Perfecting Fiona

Another short but sweet story from the School for Manners series. The Tribble sisters are engaged to find a suitable spouse for Miss Fiona Mcleod, a bluntly spoken heiress who fears marriage but finds herself drawn to a handsome rake.

What I love about M.C. Beaton's potted Regency romances is that she leans more towards Lauren Willig than Georgette Heyer - and yes, I did get those two authors in the right order! What I mean to say is that Beaton doesn't take herself too seriously - her heroines are adventurous without turning obnoxious, the Tribbles are great comic characters, and she doesn't let witty dialogue get bogged down in Regency slang. The back and forth between the flighty Fiona and Lord Peter Harvard is clever and amusing, show more and rather stinging in places, as with Fiona's withering condemnation of matrimony: 'You and your friends affect to despise trade. Miss Darsey, aged eighteen, was married amid floods of tears in St George's t'other day to Baron Breadly, aged sixty five. She is pretty and young and has a small dowry. He is old and ugly and rich. Now if that is not trading, what is?' Touche, I thought. Anyway, these novellas are the perfect introduction to Regency romances, and the perfect antidote to Heyer's gurgling moppets. show less

While still an easy and amusing read, the last 60 pages or so were aggravating as the Tribbles conspired to keep Fiona and Lord Peter Havard apart, but they don't spend enough time together anyway. However, I did enjoy Beaton's running marriage-as-trade theme as women were sold off to the highest bidder, and Amy's filthy mouth, pragmatic and forthright mannish-for-the-time personality.

This is exact review I wrote for the first book in the series and it still applies:

"This is like eating an entire chocolate cream cake! Sexist, almost nothing redeeming, complete twaddle; but the middle-aged Tribble sisters are a riot, and the romantic encounters are so cheesy and contrived that they are just plain fun. A nice quick escape from reality into the romantic regency era."

I didn't dislike the book but I also didn't really feel any empathy for any of the characters, it felt like it was being clever for the sake of it and not fleshing out characters in order to make a point. It's more a comedy of manners than a romance and it didn't feel satisfying for me. I may read more in this series but this author doesn't appear to be a good match for my reading preferences.

Fiona appears to have driven away a lot of her suitors by one means or another, she doesn't want to marry, she wants her independence. Knowing her relatives I'd want to marry and get away from them and the beatings as soon as possible, and avoid the dependence on them as executors as well. Amy and Effy Tribble take her on to make her more show more marriagable and bumble their way through. When Lord Peter Havard finds himself attracted he fights his way to her heart. I didn't really feel it though, nearly but not quite.

Not really impressed with this quick read, almost had to push myusself to finish it. show less

2.5*
Opinião completa em: http://pepitamagica.blogspot.pt/2016/03/livro-perfeicao-de-fiona-de-marion.html

Full review: http://pepitamagica.blogspot.pt/2016/03/livro-perfeicao-de-fiona-de-marion.html


Que desilusão. Que pena. O primeiro livro desta série foi tão amoroso e…este ficou aquém.
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Effy, uma das irmãs Tribble, sempre foi um pouco irritante para mim. Amy, que é mais bruta, também o era, mas de uma forma mais mitigada devido ao seu carácter forte e resiliente. Neste livro, as irmãs deixam de nos dar aqueles momentos de descontracção e riso que deram no primeiro, mostrando que não basta actos mais idiotas para fazer o leitor divertir-se.

Se o livro tivesse mais acção entre o casal, se houvesse mais romance, se as show more irmãs tivessem tido verdadeiramente que lidar com uma rapariga difícil e se o livro mostrasse mesmo o que é que elas ensinam para as raparigas deixarem de ser “raparigas difíceis” para noivas elegíeis, isso sim melhoria a obra.
(...) show less