Marjorie Farrell

This novel is rich and much more than a romance. The male protagonist is Valentine Aston, the love child of an earl and a farmer's daughter. This central fact of Aston's life has colored his entire life, and was made worse by a lack of candor from his mother who died unexpectedly when he was eight years old.

The relationship between Alston and his legitimate half-brother is foundational to the story, but the most important secondary relationship is that of Alston and his father. Their show more relationship is fraught with misunderstanding, distance, poor decisions (in retrospect), and regret, but is ultimately resolved in a satisfying, believable way.

The romance between Alston and Elspeth Gordon, daughter of a career officer and his drum-following wife, seems realistic and true. As important as their bond is however, the other relationships are just as rich. For example we see how two love matches turned out: the parents of Elspeth Gordon, and the parents of Val Alston.

Bad things do occur in this novel (it is after all set in a time and place of war), but gentle hints are dropped to prepare us when they are about to be visited on the characters.

I loved this delightfully unusual book, and will undoubtedly read it again. It is rich, has a fidelity to time and place, protagonists who feel genuine, a beautiful and affirming love story, and still manages to explore several interpersonal truths in a way that gives one thought.

I am eager to find more works by this author. show less

Lady Joanna Barrand has loved Lord Tony Ashford since childhood, but to him she was a friend. When he suddenly becomes the Earl of the family’s impoverished estate, he turns to gambling to make his fortune. It doesn’t work and he looks to an older wealthy widow as a marriage prospect. His gambling, however, is still a problem and soon he is suspected in a far greater crime. Lady Joanna sticks by him and aids him through his crisis and eventually he sees her as more than a friend. This is show more a very traditional storyline and the style was adequate, but I never felt connected to the H or h. The writing made you feel at a distance and not experiencing their feelings. show less

Jane Austin's Sense and Sensibility provides a reference point for the way in which the protagonist, Anne Heriot, and her companion, Sarah Wheeler, approach matrimony and affairs of the heart. It isn't that Anne, a very wealthy independent textile heiress, is heartless or cold, but she refuses to be ruled by her emotions. It is time for her to marry, and in accordance with her late-father's wishes, she intends to marry into the peerage. With care she winnows drunkards, gamblers, and rakes show more from her list of prospects and comes up with three men who meet her requirements. She sets out over the course of the Little Season, and the Season to make her final choice.

All three of her prospects are good men who have a great need for Anne's money, but as the story develops we learn that only one of the suitors is heart-whole. Though Anne chooses first with her head, she doesn't ignore her heart. She finally makes her choice, and the dynamics between her and her new fiance are beautifully drawn.

The early days of Anne's betrothal to Jack Beldon, Viscount Aldborough (along with what has come before) ensures that their marriage will be a satisfying partnership of minds and hearts.

In a secondary plot, Sarah Wheeler gives us the Marianne Dashwood , or sensibility, approach to finding romantic fulfilment. Sarah is the granddaughter of a Viscount--much good it has done her! She is in her 30s and without financial resources. She has been close to Anne for years, first as her governess and later as a companion. She is far above Anne, a Cit, on the social scale, as Anne is above her financially. Sarah finds herself approaching a crossroads. When Anne marries, Sarah will be looking for a new position. She has dismissed matrimony as a possibility as she has neither money, nor connections. She forms an attachment to an unlikely and unsuitable man, allowing her heart to rule her head as Marianne Dashwood did before her. Happily, with far less heartache.

This sequel to Red, Red Rose centers on a textile heiress, Anne Heriot, and the former Captain Jack Belden, Viscount Aldborough. Thinking back over this well-drawn, well-executed story, I was struck by the positive impact that Anne Heriot had on her world and the people she encountered. Sometimes her actions were lavish, and other times they were rather small, but she went through life making it better for those whose lives she touched, from the "blind" veteran she saves from beggary, to the magnificent deed she does for one of her former suitors, what she does (and plans to do) for the textile workers at one of her mills, she is making the world a better place. --And she found the right man to work alongside her to carry on the work. show less

*** "The Christmas Tart" by Mary Jo Putney. re-read.

I've actually read this one 3 times, not really intentionally, and it hasn't improved on the re-reads. (Some stories do.)

A young seamstress is erroneously accused of theft and turned out of the household that had employed her--the wicked employer keeping her savings, assuming they were the profit from her theft. Homeless and penniless, she's mistaken for a prostitute by the hero's friends who "give" her to him as a gift. It's Cinderella show more and Pretty Woman set in the Regency period, and I didn't quite buy that they actually fell in love.

*** "A Seasonal Stratagem" by Sandra Heath.

This story's plot is a romance standard: the rakish hero makes a bet that he can seduce (in this case, just get a kiss from) the virtuous heroine; he succeeds, but not before he's lost his heart. But then she finds out about the wager, feels betrayed, and he has to work to convince her he's serious. This isn't a bad story--it's just that there's nothing special about it, either.

****½ "The Porcelain Madonna" by Mary Balogh.

Wow. Now this story made the whole volume worthwhile... and I'm not a fan, or even a regular reader of Ms. Balogh--she seems to turn up in anthologies I read pretty regularly, but I don't believe I've ever read one of her single titles. Maybe I should reconsider that.

Anyway. This story grabbed me from the beginning. The hero is self-deprecatingly cynical about Christmas, and we first see him as the shabbily-dressed heroine is admiring the procelain madonna of the title in a shop window. A young boy tries to pick her pocket, and the hero comes to the rescue. The whole story is about his cynicism clashing with her optimism, made poignant by his desperate desire for hope.

I think, if it had been written differently, this story could have been too schmaltzy, but since we get his POV with his self-deprecating remarks, and get a very clear view of his character from the beginning, it's instead funny and warm-hearted.

*½ "Christmas Rose" by Marjorie Farrell.

Speaking of the writing making the difference... this story has the opposite effect.

The hero and heroine have been married for 5 years, and have drifted apart because they've been unable to conceive a child. When he comes home "fizzy" one night and sees a woman leaving a baby in a basket on an absent neighbor's doorstep, he convinces her to move the baby to his. The baby brings him and his wife together, until a servant's comment makes the wife believe it's her husband's bastard.

It could have also been a poignant story, but it was told from such a distant POV that I never connected to either of the characters. Even worse, what I did learn about them made me dislike them.

** "The Best Gift of All" by Emma Lange.

*sigh* I really, really, couldn't like this hero who brings his mistress (and his mistress's husband) home with him for Christmas. And I couldn't rejoice with the heroine that the husband she loved decided she wasn't so bad after all.

This is more a case of genre confusion than anything else, I think. It was, admittedly, entirely realistic that a Regency-era aristocratic husband would have a mistress and ignore his cit wife. I just couldn't stomach it as a romance. show less