The Mouse That Roared

Rosalind Lacey is a woman with a mission. Having sacrificed her youthful opportunities to family obligations, she's ready to make the most of her long-postponed London Season. Unlike most single ladies, Rosalind isn't husband hunting. She intends to enjoy all the attractions of the city - but on her own terms, for her own reasons. And her free-spirited Aunt Fanny is just the woman to show a girl all the nice - and naughty - things London as to offer...

Max Devenant has reached the top of his profession - if rakehood could be considered a calling. But he's grown bored with his dissolute lifestyle. His friend Fanny's niece, Rosalind, seems an unlikely cure for his malaise, as she's certainly the mousiest of women. Only one day after her arrival, however, Rosalind is transformed into the most attractive and vivacious creature Max has ever encountered. He cannot know the cause for the change, but its effect is undeniable...

Original Publisher: Signet
Original Year of Publication: 2001
Page Count: 213

Rosalind Lacey, eldest daughter of Sir Edmund Lacey of Wycombe Hall in Devon, is indeed on a mission. She believes that she has inherited her mother's terminal illness and thus, only has a few months to live. She has taken stock of her life: she is a 26-year-old spinster who stepped into her mother's role at 14 and has pretty much raised her siblings ever since. Her two sisters are married, one brother is off to university and the youngest boys - twins - have been settled at Harrow. It's time for her to have a chance to do something for herself, and she knows just what she wants to do. She wants to go to London, during the Season, and experience all of the sights, sounds, and delights to be had. She wants her father's sister Fanny to accompany her. Fanny has long been the black sheep of the family; she has lived an extroverted, extravagant life as a wealthy widow with a string of titled lovers. If anybody can show Rosie what the Season is all about, it's Aunt Fanny.

Fanny has not been close to her brother since his marriage, and is not looking forward to the arrival of a meek little country mouse. As the novel opens, she is complaining of her plight to her friend Max Devenant, a 36-year-old rakehell who is utterly bored with life. He is so bored, in fact, that he is seriously considering taking the self-same route as his best friend, Freddie Moresby, who killed himself earlier in the year. Max keeps Moresby's suicide note tucked into his waistcoat as a reminder that there is a way out of a life not worth living.

Max is the son of Fanny's one true love, Basil Devenant, and they have known each other for years. Max is a younger son dangling at loose ends. His parents are gone, his siblings are married and/or busy with careers, and he has no especial interest in anything. He supports himself by gambling, and has focused on pleasure for the vast majority of his life.

Neither Fanny nor Max are impressed when Rosie arrives, dressed in dowdy shapeless brown, but Max immediately senses there's something beyond country mouse when he makes an outrageous pass at Rosie and she does not swoon in fear in response. Indeed, after Max leaves, Rosie tells Fanny exactly what her plans are, and that the first thing she wants to do is make herself over.

The transformation is complete in under a week, and Rosie is so pleased and excited with all the possibilities that she considers herself to be playing a role, of the dashing Rosalind, doing all the outrageous, Society-breaking things that prim and proper Rosie would never dare attempt. She is an instant hit, with her scarlet red dresses, fashionably cropped hair, and her will to try absolutely everything in sight. She even has a list of things she wishes to accomplish before she dies, and it includes driving a sporting vehicle, visiting the great museums, attending every kind of event available (both fashionable and not), and being thoroughly kissed by a rake.

Fanny is a proud mother hen as she parades Rosalind all around town, and Max finds himself just as smitten with her as the rest of the population of single men. Rosie throws caution to the wind and makes a spectacle of herself, but she could care less - she's about to die, what good is it to constrain herself to Society's ridiculous rules? And Max is everything she could ever want: kind to her, but handsome and funny as well, with a wicked wit and practiced wiles. After being thoroughly kissed, she decides she wants more - and she gets it, in one perfect evening that she will never, ever forget.

Everything is going so beautifully that not even the appearance of her university-bound brother (or her odious uncle) can stop her momentum. Rosie has told no one of her medical condition, but does consult a London physician when a few troubling symptoms begin to reappear. Only then does she learn that she does not have her mother's fatal illness - that she isn't going to die - and suddenly everything she has done over the last few months comes crashing down around her. If she's going to live, can she live with the idea of thumbing her nose at everything and everyone, of bringing shame upon herself and her family? She decides she can't, and flees back to Devon to confess everything to her father and beg his forgiveness.

Sir Edmund has taken a bit of stock himself since Rosie has been in London, and realizes that he has been a horribly neglectful parent, lost in his own grief for his wife these last twelve years. He's put so much on Rosie that he never meant to, and when Rosie tells him of her fears of dying like her mother did, he feels even worse for keeping his wife's condition a secret from the children. Edmund is a pretty spectacular father here, because he does not shame or scold or do anything other than beg Rosie's forgiveness for his own transgressions, and tells her that she deserved to have the happiness she did in London.

Rosie is beside herself with shame, however, and retreats into her country mouse shell. Even after Max finds out why she left (he was so hurt and upset, thinking it was something he did to drive her away), chases after her, and begs her to marry him, she refuses. She doesn't believe she can be the wild and devil-may-care Rosalind that she was in London, not without the death sentence hanging over her.

Edmund and Fanny conspire to bring Rosalind back to London and reconnect her with Max, believing that if they put the two back in proximity to each other, the rest will fall into place. It is a dangerous plan, but it ultimately works. Remember that suicide note that Max carries around? He accidently drops it, Rosie fears that he is the one who wrote it, and rushes off to stop him from killing himself. If he ever tells her the truth about the note (that it was written by his friend), it happens off page. This was the only bit of the story that I didn't like.

Otherwise, I found this absolutely delightful! Rosie was determined to live every day as if it were her last, and she inspired Max to realize that life could be worth living - with the right person at his side. Even Aunt Fanny seizes the day and consents to marry her own lifelong admirer at the end.

