Customer Reviews

My Darling Caroline

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

When I read "Winter Garden" by Adele Ashworth, I thought it was the best book I had read in a long time and wrote her to tell her so and she was kind enough to write back to thank me. But, I was wrong, her book "My Darling Caroline" is ranked right up there with "Winter Garden."

The book is about Caroline, a brilliant botonist, who is denied admission to study at Oxford university because of her gender. She is admitted to Columbia University in America only because she told them she was a man, but her father had different ideas. He has arranged a marriage for Caroline to the Lord of Weymerth, a man who has just returned from war.

To say the least, Brent and Caroline are both opposed to this marriage. Caroline has all intentions of having the marriage annuled so that she can travel to America to attend Columbia and Brent, the Lord of Weymerth, is marrying only to get back some of his property and horses, which he breeds. But fate has other plans for them.

The story takes off from there. Adele Ashworth delves into their minds and we get to know Caroline and Brent and come to care for them as dearly as they come to care for each other. I have never read dialogue between the hero and heroine that was so moving and so mezmerizing that it brought tears to my eyes more than once. The scene where they consumate their marriage is so sweet, I had to read it more than once. The book takes hold of you from the very first page and only gets better.

I'm an avid romance reader and go through about three books per week, which I think is good considering I have a full time job. I have to say that I read "My Darling Caroline" in two days. I just couldn't let go. I felt the same about "Winter Garden."

As far as I'm concerned, Adele Ashworth is some kind of writer and my hat is off to her. She can't write fast enough for me.

Please do yourself a favor and read her books - you surely won't be sorry.

Have you ever finished a romance novel and thought, this is how it is supposed to be done, this is how I am supposed to feel? I am supposed to feel that I know the main characters intimately, I am supposed to feel their pain, and rejoice at their happiness. That is how I felt when I read the last page of this book and I realized that, unless something truly strange happened and Adele Ashworth starts writing very differently, I will always buy her books, because this is how romance is supposed to be written.

Caroline Grayson is not simply intelligent, she is brillant and wonderfully talented with plants. Ever since she discovered her affinity for flowers, she has wanted to study botany with her idol who is a professor at Oxford University. However, when she is cruely dismissed because she is female, she disguises her gender and applies, and is accepted, to study in New York.

However, things don't go as planned when her father announces that she must marry Brent Ravenscroft, an impoverished lord who has come to her father to demand the return of property which was improperly sold to him when Brent went off to war. Caroline's father tells Brent that he must marry Caroline in order to get back what was sold, throwing both of them into a relationship that neither desired. Caroline believes, since Brent doesn't want to marry her anyway, that she can simply get an annulment and fulfill her dream by going to New York. Of course, things don't work out quite that way...

What follows is a truly touching story about what it means to love and be loved. The pain, excitement, and healing that often goes with falling in love with a person who truly is meant for you.

The most amazing thing about this book, and other Ashworth titles like Winter Garden, are the characters. The reader has the joy of watching two people who had planned different futures for themselves, ultimately find happiness and love. Both have emotional scars, Caroline from growing up brillant, but limited by her gender, and Brent from dealing with his family. I was touched when Ashworth described the pain Caroline felt when she had to stand outside classrooms in order to learn more about the science she so loved, enduring comments about her feminity. So often authors tell us that a heroine is intelligent, but so few show it as well as Ashworth. Thank you Adele Ashworth for giving us romance readers such a wonderful and moving story. For those of you who find yourself without something to read, and have not all ready devoured this book like I and so many other have, or for those of you who simply wonder what all the fuss is about, read this book. It's magic.

because it was entertaining although I thought the pacing was a little off at times and the dialogue a bit stilted and quite modern in some instances. However, I am always willing to overlook modern dialogue and an over-used plot as long as the author manages to keep me interested for 338 pages and Ms. Ashworth certainly accomplished that.

Caroline Grayson is a gifted botanist with the unladylike dream of traveling to America to study botany at Columbia University. However, her dream is shattered when her father announces that she's to be wed to the Earl of Weymerth. The Earl is also being forced to wed in order to obtain back his estate that was sold from under him while he was in the continent battling Napoleon.Caroline sees this a brilliant opportunity to put her plan into motion. She plans to wed the handsome earl and then ask him for an anullment (sp?). To her mind this should be a simple thing to do since she does not care for him and he certainly doesn't care for her. What Caroline never considered was that the Earl might want a wife and that she might end up wanting to be a wife to him thereby giving up the dream of a lifetime.

