Customer Reviews

Skylark

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Whether or not you like this book or are disappointed in it all depends on why you like Jo Beverly's books in the first place. If you are a fan because you like her somewhat swashbuckling heroes who are involved in intriguing plots, unusual situations and solve problems for the heroine with derring-do - then you will be disappointed. As you can tell from previous reviews, this is true of a lot of readers who rushed to buy Beverley's latest effort in the Rogue series.

However, take heart, those of you who admire Beverley for her well drawn characters and well written prose - you will be pleasantly surprised. Although not her best, it is still a pretty good book and far superior to a lot of Regency stuff being put out these days.

The hero of this book is Stephen Ball, MP - one of the Rogues who has only appeared around the edges of several previous books. Given his background and profession (law) he is not given to extravagant actions and showy heroics; just careful plotting and steadfast love for Laura Gardeyne who he nicknamed Lady Skylark based on her life in society with her first husband (fairly recently deceased).

The plot of this book is fairly well summarized by wmr-uk's review so I will not repeat it here - and it is correctly characterized as a "dramatic" one. However the pace of the book is fairly slow and I, for one, found myself a bit impatient for the next step of unraveling the mystery of the missing heir. The strength of the book is in watching Laura develop as a character and in enjoying the cast of secondary characters, especially HG and Des. It is nice to see Nick and Eleanor again; but I could barely remember who David Kerslake was (maybe I didn't finish that book, it being a bit too extravagant in plot for me).

My assessment: 3 and a half stars - read the reviews carefully and decide WHY you like Jo Beverley's books before getting this one...

There is a reason why Jo Beverly wins so many awards and accolades. For who else would be able to take a much used plot device, pair it with a heroine that took me a while to warm up to, and still come up with a compelling and absorbing read?

Laura Gardeyne is a very frightened young woman. With the death of her fun loving husband, Hal, her 3 year old son, Harry, is now heir to her father-in-law's title, estate and riches. And Laura is almost convinced that her brother-in-law, Jack, may have it in his mind to murder her little boy so that he (Jack) can inherit everything. All Laura has are suspicions, but they are driving her mad with paronia. What should she do? What can she do? And then two things happen that gives her the first glimmer of hope. First, she discovers a letter in her father-in-law's desk that seems to suggest that there may be another heir, one whose claim definitely supersedes Harry's; and secondly, an old suitor, Stephen Ball turns up. Many years ago, serious and studious Stephen had proposed marriage, but Laura had chosen the fun-loving and more sophisticated Hal Gardeyne instead. Both Stephen and Laura have avoided each other since. Can Laura trust Stephen to help her find the missing heir and protect Harry from Jack? Will he even agree to help her?

It's true, this particular Jo Beverley novel is a bit slow moving. But it truly doesn't mean that this made it a slow and boring read. To the contrary, the more sedate pacing allowed for the authour to slowly develop Laura's character. I rather enjoyed "watching" Laura change from the scared to death and slightly self-absorbed young woman into a more intelligent and less flighty one. This, was what made the novel a compelling read. The small suspense of trying to figure out if the two men at the inn were villains or not, was well done too. However, it is true that the much slower pacing did detract a little from the overall excellence of the novel. Halfway through, the novel almost stops moving forward as Laura and Stephen grapple with their unspoken feelings for each other, and with the mystery of the two men at the inn, over and over again. On the whole though I thought that "Skylark" was a rather good "Rogue" romance novel, engrossing and compelling, and well worth the money spent.

I was so looking forward to Stephen Ball's story -- but this book made him boring. And Laura -- neither the character nor the author could decide what kind of woman she was. I still have no idea what they saw in each other, espeically what he saw in her, and I'd be very surprised if their marriage worked over the long haul. But I did love that he cried when they (finally) made love. He's so sweet, but he doesn't come across as well in his own book as he did in all the other Rogue books.

The sub-plot takes up too much time. Worse, of 45 chapters, about 20 were so deadly dull that I started skimming or risk not being able to finish the book at all. They just dragged on forever with little action and a lot of repetition. The dangers just faded away at the end, and many of the problems were never really dealt with. Even Nicholas & Eleanor Delaney's appearance was a let-down.

Beverley is capable of so much better. I'll have to try to bring back the Stephen of the previous novels in order not to think of him as rather dull. Don't buy it; don't read it--you won't be missing anything.

Jo Beverley's Historical Romances are usually a cut above the rest with interesting characters, varied plots, more historical realism than most and well-written locations. However Skylark was rather a disappointment to me.