I really enjoyed the way the characters were drawn: bright, vivacious, full of life. Rosalind in London did things and said things that so many others could only dream of doing; she got to see everything she wanted and even though she was not looking for a husband, she managed to find one anyway. Rosie and Max were nicely balanced; even though Rosie was a touch too stubborn, she didn't really spend a lot of time wallowing in her shame on page. Aunt Fanny was an excellent "chaperone" and very interesting in and of herself. Rosie's dash off to London made a lot of people realize a lot of different things, and I liked that the whole family was reconciled at the end.

The prose was airy and light, events moved along at a really nice clip, and the romance was, indeed, very romantic for a trad Regency.


⭐⭐⭐⭐

Samantha sympathized with the problems of the elderly Dutch woman who was admitted to the hospital where she worked.

But she didn't realize that her encounter with Juffrouw Boot's employer, the striking Giles ter Ossel, would bring her so much heart-searching. Perhaps one shouldn't get involved with one's patients? Yet...

Original Publisher: Harlequin
Original Year of Publication: 1974
Page Count: 188

Pretty much what it says on the tin. An old lady who doesn't speak English is rushes to Clement's hospital in London with badly burned hands, because the only word the emergency services could understand was "Clement's." Samantha Fielding, the staff nurse on night duty, is assigned to the case, and everyone is curious to see who will come find this little old lady, for she was picked up at an exceedingly fashionable address. As it happens, she is an old family friend/housekeeper for the prominent Dutch physician Giles ter Ossel, who sees patients at St Clement's; hence the mixup. Giles seems mostly bemused by Samantha; he is good friends with the consulting physician at Clement's, Sir Joshua, and they keep a close eye on Juffrouw (Klara) as she is recovering.

We learn a bit about Sam's normal routine. She lives in a small flat with 3 other nurses; they are friends and share chores, as they all work different shifts. She was raised by her grandparents, whom she still returns to visit in Weymouth during all of her off days from work. She is surprised when Giles shows up in Weymouth, as the guest of the local squire; she can't quite decide if she likes him or not, as she finds him at times patronizing and mocking.

When she returns to work, the ancillary staff at Clement's have gone on strike, leaving the household duties to the nursing staff, on top of their regular duties. Sir Joshua and Giles show up one day, sleeves rolled up to pitch in, much to the nursing staff's surprise. Giles is also fairly solicitous about Sam, making sure she eats and gets home all right, with enough time to sleep between shifts. Sam decides that she likes him now, but fears their acquaintance is tenuous, as Klara has returned to health and left the hospital.

Samantha is especially assigned to her next patient (which is uncommon): a teenage girl named Antonia van Duyren, who is suffering with jaundice. Antonia is young and beautiful in spite of her sallow coloring, and she takes to Sam very quickly. Antonia is the younger sister of Baron van Duyren, from Holland, who just happens to be a close personal friend of Giles ter Ossel. Sam is disconcerted to see Giles when he visits Antonia, instantly believing that they are betrothed basically because they are friendly with each other.

Sam is asked to accompany Antonia back to Holland, the trip arranged by the Baron and Giles, and she reluctantly accepts. Her feelings for Giles means that she's constantly suffering when she's around him, as she believes he's constantly mocking her. Giles arranges for them to spend a day together exploring the country before she leaves, which Sam both enjoys and hates, because now she's sure its the end of the road for them. She returns to London and decides to quit her job and move to Brazil, where she will have slim to no chance of running into Giles, now that she's convinced he's to be married.

There is a small misunderstanding, as Sam neither outright asks Antonia OR Giles if they are getting married, and Antonia doesn't tell Sam who she *is* marrying when she announces her engagement, but once Giles gets wind of all this, he's racing back to London to correct the mistake and win Sam over for good. He calls her "enchanting" several times throughout the book, hence the title.

I seemed to have picked two frustrating female leads in a row, which is never fun. Samantha Fielding is obstinate throughout the entire book; she's so convinced that she's plain and dowdy that no one will ever look at her, and she spends a lot of time convincing herself that Giles is either (1) mocking her, or (2) being pity-nice to her for some unfathomable reason. Girl, this man rolled up his sleeves to wash dishes during an ancillary force strike at a hospital that's not even his, he takes you to breakfast, guides you home, makes you tea, irons your uniform, makes excuses to see you, kisses you a lot, whisks you off to his homeland on a fairly flimsy pretense. That is not pity - that is adoration. Why he adores you so much, I have no idea, because you are stubborn, obtuse, a bit of a martyr, and you decide that moving halfway around the world is the best way to get over your feelings. My eyes can't roll far enough back in my head for this.

Of course, we only get one scene from Giles's POV, and its at the end, so there's not much help from that quarter. These older vintage romances that are completely opaque on one half of the OTP are sometimes frustrating to read.

I can't really go higher than 2 stars for this one. Giles is actually pretty lovely, but Sam is dumb as a box of rocks for basically no reason other than angst. Bleh!

⭐⭐

Determined to face her fear of water, Maddy Gordon signed up for beginner swimming, and found herself surrounded by seven-year-olds! And why did her instructor have to be golden-muscled Olympic swimmer Zach London, whose grin still gave her goose bumps? Stunned by the emotions Zach aroused in her, Maddy sought refuge behind her puppets. Perfect for her work with children, they also helped keep other people at arm's length - a barely safe distance where Zack was concerned! Zach knew Maddy had to face what scared her before she could return his love, but would she trust him enough to conquer her ghosts?

Original Publisher: Bantam
Original Year of Publication: 1986
Page Count: 183

The March 2025 #TBRChallenge is “Rizz,” which is apparently slang for “charisma.” I had no idea this word required slang, but here we are. I have been in something of a meh reading rut, so I chose to go to my Loveswept collection for this month's prompt.

This book certainly looked intriguing enough, with its former-Olympic-gold-medalist swimmer hunk of a hero, and a heroine who used puppets in her work. As it happens, she is a social worker with the county, and uses her puppets in her work with traumatized and abused children. She has empathy for them on many levels, as she herself has some unresolved issues about her body, her place in the world, and of course her fear of water. I thought Maddy had a lot of potential as a heroine, lots of interesting facets to explore, but unfortunately the truncated category length stifled much of this.

