Customer Reviews

Scandalous Secrets

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Patricia Oliver is the only Regency Romance author I religiously read. She melds together the ambience of the era with characters who seem very real. Many Regency Romance authors seem to get bogged down in the descriptions, phrasing, and setting of the era that the characters fail to come alive. Not so with Patricia Oliver. This is the fourth book I've read by her, and it's the best - I give it a B+.

What works so well in this book is that both the hero and heroine are both types we've seen before, and yet they seem fresh here. There's the heroine who refuses to be what Society tells her to be, and the hero who believes women are foolish creatures.

When these two fall in love, it's wonderful, and the villains are the "best" villains I've ever come across in a Regency Romance. This is truly a fine book, with strong secondary characters as well, and I highly recommend it.

TTFN, Laurie Likes Books

Publisher, All About Romance

www.likesbooks.com

Patricia Oliver is one of my favourite Regency writers: I've bought everything of hers I could get my hands on, and she's the only writer whose work I'll order before it's published, with no jacket information or readers' reviews to go on. And I'm rarely disappointed.

While I'm still hoping that some day she'll return to her 'Seven Corinthians' series and finish it, this book was a great read in the meantime. She has created two very interesting characters in Fanny and Derek: both damaged by their pasts, and both afraid, or too proud, to tell each other the truth about themselves. Thus Fanny allows Derek to think her too proud and snobbish, when in reality that isn't the case.

The secondary characters and villains in this book are all very well portrayed, with not a caricature among them; there's a sweet and humorous subsidiary romance, and a nasty, but not over-drawn, main villain who is very threatening.

Good, very good... now waiting for Lady Jane's Nemesis!

This book is well-written, but it lacks sustainable interest. There's nothing special or memorable about it; the characters, the plot...just an OK read, no keeper.