Skylark is one of the Company of Rogues series, a group of twelve men who formed a club at Harrow school and are slowly getting married off. Sir Stephen Ball MP, mentioned in several of the other books, is the hero of this story. "Skylark" his his nickname for Laura Gardyne, a widow with a young son, Harry. When Laura first got engaged to Hal Gardyne, Stephen tried to persuade her to marry him instead but she was betwitched by Hal and Stephen was disappointed. Now, six years on, Laura's mourning is nearing its end and Stephen has decided to court her.

However, when he arrives at Caldfort House, the home of the Gardyne family, he discovers Laura is no longer the carefree woman he remembers but is in fear for the safety of her son, heir to the Viscountcy. Her late husband's brother Jack seems to be rather more interested in the Viscountcy than he should be and Laura is afraid he will harm her son, particularly as the current Viscount is ailing. So Laura takes the opportunity to visit her family but before she leaves she finds evidence that the Viscount is being blackmailed and she and Stephen agree to try to stop it.

Much of this story involves Laura and Stephen staying at an Inn and trying to find out information about the two strange characters living there, one a mysterious Arab named Farouk who is apparently the blackmailer, another a young man who seems very ill. Laura is there in disguise but she chafes under the restrictions of looking like a spinster cousin when all Stephen's attractions are becoming more apparent to her. Do either Stephen or Laura actually know each other now, six years on from when they were friends, and can they rekindle the friendship and perhaps more.

Somehow this book lacked emotional force and interest. Laura's love for her son was well portrayed and the disappointments of her marriage to Hal but somehow Stephen and she always seemed rather remote, Stephen particularly. I suppose it's hard for modern people to find any politician a sympathetic character and Laura also had her moments of shallowness but somehow I couldn't care enough about their relationship. Jo Beverley often partly redeems her 'baddies' and in this book that also happened, it's hard to feel that anyone is genuinely evil in her world.

This book doesn't have to be read with the rest of the Rogues stories as the Rogue information isn't necessary but on its own it feels like a rather thin story without enough to recommend it for it to stay on my keeper shelf.

I am hooked on "the Rogues" series, and Jo Beverleys' books in general, but was very disappointed by this book. It was great to meet briefly a few other characters from previous Rogue stories but this story left me unsatisfied. The storyline had soooo much potential. Stephen finally gets a chance to woo the love of his life after 6 years and makes all the correct initial moves. Laura is about to finish a years mourning after a disappointing marriage.
The villain has potential but after a good start doesn't show up to the end. Both lead characters seem to have constant mental sexual plans for each other, have both abstained from sex for 12 months and are alone in adjoining rooms for several days, yet for approximately 300 pages they act like siblings and not lovers.

Six years ago, Sir Stephen Ball was in love with his sister?s best friend Laura. But, although she was fond of Stephen and they spent many hours together talking and playing chess, she wanted excitement, and so she accepted the proposal of Hal Gardeyne, a noted Corinthian and son of a viscount. Now, Laura is widowed, and Stephen, now an MP, wants to try again. So he finds an excuse to visit her home one month away from the end of her period of mourning, hoping to get in first and begin courting her before a more dashing man can cut him out once more.
Laura, now mother to the three-year-hold heir to the Caldfort title, is terrified that her brother-in-law, vicar of the Caldfort living, plans to bring about the death of little Harry in order to inherit the title himself. But she can?t take Harry away from the Caldfort estate, cold and unwelcoming as it is, because his grandfather won?t allow her to take him away for more than a few days at a time. So she?s trapped there. When Stephen arrives, she is nursing Harry back to health after a poison scare - was it deliberate or accidental? So she is in no fit state to welcome a former suitor, especially a man whom she laughed at when he proposed to her during her engagement to Hal.

But the discovery of a possible claimant to the Caldfort title, who would displace not only Harry and his uncle but the current holder too, affords Laura an opportunity to get away from Caldfort. She decides to investigate to find out whether Henry Gardeyne, her husband?s cousin, really is alive, and Stephen, seizing an opportunity, comes with her to help her. And thus begins a journey through the West Country, some of it in disguise, taking in Redoaks and Crag Wyvern, meeting again Nicholas and Eleanor and David Kerslake, soon to be Earl of Wyvern.

The dramatic plot to this book really doesn?t hold the attention. I was not at all interested in whether Jack Gardeyne really was trying to kill his nephew, nor in the question of whether the other Henry Gardeyne was really alive. The sneaking around, rummaging through other people?s correspondence and listening through walls and doors was not only uninteresting, it was somewhat distasteful - and surprising, given Stephen?s position as an MP and lawyer and the efforts of the other Rogues, in earlier books and spelled out in this book, to keep Stephen away from anything questionable. The fact that this part of the plot moves very slowly does not help.