Maddy, like every other girl her age (25 at the start of the book) worshipped the golden boy Zach London, who was competing at the Olympics when she was a mere tween. He won some medals and lots of fame/celebrity because of that, up to and including the proverbial Wheaties box. We're never really told how old Zach is, but apparently enough time has passed that he isn't instantly recognizable anymore and can teach swim classes at the local public pool without groupies crowding around to swoon.

Maddy gathers her courage and signs up for beginner's swim class, but a mistake means that she's put in a children's class. She feels even more awkward than usual because she's so tall, especially next to a bunch of "babies." She finds instant comradery with the kid closest to her, a little girl named Theresa who clings to her with shyness. Zach tries to send Maddy away, thinking she's a child's mother, which only embarrasses her further. She manages to get into the pool with the kids, but faints fairly quickly, necessitating her removal from the pool and the class. Zach takes her into the office, she realizes who he is, they trade some fairly cute banter. Realizing there isn't an adult beginning class at the pool, Zach offers to give Maddy private swimming lessons - and who is she to turn down private lessons with an Olympian?!

The two further bond over Theresa, who has some telltale signs that maybe all is not right in her world; indeed, at the next lesson, Zach summons Maddy to the pool because Theresa is sporting a black eye and an angry parent hurrying her along to the car. Both Maddy and Zach inexplicably fall in love with this child and decide to rescue her; they report the abuse to the county DHS and each want to adopt her, even though they are both single and have no other children of their own. Maddy resents Zach's desire to adopt Theresa, believing he will have a better chance at winning custody because of Who He Is (how we can tell it's 1986: a single man wanting to adopt a strange little girl would not fly in 2025), but does she tell him? No.

The two have some ~sensuous~ time in the water in the guise of lessons, and both vie for Theresa's attention (she is a remarkably well-adjusted child, considering her parents are dead and her aunt/uncle don't want her and readily relinquish her to be a ward of the court). They are also Fighting Pants Feelings because this *is* a Loveswept book, after all.

Maddy has to face her fear of water, and Zach has his own somber memories to move past (his wife and child are dead before the book opens). It's a very sweet story, but ultimately feels rushed. Maddy's reasons for avoiding water are finally uncovered, and she basically overcomes it in two? lessons. Zack seems to understand that he can't push Maddy too much, but damned if he doesn't spend a good part of the second half of the book yelling at her: for canceling her lessons, for avoiding him, for Doing Stupid Things and Causing Him to Worry. This is supposed to show that he cares for her and wants to protect her, but it really goes over like a lead balloon for me, unfortunately. He also proposes to Maddy because he believes being married will give him a better chance of adopting Theresa (how romantic). He also loves Maddy, but does he bother to tell her? No, of course not, he just lets her believe the worst.

Other problematic elements include the whole subplot to adopt Theresa and how easily it resolves - I mean, I am not someone who generally comments on ~privilege~ in fiction, but it just reeks here. Two strangers, who meet Theresa at a public swimming lesson, end up being able to adopt her via a private transfer of custody in less than 30 days, basically because they are young, white, and affluent. Yay for happy endings, I suppose, but it is pretty cringe-inducing nonetheless.

Still, problematic elements aside, I enjoyed this book. It's pretty quiet and sweet, which is a pleasant surprise for this particular line. I'd definitely read this author again. I also wouldn't be surprised if I discovered that she eventually pivoted to inspirational and/or women's fiction.

⭐⭐⭐

The Irresistible Earl

Miss Frances Dean, known to friends and family as Fancy, had very firm ideas about a woman's rightful place in the world. As far as she was concerned, a woman should be educated, independent, and never, ever bow to the tyranny of a man.

The Earl of Wychfield was everything that Fancy mistrusted in a male. He was dazzlingly handsome, fabulously wealthy and superbly self-assured, with all that it took it win any woman he wanted. Fancy would only be happy that he could not possibly want her when the stunning Lady Celeste Standon made herself so very available to him. Because though Fancy told herself she was fully prepared to resist the advances of this man armed with so many weapons of attraction and snares of seduction, she trembled at what might happen should she be put to the test...

Original Publisher: Signet
Original Year of Publication: 1997
Page Count: 236

My last read was so awesome I wasn't sure what I wanted to follow it up with, so I eventually pulled a random number generator out on part of Mount TBR and chose this. While it started out fairly promising, it went downhill fast for me, and I couldn't wait to be finished with it.

That blurb is incredibly misleading. Fancy is of the "marriage is legal prostitution" radical feminist bent, and she doesn't hesitate to say so directly to the Earl the very first time she meets him - which, considering this is a marriage of convenience book (as well as battle of the sexes), means we're off to somewhat of a rocky start.

Unfortunately, Fancy lives up to her titular moniker, because she is incredibly foolish for the entire story. She is obstinate, sullen, and disdainful the entire time; when the earl proves himself to be competent and caring (he was a second son who made a military career before returning to take up the reins of the earldom), she only gets more and more angry with him. How dare he not meet her prejudiced expectations of what all aristocratic men are? The only way she knows to channel and/or express her feelings is to pick fights with pretty much everyone she knows, and this gets incredibly tedious incredibly quickly.

It's especially bad because Wychfield is so laid-back and easygoing. He rarely rises to her bait, which only makes her even madder, and honestly I had no idea what he saw in her. She is so immature, yet he feels she is the perfect person to take control of his unruly family of younger stepsiblings. This is probably because every other woman is his life is vain, selfish, and empty-headed, but still. I can't imagine *wanting* to spend your entire life bickering with your spouse, but I suppose it takes all kinds.

Lady Celeste is not much of a villain/other woman, considering she is Wychfield's sister-in-law, and had in fact dumped him for his brother in the first place. That doesn't stop Fancy from believing that he's really love with Celeste but doesn't want to admit it. Because this woman doesn't have enough to battle against, she has to make things up, too.

Ugh. This gets one star for Wychfield, who honestly deserves better, and half a star for the writing not being absolutely terrible, even if the heroine is. I'd be willing to give this author another try, but this one is going on the PBS pile.

