Customer Reviews

Pretty Polly (Thorndike Paperback)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved this book. I've read more than 50 Marion Chesney including those she's written under the name M.C. Beaton, and this is one of my favorite. Maybe it's because in this story, the gal with intellect triumphs over frou-frou beauty, and a poor relation triumphs through strength of character over those with more material means. Fulfilling someone's fantasy!

While Chesney does put more work into her six book series of
novels. I can think of a couple of her novels put out in the
1990's that were a little slapped together like she had written
them too quickly and hadn't put the usual effort into them.
I liked this one, thought it was cute and liked the characters,
sure the one woman in the book was selfish and wasn't nice, but
she was an interesting character psychologicaly. I thought the
parrot who repeated things and either ruined romances or brought
people together was a rather cute and amusing addition to the book. Worth a read in my opinion.

Normally I quite enjoy Marion Chesney's Regency romances. They often feature witty dialogue and absolutely hilarious secondary characters. This book features neither of these. Unfortunately, the heroine I found unsympathetic and the hero was quite dull. The only funny moments came from the little menagerie the heroine builds for herself, and those were few and far between. The overall tone of the story was lonely and disaffected. This isn't the best example of Chesney's work. To see her in much better form I would recommend any of the books in the School for Manners or Six Sisters series, which are all far superior to this one.