Marriage at the Manor [Hardcover]

Amanda Grange (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 2002

It was bad enough that Miss Cicely Haringay had to sell the manor. It was even worse that she had to sell it to a city gentleman! Cicely was determined to dislike the new owner, but when circumstances forced her to take a job as his secretary her feelings began to change. Alex Evington was handsome, charming and...a mystery. Why had he really bought Oakleigh Manor? What were his motives for hosting a sparkling house party there? And why did Cicely feel drawn to him, when his feelings for her were so impossible to understand? This is a glittering romance set in one of England's most glamorous eras, the dazzling belle epoque.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Amanda Grange lives in Cheshire and has three novels published, A Most Unusual Governess, Anything but a Gentleman and The Six-Month Marriage all by Robert Hale.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 242 pages
• Publisher: Robert Hale Ltd (December 31, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0709071353
• ISBN-13: 978-0709071358
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,375,309 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Trite and deadly dull, May 9, 2004

By 

Woodbuckley (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marriage at the Manor (Paperback)

Grange ventures away from the Regency period here into slightly more modern times and the Edwardian era.
She sets up a familiar scenario, the last of a well established old, aristorcratic family is forced by debt to sell her home to a newly monied self-made man. In this instance it is it Miss Cicely Haringay who it the former and Mr Alex Evington the latter. Swirling in the background is a mystery associated with businessman Alex regarding the real reason he has purchased Cicely's home - Oakleigh Manor.
These two of course start out with the usual set of angry prejudices about the respective classes to which each belongs. She hates him for buying her precious home, his ignorance of its traditions and feels a repugnance for a social climber. He dislikes her for being brought up in luxury and ease and shakes his head at traditions he has no real wish to understand.
A much used plot that often works well. Here is does not - alas it is not even close to working. The two leads have some charm and are each likable. However the plot runs off the road in much the same way Cicely's bicycle does in the excruciating scene where the pair first meet. She is made to work for him, he is made to consult her about the manor.
It ought to work - but does not. It is deadly dull and poor Cicely and Alex ought to run off together to a more interesting book.

4.0 out of 5 stars Makes a change, May 31, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Marriage at the Manor (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book. I usually read Regencies, but this made a change.

5.0 out of 5 stars a great romance, May 23, 2004

By 

sue bradley (canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marriage at the Manor (Paperback)

Marriage at the Manor has all the hallmarks of a great romance. There's love, humor and a good cast of characters, led by a very likeable hero and heroine in Cicely and Alex. I laughed out loud when Alex knocked Cicely off her bicycle in the opening scenes, something I don't often do, and from there on it was an enjoyable ride throughout the book.
The story starts with Cicely meeting Alex when she is forced to sell her beloved home. He's a money-grubbing cit, or so she thinks, but there is more to Alex than that, it just takes Cicely some time to find it out.
Like all Amanda Grange novels, there's an absorbing plot as well as a romance. Here it takes the form of a robbery. Someone is stealing jewellery from wealthy house party guests, and Alex's sister - working as a maid as the family was poor at the time - was unlucky enough to be framed for a previous robbery. Now that Alex has made a fortune he intends to hold his own house party - which is why he needed to buy a posh country home - so that he can track down the thief and restore his sister's reputation.
Sparks fly between Cicely and Alex as poverty forces Cicely to take a job as Alex's secretary, and the Edwardian setting adds novelty to their sparring. Cicely's father collected boneshakers, and the two of them try to ride them with hilarious results. Humor brings them together, and a love rival, in the form of Eugenie, drives them apart. The Edwardian setting then takes them to Marienbad, a spa in what would now be, I guess, Austria or Germany, as they follow the thief abroad. I really loved his part of the book. It made a really unusual setting, and I could almost smell the pine trees. In the end they catch the thief (with the help of one of my favourite minor characters, Cicely's cousin, Sophie)closing what is a very enjoyable book.
Amanda Grange usually writes Regencies - my favourite is The Silverton Scandal - but this is just as good.