Customer Reviews

Shall We Dance?

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I wonder if I read the same novel that the previous two reviewers did? Because I found Kasey Michaels' "Shall We Dance?" to be a rather witty and humorous read, and actually liked it a lot better than quite a few of her previous Regency-era romance novels! I suppose that this does prove the adage right: there's no accounting for (personal) taste.

George III of England is (finally) dead, and the corpulent, dissolute, spendthrift and much despised Prince of Wales is soon be crowned king -- something that the Prince has dreamed of and longed for for a very long time. Unfortunately, for the Prince, this much looked forward to turn of events is quite marred because of the realisation that his much hated wife, Princess Caroline of Brunswick, would be entitled to be crowned Queen of England as well. The Prince cannot bear this and has instructed his government to find a way for him to divorce Princess Caroline. The Tory (Conservative) government, quite tired of the blowzy and coarse Princess of Wales and her scandalous ways eagerly cooperate, particularly as a newly divorced King would be able to marry again and father another heir (Princess Charlotte, the Prince and Princess' Caroline's only child, had died in childbirth some time back). In order to ferret out some outrageous scandal concerning Princess Caroline, Sir Willard Humphrey, retired Minister of the Admiralty, has decided to coerce his nephew, Perry Shepherd, the Earl of Brentwood, into helping the government. The plan is for Perry to seduce the Princess' young companion, Miss Amelia Fredericks, into revealing a "naughty" tidbit or two about the Princess that would effective ruin her in the eyes of all her many supporters. A dangerous man, who had done some rather unpleasant things for his country during the Peninsula Wars, Perry is nevertheless appalled at the lengths that his uncle and the government are prepared to go in order to satisfy their Prince in order to stay in power. And Perry is resolved to contain whatever excesses his uncle and his cronies are capable of unleashing by pretending to do their bidding. A resolve that becomes all the more palatable once he meets Miss Amelia Fredericks, and recognises in her a heart so steadfast and loyal and true, that it is almost a balm to his much jaded soul. Determined to protect the Princess and his Amelia, Perry nevertheless quickly realises how doubly risky his plan is -- for what should happen if Amelia were to learn of his connection to Sir Willard? Will he be able to stomach losing the woman he has fallen deeply in love with for the sake of duty?

"Shall We Dance?" starts off strong -- Perry's sardonic wit really makes for a very entertaining read. Also adding to the entertaining faction was the humorous manner in which the author presents the very many eccentric and colourful characters who have all marshaled their resources in order to either help or hinder the Princess. It is true, however, that things do sag a little somewhere in the middle; likewise the romance between Perry and Amelia, which starts out strong, but which also takes a back seat to the intrigue subplot -- who is out to poison the Princess, and who is behind the attempt? However, the realistic and stark manner in which Kasey Michaels presents the Princess' plight, together with the sympathetic manner in which she presents Amelia -- her dreams and her desires -- plus the witty manner in which she presents the stalwart manner in which Perry tries to do the right thing and protect Amelia and the Princess, made reading "Shall We Dance?" a rather enjoyable and witty read. Kasey Michaels does a good job of using in a real historical event as a backdrop to her romance subplot. And I enjoyed her portrayal of the much beleaguered but the utterly tasteless Princess Caroline. So that in spite of the fact that things got a little rushed here and there, "Shall We Dance?" still turned out to be a good read.

In 1820 the King is dead and George IV inherits the throne. However, George wants to rid himself of his estrange wife Princess Caroline before his coronation insisting she does not deserve to be queen. Caroline has returned to England after several years on the continent in exile planning to sit on the throne whether her spouse wants her or not.

The retired Minister of the Admiralty Sir Willard Humphrey orders his worthless nephew Perry Shepherd to use the undercover skills he learned during the Napoleonic wars to find dirt to discredit Caroline. To gain entry, Willard suggests Perry use loyal princess follower Amelia Fredericks, one of Caroline's orphans. If Perry fails to perform his duty for his king, Willard says he will enlist odious Jarrett Rolin who will do anything to regain his lost status amidst the Ton. Reluctantly, feeling like it is the less of two evils, Perry leaves his hedonistic pastime behind to uncover regal scandal. Instead he falls in love with his ticket but worries how his beloved will react to his treachery of using her to get at her cherished Princess.

This entertaining Regency romance in many ways is more a political historical tale than a love story. Readers obtain a taste of the Whig-Tory rivalry accentuated by who the support the king or the wannabe queen. The enticing romance enhances the competition for power as Kasey Michaels provides a refreshing look at the machinations and skirmishes between the Regent and his wife as well as the two political parties prior to the coronation.

Harriet Klausner

This unusual romance novel is a curate's egg of the first order. As the polite curate is supposed to have replied when his bishop asked if he was enjoying a breakfast egg which had obviously gone off, "Parts of it, my Lord, are excellent."

But it also contains a few truly inexcusable historical howlers, one of them in the first sentence of the story, which would have made me put the book straight back down had I not known from reading other works by Kasey Michaels that she can write very well.

The book is set in 1820, just after the regency period, when the Prince Regent has finally ascended to the throne as King George IV. The plot revolves around the astonishing and tawdry feud between the new King and his estranged wife, Queen Caroline, who he unsuccessfully tried to divorce.

