Captain Cupid Calls the Shots

Captain Alexander Shelbourne is known as Cupid to his army companions for his marksmanship in battle – and because he always aims for the heart. When he accompanies his friend Valentine Wharton home, they happen to arrive on Valentine’s Day. Cupid is matched up with the lovely Penny Foster to grant her a Valentine’s wish. Known to Valentine as “Touch-me-not”, the girl’s reputation is questionable at best due to her mother’s unfortunate actions as well as her own eccentricities. But Cupid takes her cryptic clues and sets out to win her trust, and her heart in an effort to shake off the guilt of wartime.

A pretty story full of references to the landscape and legends of Cumbria – as well as to Wordsworth’s The show more Somnambulist. I especially liked the parts about Cupid’s attempts to recover from the horrors war inflicted on him and how distant he feels from his wartime friends. But the romance itself seemed a bit weak – Cupid is concerned that Penny feels more strongly and more deeply for the child in her care than she does for him, and every single action throughout the book does seem to lend itself to that interpretation. But that insecurity is simply glossed over without any matter of proof on her part at the end of the story. All in all it seemed as if he were significantly more attached to her than she to him, and it pains me to see a romance that is so one-sided. I wish she had shown him a bit more affection given what he does for her sake at the climax of the novel.

Definitely not bad, but not something I’d keep around for several reads. show less