I?m still not sure whether I liked Laura or not. Is she sensible, intelligent and thoughtful, or a flighty flibbertigibbet? She doesn?t seem to know herself, and I acknowledge that this is part of the journey: she married young, at 18, when she was flighty and valued title and good looks above character. She seems to have become sensible enough for Stephen, and I did enjoy their philosophical conversations. But she kept changing her mind about herself and her intentions, which was frustrating.

I did like Stephen, whom I didn?t know very much about; his role in previous Rogue books has been limited. Some reviewers seem to be complaining about the lack of sensual content; I?d strongly disagree here. There is quite a bit of sexual tension, which is enjoyable, and the sexual content is about right. For me, St Raven was overly laden with sex scenes, and less interesting as a novel as a result.

It was also good, as always, to see Nicholas and Eleanor again; disappointing not to see other Rogues, however - no advance on Hal and Blanche?s story here - and somewhat irritating to have the Kerslake/Wyvern connection, since Demon?s Mistress (Con?s story, set at Crag Wyvern) is my least favourite Rogues novel and I really disliked the characters and setting. I even find myself hoping here that Beverley isn?t setting up David Kerslake as a future hero...

Overall, far from Beverley's best - some of the other Rogue books are far, far better than this one.

wmr-uk

Setting - England 1816 --- With another addition to her highly popular Rogue series she has given us Sir Stephen Ball's story and romance. A romance that for him was six years in the making might not have been if not for the fickle hand of fate that set Laura Gardeyne free once more after the untimely death of her husband, Hal. Stephen had once asked Laura to marry him, to wait until he could finish his schooling and be able to provide her with a better life, but then that Laura had been dazzled by the heir to a Viscount, his wealth and zest for living. Back then Laura had been the darling of the ton, and somewhat hurt Stephen had nicknamed her Lady Skylark -flitting to one good time after another. For Laura, the hated moniker was a slap that hurt coming from a man she'd grown up with and they had avoided each other ever since.

Knowing that Laura was coming to the end of her mourning period, Stephen chose the time to once more make his bid for the love he'd never gotten over, but when he arrived to begin his courting, he found a frightened young woman. Laura, was fearful that someone was trying to eliminate her son Harry, now heir to her father-in-law's title, estate and riches - and she was almost positive that the person with the most to gain was her brother-in-law Jack Gardeyne who now wanted that title for his newborn infant son. With her father-in-law ill, and discovering a mysterious letter that hinted that the rightful heir was alive, Laura enlists Stephen's help to discover if he really were alive. If so he would be the rightful heir leaving her son Harry safe from being eliminated by his uncle. Along the way both Stephen and Laura began to see the changes that time had made to each other and they began a sweet and passionate romance.

Okay, this was not quite up to par with regard to the action I've come to expect from Jo Beverley but that is not to say that it was boring or without merit. Laura was not the most memorable heroine I've come across either, but one has to give her points in the mothering department. Also, this was not your usual pitiful widow where the husband was not a nice guy, he was true to his station in life (a true Corinthian) but a lusty and thoughtful lover for a woman who undeniably found their bed sport to be quite satisfying. Stephen who was portrayed as studious and serious as a youth just needed for Laura to grow and discover what was really important in her life. There was a great deal of sensual tension, but you will wait until practically the end of the book before seeing anything happen. (These two were just too polite!) The ending twist is also an unusual plot device that I've seldom seen used in most regency era plots, but as usual, Beverley jumps right in and comes up with a real zinger! Bottom line - not as much action as I prefer but a thoughtful and entertaining read. ---- Submitted by Marilyn, Official Reviewer for www.historicromancewriters.com ---

I absolutely Adore Jo Beverley books and found this one to be so Disappointing :( It was Slow Moving, Boring, and the character interactions were somewhat Poor , Choppy, and in some cases down right Awful. The Male character is somewhat charming, but It is the Woman Character definate flaws and inconsistancy. I Was also looking forward to another "Rogues" story, but this one was so poorly writen I could barely stand finishing it. If you are looking for Intense love scenes or anything like "St. Raven" DO NOT GET THIS BOOK. I suggest "St. Raven", it is SOOOOOO much better. Sorry Jo, I love ya girl, but this one Sucked.

I love most of J.B.'s books, but this one was so darn boring I had to force myself to finish it. There was nothing wrong with Stephen, or Laura, for that matter, but the story was dead.

I have found this author to be hit or miss and this one was a definite MISS. I spent .25 on it at a used book sale and feel that was a waste of money.