Sheila Simonson

Very possibly the most enjoyable Regency romance I have read yet. All the usual genre tropes are here: the sensible heroine in her late 20s, her troublesome but amusing family, the strong-willed man who enters her life through uncontrollable circumstances. But Simonson makes her characters breathe and feel as no other regency writer I've read. The story is told in the first person, and we are placed into the mind of a woman in the nineteenth century--a very intelligent and educated mind, but show more one nevertheless of her period, with the period's prejudices. It is painful to realize that even Lady Elizabeth, who has spent her twenties peering through a telescope rather than marrying, has ingested the poisonous idea that an intellectual woman is unnatural. She is unusual to the modern reader in other ways: she has little interest in her younger siblings, and in fact doesn't know them well or provide for their education, despite their dependence upon her. The usual cliche of a hero realizing his love for a heroine by watching her tender care toward children or the sick doesn't hold true here. And to readers used to Heyer's sexless maidens, Lady Elizabeth's thoughts are quite inappropriate--though not passionate, she has an eye for handsome men.

I was surprised to find such character development, emotional depth, and complex interpersonal relationships. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has liked Austen, Heyer, or any of the many regency writers--so long as they're not hoping for a paint-by-numbers story. show less

This was a winner. I really enjoyed it. The first person narrator is Lady Elizabeth, an enormously talented and dedicated astronomer, who has reached the advanced age of 28 without marrying. She's the eldest of eight girls, and her father, the earl, has just died. His title and property have passed to the son of his black-sheep younger brother. The new earl, Thomas Conway, is a survivor of Waterloo, so severely wounded that he has only a few years to live. Surgeons have been unable to remove show more all the shrapnel from his body, and there is a piece lodged near his spine that will eventually kill him. You know what's going to happen!

I liked Elizabeth and Thomas very much, and enjoyed Elizabeth's witty narration. Lively, cheerful, funny and not too long. Recommended. show less

I really enjoyed this book on rereading it in 2025, ten years after first encountering it, because of the author's depth of historical knowledge and the immediacy with which she presents the threats that the privileged class of that time faced from government oppression and quelling of free speech on the one hand and the uprisings of the unemployed and UNprivileged class on the other. The author Richard Falk worrying about whether it would be wise to publish satire in the political climate show more and the cartoonist arrested for publishing a caricature depicting George IV as fat (which he was, immensely) seemed quite topical this year.

The characters, especially the older protagonists from Lady Elizabeth's Comet and The Bar Sinister, are engaging and I would happily read any number of books about them if Simonson had chosen to write more.

Also, I really love the authenticity of the setting and manners. I did not discern any disturbing anachronisms, although having reread all three books (Comet, Bar Sinister, and this) in two days, I may have missed something. I did wonder about use of "a lot" in the first quarter of the 19th century for a second or two before I read on; not the sort of thing that's easy to look up quickly. But the spelling throughout the books is outstanding. Even the narration in Simonson's books conforms to Regency era norms, eg. "teaze" spelt with a zed. I greatly admire her writing and her erudition. show less

Absorbed in tracking the "dark nebulosity" she had discovered in the course of her astronomical work, Lady Elizabeth Conway - the independent eldest daughter of the Earl of Conway, still unmarried at twenty-eight - finds her quiet routine interrupted by the arrival of a distant and unknown cousin, the heir to her father's title and estates. Although she does not immediately take to Clanross, whose stiff manner, and criticism of the education she is providing her two young half-sisters, sets show more her on edge, Lady Elizabeth soon comes to appreciate the better qualities of this most unexpected relative. Unlike the charming Lord Bevis - her erstwhile suitor, who arrives on the scene determined to resume their courtship - Clanross respects and admires Lady Elizabeth's work. Will she see where her heart lies in time, or will she surrender both vocation and true love...?

Or course there's never much doubt of the outcome in Lady Elizabeth's Comet, as any reader of Regency fiction will immediately recognize, but it is still entertaining to witness the heroine's gradual awakening. The second of Sheila Simonson's four Regencies, following upon A Cousinly Connexion, it is written in the first person, an unusual approach that both limits and strengthens the story. It takes a while to warm up to Lady Elizabeth, who is a much more self-contained character than the usual female lead in a romance such as this, so the first-person narrative is helpful, in forcing the reader to identify with her perspective. But it also make Clanross more of a mystery, as he would have been to Lady Elizabeth, and prevents the reader from really knowing him.

I liked that Lady Elizabeth's vocation as an astronomer was an integral part of her character, rather than being an affectation meant (on the author's part) to make her unusual, and I also liked Clanross's political and social views. These may have sometimes felt a little too ideal - Clanross values intelligence in women, and wants Elizabeth to continue her work, he speaks up for Irish rights in the House of Lords, and so on - but were nevertheless appealing. All in all, an engaging Regency romance, one well worth the time of fans of the genre! show less