⭐ 1/2

The list has been released for the 2025 #TBRChallenge!


I definitely need some help with those prompts, and the lovely SuperWendy has translated them on her master post:

January 15 - New Year, Who Dis? (suggestions: a debut, a new-to-you author, character looking for fresh start)
February 19 - Previously, In Romance... (suggestions: part of a series, author you haven't read in a while, Old School)
March 19 - Rizz (If you're old like me, this is slang the kids are using for "charisma" - I'm thinking playboys, rakes, heroes that have charm for days....)
April 16 - Location, Location, Location (interesting settings, unusual historicals etc.)
May 21 - Older Couple (self-explanatory)
June 18 - Road Trip (suggestions: couple traveling together, character who recently moved/relocated)
July 16 - Back in My Day... (suggestions: historical, Old School, I might go with a book that was published when I was in high school or college 😭)
August 20 - Do the Hustle (suggestions: single moms trying to make ends meet, work-related struggles, shady characters with ulterior motives / agenda).
September 17 - Friend Squad (self-explanatory)
October 15 - Here There Be Monsters (suggestions: monsters, Gothic, paranormal, fantasy, romantic suspense - humans being the biggest monsters of all quite frankly....)
November 19 - Change of Plans (suggestions: the character who has a wrench thrown in the works - sudden custody of kid(s), time travel, death in the family, accident, dystopia, left at the altar etc.)
December 17 - Celebration! (suggestions: weddings, parties, masquerade balls, holiday stories)

I do not anticipate having the hiatus that I did this year, as moving tends to be a once-every-15-years deal for me, so hopefully Mount TBR will shorten, inch by inch. If you want to join us, be sure to check out the post linked above!

A time of sorcery, romance...and the magic that is love

All Hallow's Eve...a night when the impossible happens...when Regency castles are filled with mystery and intrigue...when costume balls in elegant mansions may lead to passionate surprises...and when ladies and gentlemen of the ton find themselves falling under a spell that may be other-worldly. Or as close as their own hearts...in these three delightfully mysterious tales...

Teresa DesJardien's The Haunted Bride is the second Lady Healey who has just wed a nobleman whose first marriage ended in tragedy...and whose seductive embrace could bring danger - or the love of a lifetime. In Cindy Holbrook's Love's Magic, a young sorceress meets her destiny in a handsome highborn Duke who is promised to another...a union only the powers of true love can prevent. Valerie King's The Vampire Rogue pairs a charming rake with an heiress, whose newly acquired castle is the setting for a masquerade ball...and where the resident vampire has his own plans for eternally joining these unlikely lovers.

Let this trio of romances be your Halloween treat - wonderful stories set in elegant Regency England, where lords and ladies are truly bewitched by love!

Original Publisher: Zebra
Original Year of Publication: 1996
Page Count: 380


The Haunted Bride - Teresa DesJardien (148 pages)
On the occasion of her cousin's wedding, Etta Carson quite literally meets the man of her dreams. He introduces himself as Lord Healey, and demands to know why she possesses a dozen sketches of him, when they've never before met and he's never been to London. She rather reluctantly admits its because this is a man she has seen regularly in her dreams. His response is equally curious: does she believe in things beyond the reach of the physical senses?

Etta is reluctant to admit it to him, but yes, it's true. Sketching the images she sees in her dreams helps her make sense of them. She has dreamed of certain events which later actually occurred, and she is both uneasy about and confident in this ability to make sense of her dreams by sketching them out. She had no idea who this man was, but now that she sees him in the flesh, she realizes that it is, indeed, him.

Lord Healey (Daniel), is a friend of the husband of her cousin, who has arrived for the wedding and intends to return to his home in Bath the same day. But after meeting Etta, he decides to stick around, and for the rest of the week his earnestly courts her. He proposes seven days after they originally meet, and Etta accepts. Within the month, they are married, and they return to his property in Bath.

Etta immediately has an uneasy feeling about the house. Negativity seems to abound, and only 4 servants remain. The rest of them have been scared off by ghostly encounters. Daniel admits to Etta that he didn't tell her all of his background, wanting her to have a 'fresh' eye on the house and her own impression of it first. But with Daniel's sullen brother Sean lurking about, he has to tell her everything. Daniel's first wife, Aileen, died in the house after a horrific asthma attack, locked in her dressing room with no one knowing that she was suffering. Daniel himself was downstairs, asleep in his study, and was the first one to find her. Ever since her death, the servants reported seeing Aileen's ghost quite frequently, and some of them were so scared that they left, even without receiving their full wages.

Sean was injured during his time in the military and now basically lurks about Daniel's house, drinking himself to death. He seems to take keen and cruel interest in telling Etta the wild stories about Aileen's last days, and how Daniel reacted in the wake of her death. It becomes obvious that Sean was in love with Aileen, too; with it not being entirely clear that Aileen's death was indeed a natural one, Etta begins to wonder if she was murdered - and if so, by whom.

This story has a nice little gothic/Rebecca-esque feel (and, indeed, the housekeeper is a crazy woman, though her motives are more twisted that Mrs Danvers'). I enjoyed the flow and pace of this, and found it the most believable of the bunch, even with Etta's perhaps supernatural intuitions. She is a character who is strong and sure of herself, and even though the stories of her new home upset her, she isn't running around like a chicken with its head cut off, spooking at every shadow. At 148 pages, it is the longest novella of the collection and definitely has the most complete character and story arc.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Love's Magic - Cindy Holbrook (125 pages)
The first chapter sets the plot up quite nicely. In the village of Chancellorville, there exist both good and evil witches. The good witches are Bathsheba and Dorinda Goodfellow, a pair of elderly spinster sisters who are bumbling but well-meaning. They care for their (non-sorceress) niece, Sarabeth, whom they love to post is the most beautiful girl in the village. The evil witch is Dame Maudar Tureen, a woman obsessed with black magic and power, and the continual gain of both, at whatever cost. She is quite proud of her beautiful, raven-haired daughter, Gertrude, who is indeed beautiful but is also a complete moron.

