Mistress of Brown Furrows

Freshly out of school, 18-year-old Carol Inglis was Timothy Carrington's unofficial ward. For that reason, Timothy thought he can better support Carol if they were to marry instead.

I'm not a fan of May and December stories but that wasn't the problem I had with this book. No, I had issue with the way Carol was always described as being young and youthful, very shy, naive and child-like. She wore a lot of virginal white and was coddled and indulged. I kept seeing a 10-year-old in my mind and thinking how creepy an almost 40-year-old was her love interest! Carol was a Mary Sue-like character because she was always described as pretty and that everyone loved her (save for two jealous women in Timothy's life). She, and all the characters show more for the matter, lacked any personality.

Actually, truth be told, I kept imagining Carol a well cared-for, prized, life-sized doll because she was often being carried around and handled with gentle fingers. This of course goes back to the days when females were thought of as beautiful objects of limited use. This was after all an older book. (But it still made my eyes roll to no end.)

I got this book because I love the cover. Incidentally, this cover does not match the description of Carol, whom was fair-haired. I always thought the covers on the older Harlequin romances actually matched with the stories, but I guess I was wrong. Ha! show less