Customer Reviews

Two Of A Kind: An English Trifle

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

 

 

"Two of a Kind" is another witty, engaging and totally irreverent Regency romance by Rosemary Edghill.

Poor Juliette Devereaux. She's made a mess of her London season, doesn't see the point to it anyway, and doesn't know what's about to hit her.

Poor Jack Barham. Lord of a broken down manor, all but disinherited by his worthless father, he's fallen on hard times, and decided to live up (or down) to them.

They meet, and the fur flies.

That, in itself, would have been worth the price of admission. However, the parallel love story between Juliette's cousin Anthony and Althea Fonthill is even funnier, in a tender, romantic fashion. Those two had totally given up on romance, being almost too old for it (at least, Althea thought so; she constantly refers to herself as "almost on the shelf" and other such sobriquets), and Anthony had resigned himself to marrying the totally unsuitable Juliette (they don't really get on), because there's no one else.

Anthony and Althea's romance is what makes this a five star book; as they spar with each other, and find love in the most unlikely way, they try to help the star-crossed romance of Juliette and Jack, soon to be Duke of the ruined Owlsthorne estate. Some of their help works; some doesn't.

But that's the way of Regencies, isn't it? Lots of intrigue, lots of dialogue, lots of fluff -- usually.

Here, the realistic romance of Anthony and Althea balances the impetuous Juliette and the imperious Jack nicely, making this one of the best and most comprehensive Regencies I've ever read.

As I've said in other reviews of Ms. Edghill's work, she seems to be able to write anything, and do it with flair.

Buy this book, if you can find it. You'll be glad you did.

Overall entertaining but seems to be a commendable (if amateurish) copy of Georgette Heyer's writing style
I have to say, compared to the other trash that seems to pass for "regency romance" these days, i would rate this as a decent book to read. She offers a good enough story even if it is peppered with some plagiarization from Georgette Heyer's work. For instance she refers to "Cheltanham tragedys" and "Almacks" in this book.. .both of which were invented by Heyer and do not appear elsewhere. I knocked off 1 star from the rating for this. The least Edghill could've done was give a citation/footnote to the origin!
Ms.Edghill's characters lack depth. Her characters who are "the members of Quality" use what would be termed as vulgar phrases for the time period she is writing about. A bit of research of the period would've served her books well. She doesn't have the wit in her dialogs that she attempts to copy from Heyer.
Pick up a book by Georgette Heyer to compare for yourself. Georgette Heye's immaculate research of the period is mirrored in her well written books.
I would try another book by her just to see if her writing changes a bit, i understand this was one of her first few books.
3 stars