The long-absent Duke of Tor, Damian, is returning to Chancellorville because his castle has been partially burned, and there is a suspicion of arson. Damian's family has long had the ability of wizardry, and Dame Tureen is determined to marry her daughter to Damian and gain control of his powers. When the Goodfellow sisters proudly boast that if anyone can catch the Duke's eye, it will be their niece Sarabeth, Maudar is furious. She will not let anything stand in the way of her kingmaking, and casts a spell to turn Sarabeth invisible, right before Damian's eyes.

Damian and Sarabeth meet briefly, so briefly that he thinks its a dream. He's wary of returning to the superstitious village, and has no belief in the stories about the men of his family being powerful wizards. He basically wants to restore his castle and get the hell out of town. He's relieved to meet Dame Tureen and Gertrude, as they claim to be among the few who also don't believe in the superstitious nonsense of the villagers. Plus, Gertrude is beautiful.

Sarabeth returns to her aunts, who try their hardest to make her visible again, but have several hilarious results instead: turning her into their cat, then a parrot, and finally a mouse. The Goodfellow family learns that Maudar has cast a spell on Damian to make him marry Gertrude because she believes that the consummation of their marriage will bring him into his latent abilities and that she can take control of him. So now its a race against time to return Sarabeth to her original form and stop Damian from making a terrible mistake that he'll never be able to undo.

This reads like a straight-up fairytale, a mixture of the Disney versions of Sleeping Beauty (the aunts are the good fairies) and Cinderella. It is also very...juvenile? Like, I'd expect to find this in a YA collection. It is very straightforward, with magic dictating the plot. There is no depth of emotion in any of the characters, beyond some wallowing in Maudar's evil villainess status. The happily ever after is literally the end of the story - I can't imagine any of these characters actually having sex, LOL.

⭐⭐

The Vampire Rogue - Valerie King (87 pages)
Emma Keverne, the newest heiress of Castle Breage, has decided to throw a huge Halloween masquerade at the spooky Cornwall estate. She invites many people, including Lord Chace, whom she has been in love with for the last 3 years. They met at Emma's coming out party and have been dancing around each other ever since. They start to do more than dance at this ball, however, and both notice a rather sinister figure hanging around, whom no one really knows. Only - Emma recognizes him. She drags Chace down to the picture gallery and points out a long ago ancestor, Count Lansallos. Chace agrees that he does indeed look like this unknown man, albeit in clothes a few centuries out of date. Emma tells him that while she was reading the papers associated with the castle, she came across some very disturbing stories and warnings, including the disappearance of her cousins the St Austells. One day they were there, the next they were missing, and no one had seen hide nor hair of them since. Edward St Austell left a warning to never fill in the moat around the castle, but without an explicit explanation as to why, Emma ignores the directive and fills it in for the party. Now Count Lansallos has shown up again, and Emma fears that he means to turn her into an immortal vampire.

She believes this because she has seen the youngest St Austell in the castle's secret passages, and introduces Chace to him when he pops out again. He's the one who tells them that Lansallos is a vampire, that he turned the St Austells into vampires nearly a century ago, and that filling the moat was his invitation back. He has his sights set on the beautiful Emma, and the only way they can protect themselves is with silver crosses and daylight. Emma and Chace spend the next few evenings battling with Lansallos and trying to help the St Austells, who were also drawn back because of the filled moat and who want to assist in defeating the man who ruined their lives all that time ago.

You basically have to roll with this premise, because things happen so fast you don't really have time to question them. There is so much historical handwaving going on that I'm a bit wary of trying this author's full-length work (I have several of her novels in my collection). The action is fast-paced and interesting enough to see through to the end, and there is a surprisingly gruesome climax (basically, vampire meets sunlight is a really awful way to go, like burning alive). Backstory for Emma and Chace is sprinkled in, but it doesn't really feel like much except setup for their own silly misunderstandings. There is an aunt to provide comic relief, but Emma and Chace drug her so she sleeps through most of the fighting. This story really needed some more page length to really flesh everything out, characters and plot alike.

⭐⭐ 1/2

"He needs a wife - someone like me!"

Meg Collins was an old-fashioned country girl facing an uncertain future. Now that the family house was being sold, Meg had to find a job. But where? Her skills were in cooking and gardening - not shorthand and typing.

Professor Ralph Culver offered a solution. The eminent doctor needed a "sensible, domestic person" to work in his London office. Someone like Meg.

But it wasn't very sensible to fall in love with the professor. Or to hope that he would fall in love with her, too...

Original Publisher: Harlequin
Original Year of Publication: 1987
Page Count: 187

This is my first foray into the world of Betty Neels, an extremely profile Harlequin author who had a few interesting writing quirks: her books feature doctors and/or nurses, at least one of them is Dutch, and at least part of the story takes place somewhere in Holland. I am faintly amused by this (there's nothing better than a category writer who knows her strengths, after all) and curious, because I studied in the Netherlands for grad school. I've picked up quite a few vintage Neels novels from my last few thrift store trips, and this one seemed like a good one to start with.

Meg Collins is a mousy little woman, the mostly-forgotten middle child who stayed at her home with her mother in Hertfordshire and nursed said parent at the end of her life. As the book opens, Meg and her sisters are talking about selling the home and how they are going to use their shares of the money. Cora, older sister, is married with kids; Doreen, younger sister, is a vivacious nurse at a London hospital. Both sisters have always run roughshod over Meg, telling her what to do for her entire life, and now is no different. They each encourage her to move to London and find a secretary job, even though she has no secretarial skills and London is extremely expensive, even in the post-war era.

Meg had some ideas of her own for her future. As much as she doesn't want to leave her childhood home, she grudgingly accepts it, and considers hiring herself out as a housekeeper on a similar country estate. After all, those *are* the skills she has: managing a household. She has a vague notion of marrying and having kids someday, and running her own household, but more important right now is to find a roof and a situation that pays wages.

