11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable, charming ..., January 28, 2005
This review is from: The Last Of The Winter Roses (Zebra Regency Romance) (Paperback)
This is a book I have been wanting to read for some time - it being Savery's first romance published some years ago in hardback.
With all that build up, bad things are all too likely, but thank goodness I was not disappointed. This is a uniformly enjoyable book.
Lady Ardith Winter is the last of the Winter roses of the title, being the youngest of four sisters. They all were successful debutantes in London due to their blonde beauty. Alas, Ardith is completely different, dark, tall and outspokenly intelligent. As a result of this difference she has an outsize conviction of her own ugliness, much compounded by her disastrous season in London some years ago. Now she lives in happy, busy independence breeding horses, with her companion on the estate left to her by her aunt Sibley.
Then her father wrecks it all by a stupid outburst after the birth of yet another grandaughter. He will pay 10,000 pounds to the daughter who will produce a grandson. This brings out the worst in his sons-in-law and there hangs the tale.
For St. John, the Marquis of Rohampton, then re-enters Ardith's life. The disastrous London season crashed due to an awful scene involving his proposal to her. She thinks he played a cruel joke and he, utterly sincere, was devasted by her total rejection of him in the years since.
Now he takes new heart and decides to slowly win her back.
How he does so makes an engrossing read. There are good secondary characters, the blustering father, the silly sisters and their dim husbands, even if they are at times a trifle one dimensional.
My only niggle, was that Ardith was too determined in her conviction of her own lack of attraction and so treated St. John quite badly as a result.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good but not great; a decent read, May 6, 2005
This review is from: The Last Of The Winter Roses (Zebra Regency Romance) (Paperback)
An interesting read with a determined suitor and a strong lady with little belief in her charms. Although books of this sort (brief Regencies) rarely delve deeply into issue and psychological or emotional troubles, this one at least addresses character-making beliefs and actions in some fashion. For me, the problem was that Ardith's self-doubt seemed overwhelming in the face of St. John's complete sincerity and devotion. Moreover, she is so capable that the reader has trouble accepting her opinion of herself. In addition, the rest of her family are pretty much one-note characters, though there are a few minor variations.
It had some very lovely moments, but didn't always hold up well. A good percentage of the action seems forced. It drags due to Ardith's stubbornness to believe in St. John.
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