Who Was that Masked Man?

This book started off really well for me. The hero, Henry, is a Darcy like one. He shuns society except when forced by his friend. Like Darcy, he tends to either skulk around the edges of a ballroom or hang out in the back. He is a baron with a secret; he writes Adventure novels. He is very dedicated to his task, preferring to spend nearly all of his time writing to just about any other activity. The heroine, Cecilia, is just starting her third season, and her social-climbing parents are demanding that she marry this year. She is determined to find a love match, which is why she has turned down past suitors. She not only wants love but companionship and a true meeting of minds (including the arts because she is an avid pianoforte player). At a masquerade, she meets a mysterious man who says all the right things, but they part before they learn each other’s identities.

Of course, the masked man is Henry, but when Henry and Cecilia meet later, he is his normal, closed-off self. But his friend is interested in Cecilia’s younger sister, and that friend insists that Henry accompany them on outings. It certainly isn’t easy for Cecilia and Henry at first, but they eventually find common ground, and their feelings start to grow for each other. I thought this part of the book had some issues with the development of the romance because Henry seemed against it for so long, and then suddenly, he’s saying he has a deeper attachment. It just didn’t seem realistic.

But the story for me went off the rails when Henry unilaterally decided that he and Cecilia couldn’t be together because of his intense interest in his writing career and his belief that she would suffer playing second fiddle to his muse and his reclusive ways. The way that he just pulled away and the way that she just accepted that and wallowed in misery—just didn’t feel like good romance to me. Probably because he was a Darcy-like hero, I wanted him to act more like Darcy here. I wanted him to be more constant and to move heaven and Earth for his woman, even when personally uncomfortable. All good love stories need a proof of love moment near the end, and the story didn’t have that. So, it fell a little flat.

I did really like the heroine’s character. She had moments of introspection, but she did love her friends and was well-liked in her close society. And I absolutely adored the relationship between the two sisters. Having grown up in a house with four sisters, I thought that their relationship was believable and quite sweet at times. They both looked out for each other and had each other’s back. I appreciated that the author did not go down the road of so many other books, where sisters are pitted against each other. Juliet, the younger sister, was stronger than I would have imagined. The sisters were definitely the bright spot in this book. I did like Henry when he wasn’t being stupid… LOL.

Odd Viewpoint Shifts

While I have enjoyed at least one other book by this author, this one just didn’t work for me on so many levels. The author had a strange writing style in this one, where she interspersed omniscient viewpoint with a third-person viewpoint. For me, that was very awkward. And it made for long stretches of exposition that were more telling rather than showing. Telling rather than showing is definitely a danger in a novella anyway, but it is heightened when the omniscient viewpoint is used, especially as it done so often in this book. I also found the language to be stilted and awkward. Not that it’s completely germaine, but the cover is completely inappropriate for a Regency romance. The style of dress is about as opposite from Regency as you can get. Regency dress is known for having high, empire waists; the dress shown on the cover has the waistline below the hips. This just isn’t realistic for Regency at all. I had so enjoyed her other book, but I just did not like this one.

Not a Good Hero

I found myself frustrated with the hero in this book. The heroine is one who has suffered much in her life mostly because of one childhood mistake. She loved climbing trees as a child, but as we see and the prologue, one day she takes a misstep that ruins one of her legs forever. She had already had a strained relationship with her father, and this made it worse. After her father’s death, her uncle very much wants to marry her off, but her first season was fraught with heartache and disappointment because not only could the ton not see beyond her disability, but she was openly ridiculed for it. What chance would she have to secure a gentleman?

For such a beleaguered heroine, I would love to have seen a completely swoon-worthy hero. But that is not what we got in this story. Instead, the hero is quite the rake, in previous Seasons only interested in women for what he could get from them—and this was wagered on in his gentlemen’s club. From maidens, he likes to steal a kiss, and from widows and unhappily married women, he likes much more. He and the heroine literally run into each other. They both find each other intriguing–though she isn’t beautiful or perfect enough for him—but he only pursues her when blackmailed by a man (with knowledge of one of his affairs with a married woman) who wishes to capitalize on a bet at White’s so he can replenish his coffers. The wager he lays down is that the hero will not only kiss the heroine but will make her fall in love with him. The hero is not as introspective about this as one would hope, and I was actually disgusted when, after thinking about it for a bit, he decided that he had no choice but to go forth in the matter, even knowing it would break her heart–thinking something along the lines of, “Oh, well, it can’t be helped.” Ick. He goes into it knowing how bad it will be for her but still goes ahead. That is not hero material in my book.