Customer Reviews

My Dearest Enemy

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I loved both of these characters but the hero especially. He thinks he's a gentleman (and trust me he's the only one who thinks this <g>) he's blunt, and loud and pretty much knows nothing about being a boring old gentleman. Thank goodness! He's also charmingly imperfect, physically flawed by asthma, amazingly shy despite his loud mouth and sexually inexperienced. An irresistible combination, he was. The letters the two exchange during his travels cracked me up and touched me. A wonderful book that I can't recommend highly enough.

This is such a great book, the luscious kind that just completely sinks you into the story.

Avery Thorne, his sickly, asthmatic past behind him, finds that his uncle Horatio has died and left Mill House, Avery's inheritance, to outspoken woman's rights champion Lily Bede. If Lily can run Mill House for five years and show a profit for it, the place is hers. If not, it goes to Avery.

A disillusioned Avery travels the world for most of those five years, and as Lily must get to him a quarterly allowance, they begin corresponding, most of their letters filled with barely filled insults, which amuse Avery's fellow adventurers and Lily's friends in Mill House.

Avery eventually comes home, only to find that the spinster he expected to find is a beautiful woman, who nonetheless, suffers the shame of not being accepted in society because of her illegitimacy. Their first meeting is filled with tension and eventually they give in to the attraction they feel for each other, but Avery will not have Lily without marriage, and Lily fears her rights as a mother would be gone if she married Avery.

Connie Brockway writes wonderfully lush books that don't go into purple prose territory - her characters (main or secondary) are always fully drawn and interesting, and My Dearest Enemy was a delight to read.

I'm slightly disappointed with this book. I loved All Through The Night and As You Desire, rereading them often, and I waited every week in bated breath when this book came out. Then when I read it at first, I groaned. "This isn't as good as the others!" I exclaimed.

But I was wrong. This book is not like the others, because it is different. Each Brockway book tells its own story, and this one tells of a love so quaint and sweet I couldn't help but to love the characters.

Avery Thorne was my kind of guy. Sensitive, intelligent, shy, yet so dependent on, he is such a wonderful character. His letters and Lily Bede's make me chuckle aloud, and when they finally meet face to face, sparks really fly.

This book lacks the sensuality of love scenes typical of Brockway's books, but the tenderness and warmth are intact. The characters are vivid and fully drawn. Lily and Avery are so funny, so happy, so alive together it is hard not to succumb to smile and laug! hter seeing them fall in love.

My only complain is that Lily took too long to realise who she was in love with, but all in all, with beautiful prose, wonderful characters, humour, and love - this book is a keeper.

Goodness, but I loved this book. I love fiesty suffragettes. I love unassuming, manly explorers. I love intriguing secondary characters. I wish that more books were set in the later Victorian period, when the social structure was less rigid than the Regency.

The letters that Lily and Avery write to one another really are...witty and charming and heartfelt and sassy. If they hadn't been as well written, the book would not have worked at all - but Brockway manages to ease the reader into it, to really naturally portray the evolution in Lily and Avery's relationship through words, the way that both of them come to respect and admire and love one another before they've even met.

Fortunately, all is not bliss, otherwise there wouldn't be a book to read.

Lily is both philosophically and emotionally committed to the cause of women's liberation. She believes in it, passionately, and she is brave and proactive. But she has also inherited her commitment, from a mother who was greviously wronged by her husband. Her mother nursed Lily on mistrust of men, and Lily reaches adulthood with very little notion that men are human beings at all - at first it seems like she's joking, but she really does have a hard time figuring out that men have feelings, or hearts, or souls. This is what keeps Lily from understanding or accepting Avery.

Avery's problem is less dire. He is stubbornly attached to the idea that he is a *gentleman* despite the fact that he has very little grasp of social niceties. He's a good guy - really, he's got a solid gold heart - but he is definitely more comfortable tramping around in the jungle than in a drawing room. His pigheaded notions about being a gentleman, aside from providing comic relief, also make it hard for him to understand and sympathize with Lily sometimes.