The hero of the story is Perry Shepherd, Earl of Brentwood, who had spent the Napoleonic wars as a spy. (Extraordinary how many novels of this period feature the unlikely combination of titled hero who is also a former spy, but there you go.) His uncle, recently retired as a minister in Lord Liverpool's Tory government, asks Perry to spy on the household of the new Queen, posing as a friend, to look for any evidence of misbehavour which might help the King to divorce her.

From Perry's viewpoint, spying for his uncle and the government against an external enemy like Napoleon was one thing, spying on the Queen to help them find evidence for a royal divorce something else again. He pretends to take the job so that they won't send a much less scrupulous person - with no intention of actually spying on anyone.

Perry finds that the long-suffering lynchpin who keeps the Queen's extraordinary household functioning is Amelia Fredericks, supposedly one of a number of orphans who Queen Caroline has adopted - or is that what she really is?

Perry and Amelia have to deal with a number of threats real and imaginary, from elderly aunts who see assassination plots against the Queen in Tea leaves, through agents planted by the King's Tory friends and Whig enemies, to self-appointed infiltrators to her household both friendly and unfriendly. But this is nothing to the challenge of dealing with their feelings for each other.

The real events of 1820 in respect of the legal battle between the King and Queen, including her trial in the House of Lords and a divorce bill which the government eventually abandoned when a majority of just nine votes in the Lords indicated that they were in danger of a defeat or phyrric victory which would humiliate the King, were more extraordinary than any work of fiction. All credit to Kasey Michaels for spotting that these events and Queen Caroline's extraordinary household could form the setting for a good novel.

In the events of real history, Queen Caroline died of natural causes the following year at about the same time as Napoleon, causing one of the most embarrassing misunderstandings in history. George IV had been advised that his wife was very ill and unlikely to survive, when a courtier brought the King the news of the death of Napoleon and unfortunately chose the words, "Sir, your bitterest enemy is dead." Jumping to entirely the wrong conclusion, George IV replied "Is she, by God?" ...

Although it has some excellent sections, this book does unfortunately also contain some VERY silly mistakes. One of the characters, Sir Nathaniel Rankin, is

1) a baronet
2) a socialite with no evident job or distinction, and
3) has a father who is still alive. (Oops !)

Since a baronetcy is a hereditary title, passed down from father to son on the former's death, and Nathaniel Rankin does not appear to have done any of the fairly substantial things which might might make the government create a new baronetcy for him (won a significant naval battle, for instance, or been an MP whose vote they desperately needed), he could not possibly be a baronet.

Perry's uncle is wrongly described as a former "Minister of the Admiralty." There has never at any time in British history been a ministerial post with that title.

From the time when the office of Lord High Admiral was put into commission in the seventeenth century, to the point when the Admiralty was absorbed into the Ministry of Defence in the twentieth, the minister in charge of the navy was called the First Lord of the Admiralty.

Since the title of "First Lord of the Admiralty" was, then and now, one of the best known ministerial titles of the period, I do not know whether to be more astonished that a writer of Kasey Michaels' eminence did not know this, or that the Mills and Boon editor didn't correct the mistake.

This book also ascribes to the admirality the espionage and intelligence functions it did develop later with the development of the role of DNI (Director of Naval Intelligence) but which in 1820 were the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (then Lord Castlereagh.)

OK, that sort of schoolgirl howler might not bother the average romance reader, but for those who like to read stories in which the period detail is accurate, this might be highly irritating.

Nevertheless the story and the characters are interesting and mildly amusing and the book is OK as light entertainment.

To prevent the unwanted Princess Caroline from becoming the Queen of England, Sir Willfred orders his wastrel nephew to spy out some bit of gossip that could be used to unseat her. To do so, he is to get close to her lady's companion, Amelia Fredricks. Unfortunately, in one sense, he is as seduced as Amelia and finds himself falling for her. This makes his mission much less attractive, but how will Amelia take the news that he intends to betray her beloved mistress? What is Amelia's secret past?

*** With interconnecting plots woven together, there is a certain quirkly charm that infuses this story. Though there is some mystery left unsolved, it is handled deftly so that the reader never feels the nag of dangling threads. ***

Reviewed by Amanda Killgore, Freelance Reviewer.

Rarely have I read a more boring regency. Perry Shepard, the Earl of Brentwood, was some sort of spy during the Napoleon war, is crazy gorgeous. Plain Jane Amelia F. is his new "spy" target via his Uncle's orders to get gossip on Queen Caroline to enable Prinny's divorce. First of all, the Uncle is a jerk and why Perry, who is wealthy in his own right would not just tell him to take a hike I do not know...Amelia, while being attracted to Perry, is just boring. She is not interesting at all. Why someone like Perry even be attracted to her is a mystery. She might or might not be the Queen's daughter there-by the heir to the thone instead of Victoria. Now, all of us know our history so it is really not a mystery. Amelia is an orphan who the Queen took in as a babe. Question to wonder is what would happen to Amelia when the Queen died. She was not employed by the Royal Family, would have no money, references, so what is she thinking she would do? The "mystery" of the box goes on too long also. All in all, not a believable romance and the story dragged on to long.

The plot had great potential, but the anachronistic and flippant speaking style and attitudes of the characters marred what might have been a good read. I love books with humor and wit, but a historical novel shouldn't go so very far away from the period.