Several people come tour the home when it's put on the market, including a very arrogant man who says nothing and displays even less. Meg takes an instant dislike to him, but manages to forget him when a real potential buyer arrives: the elegant, elderly Mrs Culver, freshly arrived back in England after her husband's death. Meg takes a shine to her, especially after she graciously agrees to let Meg and the cook, Betsy, stay on for awhile while her own housekeeper recovers. The only fly in the ointment? That arrogant man is nice Mrs Culver's son, Ralph, who came to inspect the home because he knew his mother was interested in it.

Once Mrs Culver's housekeeper arrives, Meg is persuaded to go to London to check out a flat her sister Doreen found for her, which she can afford with her share of the money. It's a horrible little place behind an underground station, and Meg is in tears at the idea of leaving her beautiful home for such a place. Mercifully, Ralph Culver swoops to her rescue, assuring her that she shouldn't live in the rundown little hovel because it was structurally unsound. On the way back to Mrs Culver's house, he casually mentions that he can help her out: he has a private practice in London where he sees patients between his rounds at various hospitals around the city. It's a receptionist job, and it comes with a flat because she has to take off-hours calls for him. It also comes with the chance to visit his own country estate, with a little gardener's cottage Meg can make her own on the weekends. Meg jumps at the chance for at least partial country life, and finds herself intrigued by the man. He is a physician, a Professor of Radiology, and once she takes the job in his office, she truly takes interest in his work, as part of her job is to chat with his patients, especially the nervous ones.

Meg is quite happy with her state of affairs, all told; she has a lovely flat in the nice part of town, a little weekend lodge, and enough facetime with Professor Culver that she falls in love with him fairly quickly. She also takes in stray animals, including a one-eyed stray cat in London whom she names Nelson. (My heart melted at this, especially when she insists on taking Nelson with her to the country!)

Meg's grand idea to get the Professor to notice her is basically to fade into the background: being perfectly polite and professional, but otherwise having no personality at all. This is a change for her, and it is indeed one he notices, but it does not seem to have the desired effect. He goes out with glamorous women all the time and invites them for weekends at his estate, especially one particularly stunning blonde. Meg keeps in touch with Betsy and Mrs Culver, and learns that his mother thinks it unlikely her handsome son will settle down with the types of women he dates, but Meg is unsure.

We're nearly 70% into the book before the inevitable trip to Holland arrives. As it turns out, Mrs Culver is Dutch and her mother still lives in Amsterdam. When the Professor takes a week-long trip to visit his grandmother, he invites Meg along - because his grandmother's housekeeper is going on holiday, and the Culvers want Meg along to fill her place. I mean, you just have to laugh, really. Meg is excited, because again, being a housekeeper is her dream in life, and she loves the Culver family, so why not?

Ralph does the same things in the Netherlands that he does in England: teaching, rounds, and dates with beautiful women. He does go out of his way to spend time with Meg, including the scene featured on the cover where they spend an afternoon taking in the sights around Amsterdam. Meg's love just continues to grow, and she continues to suffer in silence. Even the intriguing looks Ralph gives her are only stings, nothing to really hang her dreams on.

They return to England and life carries on. One weekend at Ralph's country home, Meg rushes up to his house to fetch him because a young couple have broken down at her garden gate; the woman is in labor and the man is trying to get her to hospital. Ralph, despite not having delivered a baby since he was a resident, of course handles everything with aplomb, and sends the young couple on to hospital in the aftermath, checking up on them, etc. Meg learns that the man is an out of work farm laborer, and then - to her surprise - that Ralph has offered him the position of gardener at his estate, which means the couple with the baby will be moving into her beloved little cottage! Meg is devastated at losing this place, and decides that she needs to move on with her life. She's just another one of Ralph's success stories; he finds people in need and sets them onto a better path in life; this accounts for basically everyone who works for him, in the country and in the city.

Meg starts looking for a new job in London and a new place to live. Ralph runs hot and cold around her; seeking out her company one moment (and even kissing her, though he confesses he doesn't know why) and ignoring her the next. She calls around to find him one night because of an urgent call from the hospital and finds him at the blonde's apartment, and that's just about the final straw.

One day she goes down to the offices and everyone is acting extremely polite and professional, without the warmth she's become accustomed to. She's called into Ralph's office, knowing that he's going to sack her, which he does. She's incredibly upset until he basically says, "You know why I hired another receptionist? Because I want you as my wife!"

I had to laugh, honestly. It's like everyone in the world knew what was going on, except Meg. How was she the last one to know he was in love with her and wanted to marry her? It's a mystery to me. The story is told nearly 100% from Meg's POV (with just a few scenes from Ralph's POV), and since she is pretty clueless, so are we, the readers. Ralph claims that he fell in love with her right from the start, basically because she was not like other girls he knew. We don't really see this on the page, so it was a bit of hard sell for me. I mean, yay that Meg got her happy ending, but also a little WTF??

I enjoyed this for the most part (and the shout-out to my city, Leiden, during the trip to Holland!), just was amused by that ending. Ms Neels writes a compelling story, and this was a quick read. I look forward to the next!

⭐⭐⭐

Finally, FINALLY, the bookshelves have been built and the books have been unpacked.

Here is the wall of Mount TBR.



These are not all vintage romances (this is also my Harlequin collection), but they are all part of Mount TBR. Per LibraryThing, it currently stands at *gulp* 1,224 books. So let's get reading again!

Dangerous Business

A proper young lady did not go into trade. But what was Susannah Garland to do, when she had only her dressmaking skill to keep her from the streets?

A proper young lady also did not enter into partnership with a notorious seducer like Sir Jeffrey Stratton. But what was Susannah to do, when she desperately needed his aid to open her establishment?

And, above all, a proper young lady did not listen to the wooing of another lady's husband. But what was Susannah to do, when Miles Devereux, the young lord she long had adored, asked her to help him forget his mockery of a marriage?

Susannah has to learn the price of making a profit in business - and the high cost of falling in love...