Under normal circumstances, I tend to dislike books where the hero and the heroine fight a lot. But Brockway manages to put so much spark and sparkle into Lily and Avery's arguments - she makes it so evident that Lily and Avery thrive on debate, on lively battles of wits, and she infuses their verbal sparring with so much believable eroticism that it really works in My Dearest Enemy.

Because of the way that the plot is structured - where Lily has these ideas she's inherited, and both Lily and Avery are competing for the ownership of Mill House - the book revolves around the qualities that make a relationship last over a lifetime, not just a honeymoon. Lily and Avery have to learn to trust one another, to care for the welfare of the other over their own, to compromise and listen and respect one another.

I think that "My Dearest Enemy" is more eloquent, more heartfelt, than most other romance novels I have read. I really loved it.

With "As You Desire" and "All Through The Night," this book creates a three-way tie for my favorite Connie Brockway romances. Where the others are slightly darker, "My Dearest Enemy" is a feel-good tale in every respect. The sexual chemistry is here in force, and there's no lack of challenge from either of the protagonists, but somehow I never doubted their respect for each other and that good times were ahead.

A favorite author. I'd beg her to write 'em as fast as I can read 'em, except that I wouldn't want to change a thing about Connie Brockway's writing.

I look for stories that have a different perspective, so this one caught my attention. Lily is given control over the inheritance that Avery always thought would be his. The control is temporary; Lily has to prove herself capable of managing it, or she will lose it to Avery. The reader is introduced to these two strong-willed people through their correspondence with one another over several years; the story then moves to real-time. I loved the technique; it felt as though I was reading a long-ago diary, and gave me a better feel for the characters' personalities than straight dialog and narrative would have. By the time the story entered the narrative phase, I was ready for the sparks that flew (love-hate) as their passion for each other unfolded. I ached for them both as the book closed. They were such reluctant lovers! I held back on the fifth star rating because the book felt a little short, but I'll still be keeping it because it's different and I like that.

More than a romance, this is a true love story. The anguish is palpable, the characters are memorable. The RITA is well-deserved: Ms. Brockway is setting a new standard in romance writing.

I am a very jaded reader and I found this book truly excellent. The writing is almost flawless. The heroine and hero are my very favorite type, both outsiders who are clearly made for each other. The use of correspondence between the hero and heroine in the plot is great. All characters are excellently drawn with unique voices. The use of humor is very well done. The passion is strong and wonderful.

In 1887, Horatio Thorne sends a letter to his only living adult male relative, Avery, a world traveler. Horatio writes in the letter that he is dying, but Avery will not be named as guardian to his younger cousin. Instead Lily Bede will manage the estate for the next five years unless Avery shows up to take charge. Lily only has to send Avery money from the estate. If he never shows up and the estate is run in a profitable manner, Lily takes over permanently.

For the next five years, Lily has managed Mill House and sends Avery money with a letter explaining the role of women in modern English society. Just before the estate is hers to manage forever, Avery, arrives on the scene. Apparently her letters have inspired the man, who quickly falls in love with the independent Lily. Now all he has to do is convince her that marriage to him is not slavery. Instead, it will be a glorious partnership.

Even if it is all through the night, readers will sit down and peruse Connie Brockway's newest historical romance, MY DEAREST ENEMY, in one sensual sitting. Lily is a great role model, who shows how far an intrepid woman can go even in the confines of the late nineteenth century. The alienated Avery is clearly a dangerous man to Lily's plans, thereby turning this story line into a intelligent, passionate, and crisp tale that substantiates how good a writer Ms. Brockway is.

I loved this book. It's going on my keeper shelf! I like stories that have witty banter, kind of snapping, baiting each other, hostile flirting, etc. This is one of those types. I love both of the characters, the hero is a mess but amazingly so. The sarcastic letters made me laugh out loud. This is a lighthearted read, definitely a HEA and the plot was refreshing.

Other's have done more in-depth analysis of the plot, so I'll not bore you or spoil it for you. It's definitely worth reading and I highly recommend it. If you like Lisa Kleypas, Julia Quinn and those types of authors and you haven't picked up a Connie Brockway yet, please do so.