Category: Victorian Era (1837-1901)

In the history of the United Kingdom, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria’s reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period, and its later half overlaps with the first part of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe.
Preceded by: Regency era
Followed by: Edwardian era
Monarch: Victoria

The Viscount Can Wait by Marie Tremayne

On By TracyIn Tracy's Reviews, Victorian Era (1837-1901)2 Comments

The Viscount Can Wait (Reluctant Brides, #2)The Viscount Can Wait by Marie Tremayne

Tracy’s rating: 2.5/3 of 5 stars

Series: The Reluctant Brides, #2

Release Date: October 23, 2018

2.5 stars rounded up because there was an epilogue.

Eliza was 16 when her father arranged her marriage to Reginald Cartwick. On the night of her betrothal, Thomas, Viscount Evanston kisses her. Thomas is her brother’s best friend and a huge rake. While she will never admit it, she has always had tender feelings for him.

Five years later, Eliza is widowed with a young daughter. Her mourning is done and she needs to remarry as her husband’s heir is due to arrive from America and she has moved to her brother’s dower house. She decides to go to London for the season and Thomas will be there. Her brother warns Thomas to stay away from her. Eliza is attracted to Thomas, but he is completely unsuitable.

During their time in London, Eliza and Thomas seem to play a game of push and pull – he is jealous and flaunts his former mistress, which makes her jealous, she confronts him and accuses him of interfering with her suitors. Thomas has finally realized that he wants Eliza for his own, and he tries to court her and she shuts him down. But when her friend Caroline needs help, it is Thomas she turns to for assistance. But his aid comes at a price, he asks her not to accept any marriage offers until she returns to Kent.

She returns home and Thomas steps up his pursuit. Again she rebuffs him. Clara and Caroline decide that Thomas is worthy of Eliza and conspire to help them. But things do not go as planned and Thomas is again rejected, this time by William.

Heartbroken, Thomas returns to London and is dealt a blow by his scorned former mistress. Eliza finally decides that it is Thomas she loves and with her brother’s blessing set out to make things right, but when she gets to London, she realizes that she may have waited too long.

I was really looking forward to this book and am sorry to say, I was disappointed. The author failed to show me why Thomas was so “unsuitable” – yes, he was a rake, but he was not married or betrothed, he didn’t gamble away his fortune, didn’t force women to his bed, took care of his estates and was always ready to help William whenever asked – so I really didn’t see why William and Eliza kept harping that he was not respectable and completely unsuitable. That along with the game of push and pull, making each other jealous and her running hot and cold, just became tedious – another reviewer nailed it by saying there was a lot of drama for drama’s sake in this book – that is it exactly, it wasn’t horrible, just repetitive and contrived.

This is the second book in the series, but it can easily be read as a stand alone and while I didn’t really care for this story, I will probably read the next book in the series.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that was provided to me by Edelweiss and the publisher.*

The Lady is Daring by Megan Frampton

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Victorian Era (1837-1901)6 Comments

The Lady is Daring (Duke's Daughters, #3)The Lady is Daring by Megan Frampton

Barbara’s rating: 3 of 5 stars

Series: Duke’s Daughters #3
Publication Date: 9/25/18

Megan Frampton is normally one of my favorite reads. I enjoyed this story, but it was mostly because of the humor of the ‘classification game’, etc. Otherwise, I thought it was a bit slow and I never came to feel involved with the heroine because I didn’t like her or relate to her. I liked the hero much better, but I found him to be more milquetoast than hero. I think the author was trying very hard to put modern standards in period dress without seeming to do so. My rating is a 3.5, but I have had a hard time deciding whether to round down to 3 or up to 4, so I guess I’ll decide once I have the review written.

Lady Ida Howlett has inattentive, uncaring and uninvolved parents. Ida is highly intelligent and loves learning – and she has no problem sharing her knowledge ad-nauseam with others. She is the youngest of five sisters. Two sisters are happily in love and married, two live at home and one, Della, has run away and they don’t know where she is. It is Ida’s dearest wish to locate Della and bring her back to London.

Bennett is the son and heir to a marquess, but he might as well be the marquess because he is the one who takes care of everything while his father is off living the high-life and spending money right and left. Bennett is a person who takes care of others – always – and before himself. Sometimes, he’d just like to chuck all of the responsibilities and run away – maybe have an adventure.

Something Bennett NEVER does is get drunk – but, he has gotten drunk tonight and has fallen asleep in someone’s carriage. The door was open and he was sleepy so he crawled in. Now, imagine his shock to awaken and find himself in a moving carriage. He repeatedly wraps on the carriage roof and finally, the carriage comes to a stop. Shock! He is several hours outside of London and the carriage is being driven by Lady Ida who has stolen the carriage and is on her way to find her sister. Since Bennett cannot let her travel alone, they set off together on an adventure. I think the book could have profited from a bit more ‘adventure’ during this part of the story, but it was a pretty staid trip.

So, as I said, I enjoyed the humor in the story but wasn’t impressed by much more. Here are some of the things that bothered me:
(1) This one really aggravated me after a while. The constant, incessant, repeated references to how smart Ida was. It was as if nobody else in the world had a brain – only Ida.
(2) Ida’s ‘brilliant’ solution for her NOT being ruined when they returned to London. It was absolutely bonkers. She had spent a week traveling totally alone with a man who was not her husband and bringing her sister back with her was going to keep her from being ruined. What?????
(3) The relationship between Ida and Bennett was just too modern. It just wouldn’t have happened that way in that time period. If you want that, then write a more modern story rather than writing a modern story and draping it in period dress.
(4) Bennett’s role in the House of Lords was mentioned a couple of times. Well – he was an heir and would NOT have been in the House of Lords. His father would be the one in the House of Lords. Doesn’t matter who is running the Marquisate, ONLY the title holder can serve in the House of Lords.
(5) Bennett’s solution to how he was going to cut back on his duties and his reaction to his father’s objections were ridiculous. Of course, his father could take over the running of the Marquisate – he is the Marquess after all. It doesn’t matter that Bennett has been running things and signing everything – he still isn’t the Marquess.
(6) The wedding vows. I’m certainly not an expert here, but I don’t believe that, in that time period, they would have been allowed the change the vows. I believe those were dictated by the Church of England.
(7) It was hard to get a feel for a timeline since few if any, dates or periods were given in the book. Even the epilogue didn’t tell us how long after the marriage it took place. Of course, I guess that is one way to eliminate timeline errors – just don’t have one.
(8) The Epilogue. I love epilogues and think every romance should have one. However, I didn’t see any point in having this epilogue at all other than to – maybe – set up the idea that Della will be the heroine in the next book.

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“I requested and received this e-book at no cost to me and volunteered to read it; my review is my honest opinion and given without any influence by the author or publisher.”