Original Publisher: Signet
Original Year of Publication: 1982
Page Count: 275

There has been an unintended hiatus to this blog, due to a long-overdue move and a lack of decent shelving to house my home library, which mostly consists of paperback novels. My vintage romance collection has been boxed up for the last 3 months, and unfortunately will continue to be for a little while longer. There is a glimmer of hope on the horizon, as bookcases are scheduled to arrive next week, albeit in pieces. But I am hopeful that I can pick up again (with regularity) by August!

The only previous experience I've had with this author is that she is not afraid to stir in some crazysauce, so I was a bit wary as I cracked this novel (newly arrived from my PBS wishlist). But, there are no wacky hijinks or forced comedic interludes here: this is straight-up trad Regency drama, which is exactly what I was looking for.

Susannah Garland is, quite literally, a poor relation. Her mother, a member of the aristocratic Devereux family, eloped with a mere schoolmaster and was basically banished from her family after that. Both of Susannah's parents died, and against her own better judgment even at 15, she accedes to her mother's wish that she return to the family fold, now headed by her mother's brother, Lord Devereux. She is not welcomed to Sanderby, the family house; everyone treats her like a stain to be covered and forgotten, except for her cousin Miles. Susannah is so overwhelmed with relief at finding a kind soul that she fancies herself in love with him, and he returns her feelings very fervently. However, Lord Devereux is a harsh taskmaster, even to his own flesh and blood. He demands that Miles make a politically advantageous match with the daughter of the family next door, or else face being thrown into debtor's prison due to his outrageous gambling losses.

Neither Miles nor Agnes, his prospective bride, want the match, but Lord Devereux is determined to have the Winston family money to refill the coffers. Miles is quite spineless and cowardly, even from the very start of the book. He pleads with Susannah to basically stay with him as his mistress after the marriage, which he will go through with because he doesn't want to go to prison. Susannah refuses, multiple times, and ultimately comes to fear for her life when she overhears a very harsh conversation between father and son. Lord Devereux threatens to banish Susannah to his Irish estates in order to keep her away from Miles; Susannah sees the writing on the wall, knowing her uncle would just as likely have her killed as anything else. She decides to run away that very night, taking her precious few possessions with her.

Luckily for her, Sir Jeffrey Stratton happens along to Sanderby at that moment, an accident befalling his vehicle. Stratton is a mortal enemy of the Devereux family, both politically and personally, but Devereux is forced to oblige Stratton a conveyance. Stratton sends his own carriage back to London (a mere 5 miles away) and Susannah slips inside it as its leaving the grounds.

She rides into London, intent on finding her father's sister in Covent Garden. She has no idea of Covent Garden's reputation, and finds herself well and truly stuck when she learns that her aunt died two years previously. Her uncle is already on the warpath, trying to find her, so she ducks into a nearby boarding house and considers her options. Miles is obviously too cowardly to defy his father, and thus won't rescue her; she has no other living family; her uncle is out for her blood. What choice does she have to to try to find respectable work?

Susannah's mother was an extremely talented seamstress, and she taught Susannah to be equally good with the needle. She's already made a few dresses for herself, and in fact uses one of these to finagle an interview at the most exclusive dressmaker's in Town, Madame Hilary. Madame acknowledges her talent, but cannot forgive her for the audacity of arriving via the front door (instead of the side). She rather reluctantly hires Susannah on for her workroom, but offers no support when her forewoman and her footman bully her relentlessly.

Susannah is quite strong, and withstands the constant torment. The other girls in the workroom are just as miserable, but nobody wants to rock the boat. Susannah is paired with another girl, Annie Jones, on her first day, and the two quickly become friends. Susannah is quite disappointed by Madame Hilary's outmoded fashions, and knows that she could do better. Annie challenges her to sketch some designs, which soon consumes all of Susannah's free time. Meanwhile, Madame picks her to run errands around Town for the shop, thanks to her refined accent and manners. Susannah knows that she is merely being used, but she doesn't care: she's starting to nurture a dream of opening her own fashion house, one to rival even Madame Hilary's. She knows exactly which clients she'd lure away, too: the ones Madame feels are beneath her notice, and for whom she gives ugly, unflattering clothes. Madame is too busy sucking up to the elites of the ton, and the royal family, to care about those considered "lesser than."

A chance encounter with Princess Amelia exposes Susannah's flair for design, and when Madame Hilary learns of Susannah's background, she blackmails her into handing over her design sketches, which of course Madame Hilary steals credit for. Suddenly she's producing new, exciting fashions and attracting even more attention than ever before. Agnes Winston even decides to have her wedding gown made by Madame's establishment, and Madame is gleeful, forcing Susannah to design the dress because she believes it will hurt her to have to stitch the very gown for the woman "stealing" Miles away from her.

Miles has discovered Susannah's whereabouts, and persuades her to meet him secretly at night. His constant whining about his untenable position, coupled with her months of working in the real world, open Susannah's eyes and makes her realize that her childish infatuation is just that. She doesn't love Miles anymore, at least not romantically, but she does pity him and his situation. She refuses (again) to be his mistress, but Miles is unrepentant. He proclaims his love for her over and over again but does exactly nothing to change his situation. He is a spineless creep and we're barely a third of the way into the book.

Susannah and the other seamstresses are given the chance to go to the church and see their work for the wedding party; against her better judgment (for she has now met Agnes and knows what a bitch she is), she decides to attend, and joins the crowd gathered outside the church to watch the wedding party arrive. She's so intent on looking at the gowns she helped make that she doesn't realize when Miles spots her in the crowd until his uncle suddenly arrives at her side and grabs her arm, threatening her to hell and back because he believes she's there to cause a scene.

She's rescued by Sir Jeffrey, who is also amongst the crowd and is curious as to why Lord Devereux is so furious with a very pretty girl. Jeffrey extracts her from the situation and they leave as the wedding party goes into the church. Susannah confesses who she is and why her uncle hates her so much, and Jeffrey is intrigued. He hates Lord Devereux and Miles just as much, and sees an opportunity to use Susannah to advance his own, quiet revenge on them. It seems Devereux's father cheated Sir Jeffrey's father out of a large amount of money, hence his grudge against them. He tells Susannah all of this, so when he offers to finance her dream of opening her own establishment, she walks into the partnership quite knowingly. Jeffrey also warns her that people will believe that she is his mistress, but being so close to her ultimate dream makes it worth the risk. Susannah agrees, and sets out to find a suitable property to open her shop.