This arranged marriage plot is certainly overused in historicals but in this book the author makes it work. As I understand this was the author's first book so that might explain the sometimes ackward pacing of the story. I disliked the extraneous plot involving an assassin from the hero's past. It seemed that it was inserted into the story as an after thought and did not really mesh with the love story being told. Also, there were many characters like Davis the horse trainer and Caroline's sisters that appeared in one or two scenes and were never to be seen or heard from again with no explanation. Another quibble was having two characters named Charlotte (one was the hero's sister and the other the heroines!) which made it very confusing. Also, the dialogue at times sounded much too modern for a novel set in the Regency period, this is a minor problem but it did jolt me out of the story a few times. Having said that, I have to admit that this was quite a love story and it does not really suffer all that much from the things I have listed above. The romance and the way the author turned overused plot devices and made them unique to her story was able to make up for those shortcomings very well.For example, the hero and heroine recognize their love early on which I found very unusual and the requisite big-misunderstanding is not dragged on interminably.Overall, this was a very satisfying read and I will be looking foward to reading this author's other works. :-)

Botany? I despise gardening. But 16 pgs later I'm hooked and halfway through I'm pulling my hair screaming "Just let the poor girl make her lavendar rose!" Caroline becomes torn between fulfilling her ambition and caring for her husband and small step-daughter. How can any living female not relate? Are we selfish? Are they? This book has a go at the answers.

Brent is compelling as the hero; brutally honest, haunted, honorable and gifted for passionate dialogue that turned my ears red. His relationship with the "plain-looking" genius Caroline is a coup for all girls not born airbrushed.

This novel goes leagues deeper than just a romp and had me rivetted from start to finish. Profound. Cathartic. Ashworth's research in botany and history passed muster for this bachelor's in history. Don't let not being a green thumb keep you from this phenomenal book.

This is a wonderfully written, emotionally satisfying book with characters I cared a lot about.

Caroline Grayson wants tbreed flowers, unfortunately, in 1800s England women are not taken seriously as scholars and Caroline's efforts to attend university seem thwarted.

Just when she has made up her mind to leave everything behind and go to school (under a name that won't reveal she is a woman) her father determines she is to marry. Her first meeting with the Earl of Weymerth is not a promising one, but after the wedding, Caroline begins to discover just what a wonderful person her husband, Brent, really is.

She must still decide whether to give up her dream or to leave Brent, whom she has fallen in love with, not to mention little Rosalyn whom she loves as well. Brent's past as a spy also poses problems.

I absolutely loved this book. Caroline and Brent are wonderful lead characters and I hope you'll give them a try.

This is a pleasant book with a very interesting heroine - a botany genius who is denied a chance in furthering her studies because of her gender. It is heartbreaking to read of her frustration. The author has a wonderful way with words, and I fully recommend this to my friends.

Having said that, the Big Misunderstanding blew me away by surprise. I don't like it - it feels like a device. However, it doesn't really spoil the story.

Read this book and enjoy!

All her life Lady Caroline Grayson has known that she botany is her life. Now, after finally breeding a rare lavendar rose, she plans to fulfill her dream to study in New York.

When Caroline's father insists that she marry the Earl of Weymerth she is crushed but agrees. Knowing she will ask for a annulment Caroline refuses to make this a marriage in truth. She refuses to consumate the marriage, instead keeping Brent at an arms length.

Having just returned from Waterloo, Brent's only wish for this marriage is a woman in his bed and a wife to bear him sons. He hadn't expected brilliant Lady Caroline.

Brent and Caroline slowly grow to respect eachother and that respect turns into love. Can Caroline give up her lifelong dream of botany to be a wife?

I loved this book, I loved Caroline and I especially loved the brooding Brent. Adele Ashworth is an author to watch and look forward to more of her work.

Breezed through this book literally within hours. Found some frustrating areas as the author did a lot of telling through character dialogue rather than showing. Some of the story line was way too predictable and felt alittle rushed. Instead of having situations unfold, the author simply had the charcter tell about about it through dialogue. There was too much character back story and not enough growth of the characters through out the book. That being said, it wasn't terrible, just not a 5 star worthy novel.

I love Adele Ashworth's books. Why are they out of print? I just finished Winter Garden, which is arguably one of the best ever written, and now I can't decide which one I like better. I'd like to own both, but you better get out your wallet...they are BOTH out of print...aghhh!

My Darling Caroline is a book about Caroline Grayson, a positively brilliant mathematician and botanist who has experienced much prejudice and shunning based on her gender. She is forced into an arranged marriage with Brent Ravenscroft, but has no intention of staying married. She plans to have the marriage anulled so that she can travel to America and study her botany abroad. She didn't plan on falling in love with her husband.

Brent Ravenscroft is a man of true worth. He respects Caroline's intelligence, makes no secret of his desire for her, and is forth right. He is so appealing in many different ways, I had to keep myself from sighing in many of the things he says to Caroline throughout the book.

The characters make this book.....as was the case with Winter Garden. Ashworth throws in some secondary characters and some villains for good measure, but they are not needed. The main couple is so strongly characterized and portrayed that you will not forget them. The love scenes are erotic, yet emotional....a difficult thing to do well. Ashworth excels at this.

Find this book (along with Winter Garden). You will be engrossed, hooked, and then in the spot I'm in....how can I get my hands on a copy at a reasonable price?

My Darling Caroline is one of the best books I have read in months. The characters Caroline and Brent were filled wth such raw emotins. It was good to see such a hero who was just an ordinary man with needs and desires. Caroline expressed views that still affect women today and how our spouses should react to those views. A++++