Althea

A light, slight, pleasing visit to the Regency realm with out glaring anachronisms and some almost interesting characters going through some almost interesting variations on couples getting together.

Hmmm. Not bad, not nearly as good as the first couple Robins I read...for exactly the same reasons they were so great. She takes all the standard events of regency romances - all the misunderstandings and flirtations and missed connections - and makes them happen to real, solid characters with good reason for behaving that way. I found it delightful in Lady John and excellent in The Heiress Companion; here most of the characters were either annoying, or I was embarrassed for them, for what they didn't know and didn't ask. Althea is more than a little controlling, for good reason; when she actually meets someone who _doesn't_ need her to take over, she missteps quite a lot. And she's less experienced even than she realizes in London show more society. Tracy is equally controlling, with less excuse; his problem is mostly that he assumes everyone (or at least Althea) understands what he doesn't say. I guess that was a large part of my problem - the romance trope I dislike most is misunderstanding, and here it's in full flow in multiple directions. But the characters are rich and well-drawn, the situations range from hilarious to heavy tension, and (of course) it has a happy ending. I might like it better on a reread, and I expect I'll do that in a while. Ah, another point - this was Madeleine Robins' first book, and first Regency. I think I caught a few anachronisms (not sure - words and phrases that may not have been in use in period, or that she got slightly wrong - Canterbury tale rather than Banbury, for instance). show less

Althea was better than I originally thought it would be. I love historical fiction and thought the language was accurate and the plot had a nice flow. My only complaint would be the typos which there were a ton of. It was hard to get through sections due to the typos.

I enjoyed reading this Austen-light novel I received from the Early Reviewers program. The book reminded me of Austen's work, but because I know that the author is not from that period in time, it impressed me less. Althea is definitely a charming and funny read, but not more than that.

This was an enjoyable Traditional Regency that has been rereleased in ebook form. It is copyrighted 1977, but has aged beautifully (strange as it may seem, not all historical-set romances do age well).

Althea is not straight out of the schoolroom, she's 23, intelligent and learned. She is under-appreciated by her male relatives who imagine she will never marry, and so keep house for them for ever. The hero is fourth in line for an Earldom (not likely to inherit, but of very good birth) and cuts a dash without being a dandy. The romance grows between them more quickly on the hero's part than the heroine's, and they alternate between lively discussion and argument.

The book contains several secondary characters, a bit of adventure, the show more London Season, a marriage in trouble (Althea's sister), and the only ginger-haired romance hero I can currently call to mind.

I will look out for Madeleine Robins's other Regencies. It's a shame that she only wrote five before switching genres. show less

This was an easy pleasant read. The characters are, on the whole, well-drawn and amusing and the plot manages to be complicated but easy to resolve – you know who will be paired with whom from very early on! However I have recently been reading Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen and, by comparison with those, this novel lacks a lightness of touch and subtlety of expression that you may have been expecting.
This is an ebook and too many ‘misprints’ have been missed at the proofreading stage but, presumably, that could be more easily rectified than for a print edition.

Having finished this ebook, I would agree with some of the other reviewers that the proof reading leaves something to be desired. There are several mistakes which distract from the flow of the story. I found myself having to make sense of it at times.

However, I quite enjoyed this romantic tale - it was not a bad book by any means. It is written in a somewhat similar style to Georgette Heyer, although some of the phrasing is Americanised and would not have been used in Regency London.

Apart from the typing mistakes, I thought the story flowed along quite nicely - it just needs a little tweaking here and there! I liked the characters and thought they were fairly well drawn. I was intrigued enough to want to read the whole tale.

All in all show more an amusing and entertaining Regency romance. show less