Customer Reviews

Milady in Love

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Just When He'd Fobbed Off the Last Brat, Another Appeared to Take her Place!

Poor Lord Anselm! The dashing bachelor was forever plagued with dying relatives leaving their female children to his care. Indeed, he had squired so many a silly miss from schoolroom to marriage mart that he had sworn off women altogether.

The current ward was far and away the worst. Cheeky as only a French girl could be, Yvonne de la Falaise had surely sent her papa to an early grave with her melodramatics and mischief. Thank goodness for her governess, Patricia Cottingham. So calm, so competent!

But all was not as it seemed, or so Anselm learned and very nearly too late...

Just when he'd fobbed off the last brat, another appeared to take her place! Poor Lord Anselm. The dashing bachelor was forever plagued with dying relatives leaving their female children to his care. Indeed, he had squire so many a silly miss from schoolroom to marriage mart that he had sworn off women altogether.

This book is quite a step down from the usual tales by Marion Chesney. Missing completely is the touch of wry humor I've come to expect. Instead, there is the straight romance novel with a most illogical ending.

Set in an ugly castle on the coast of Cornwall, Viscount Anselm has taken on what he hopes is his last female ward, a pretty Frence girl with a mind of her own--intelligence not being a female asset in Regency society. To tame her, Anselm has hired a governess/companion named Patricia Cottingham. Things go awry from the start and the plot never quite comes up to the Chesney standard of excellence.

The writing style is excellent, as usual, save for the lack of the expected wry humor in a Chesney work. The characters feel a bit drab, especially the viscount, who is cruel, almost sadistic at times. The atmosphere of the castle, honeycombed with secret passages, dungeons, and hidden stairways that are revealed by mechanisms in the fireplace curlycues--it's just a little too farfetched.

The exact year is a bit vague. England is at war with France (it was, off and on), so there is a pervasive xenophobia, but what is the year? The Regency, an inexact era in time, but it would be better if the reader knew more precisely the background.

This is just not up to the Poor Relations series. It's not a complete disappointment, but it's closer to one.