involved with his business interests and largely leaves his wife alone...only at night when they are caught up in David's sensual lessons do either allow the other to see what they think or feel. Will the secrets they both work so hard to hide eventually find their way to the light of day?
This story had a great deal of potential but the slow pace of the story took away from the read. David and Victoria were nice characters but secondary character Simon seemed to overshadow our hero. This is not what you want when you read a romance. Overall this is a sweet story but it lacks the fire that is normally found in a book penned by this author.
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