Miles arrives not long into this process, telling Susannah that his father has died and he's now Lord Devereux. He means to set aside his marriage to the harridan Agnes and take Susannah in her stead, but Susannah refuses. She doesn't love him anymore, and besides, she's thisclose to her dream. Miles is quite ugly to her, implying that he believes she is Jeffrey's mistress, and warns her that he'll be back.

Susannah opens her shop, even when the grand showroom is destroyed on the eve of the grand opening, and suppliers around Town refuse to do business with her under threat of losing Madame Hilary's trade. Her first client is Jeffrey's (ex-) Mistress, Lady Cowper, who is sufficiently impressed with Susannah's determination in the face of disaster that she orders a gown from her and spreads the word of her shop, just as Susannah had hoped. She'd made a supreme personal sacrifice to her own pride in asking Jeffrey to ask his mistress to help; this is when she learns that they are no longer together, and though Jeffrey is invested in the financial success of Susannah's shop, he's not quite so personally invested in bringing her clients.

Susannah's shop flourishes; she hires her friend, Annie Jones, as her forewoman, and puts together a warm and inviting workroom. She attracts those who were not treated well by Madame Hilary, and soon it becomes obvious who the true designer was from the previous season. Susannah's start is on the rise, but her personal life is in shambles. She learns that Jeffrey has won the deed to Sanderby from Miles in a card game, and that Miles has deteriorated even more into his vices. Jeffrey is planning to close up Sanderby instead of letting Miles and Agnes live there. Miles continues to come round to Susannah, pleading for her to love him even though he is married and expecting a child. Susannah has fallen in love with Jeffrey, who holds her at arm's length and seems to still be in mourning for his late wife.

The years roll on; as Susannah's shop becomes the most exclusive ladies dressmaker in Town, more people are gunning for her. Miles manages to force her into a compromising situation, which leads Jeffrey to believe she's taken Miles as a covert lover; he's even more icy and cool than ever, and says some pretty awful things to her. Still, he doesn't abandon her, especially as Miles becomes more and more obsessed with her. Agnes has left him and openly taken up with a lover, so he feels entitled to do the same. Susannah still cares for Miles, but realizes the danger she's in with him. A chance for the royal warrant comes her way, and she only has to keep her reputation intact and it's hers; that's when Miles makes his final move: he demands Susannah marry him, or he will destroy her reputation as a dressmaker, leaving her with as much as she had at the beginning of the book: nothing.

The final chapter is a breathtaking climax of a scene, where everything finally comes out into the open, and Susannah is forced to make her choice. Jeffrey holds the key, in Sanderby, but no one is sure that Miles will accept anything less than the woman he's become so obsessed with.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved Susannah: she is a strong, determined, clear-minded character who knows how to get what she wants without straying into absurdity. She is quite brave in the face of a lot of nastiness and just keeps going for her goal, though what she wants more than anything is for Jeffrey to love her. Jeffrey is a suitable, if obstinate hero; Miles is a suitably disgusting jerk and it was really nice that Susannah discovers this fairly early in the book. She can't quite bring herself to hate him, not even in the end when he's threatening her livelihood and her happiness, which is more than I can say for myself, LOL.

Real historical figures are scattered throughout, and the fierce political backdrop of the early wars with Napoleon figure into the story, though not enough to distract from the romance. William Pitt, Lady Jersey, Emily Cowper, and the Prince Regent are a few figures to make cameo appearances (I thought it interesting that Ms Heath makes her hero one of the Lady Cowper's many lovers, that was pretty bold!).

I really loved this, and it makes me wish all the more that my vintage romances were readily available, as I have several of this author's backlist. Definitely recommend!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Memories...

Tye Hatcher returned to Aspen Grove to find that life in the sleepy Western town hadn't changed much. The townspeople stubbornly refused to see the man he had become. That is, everybody but Meg Telford. Meg definitely took notice of the reticent rancher and gave him a change in life when no one else would. Still, Meg clung to the memories of her late husband, afraid of the feelings Tye aroused in her heart. And though Tye vowed to prove his worth to the town, could he ever prove to Meg that he was worthy of her love?

Original Publisher: Harlequin
Original Year of Publication: 1999
Page Count: 299

The January 2024 #TBRChallenge is "Once More with Feeling." I chose to interpret this as a second chance romance prompt, and dug into my Harlequin Historicals for a tried-and-true favorite author. I tend to hoard their backlists for when I especially need a strong read, and what better way to start this year's reading challenge than with a Cheryl St John title?

As the blurb implies, our leads have baggage galore. Tye Hatcher has returned to Aspen Grove, Colorado, after the Civil War. He's not sure why he returned to the town, given the fact that he's been ostracized practically since birth. His mother was a saloon girl and his father didn't even acknowledge his existence. He's always been on the outside looking in, and I guess he figured one place was as good as any to return after war. He's trying to save up some money to buy some land to start a rendering plant, but thus far has had no luck seeking gainful employment. The only place that will have him is the local saloon, where he plays the piano in the evenings.

Meg Telford is a beautiful young woman who was a town favorite even before marrying into the prosperous Telford family. Her husband, Joe, did not return alive from the war, and she's been in mourning ever since. She's at a crossroads: she and Joe bought a plot of land and a bunch of cattle before the war, trying to make it on their own as ranchers. Joe barely had time to build a house before being called for the war effort, and now Meg is down to her last dimes trying to keep hold of her land. Her husband's family is pressuring her to sell and move in with her mother-in-law, Edwina. Edwina has made mourning a Way of Life: first she donned the black for her own husband, and then for her beloved son, Joe. She wants Meg to move in with her and basically serve as a companion, but Meg wants desperately to hold onto Joe's dream of the ranch.

To that end, she comes to a conclusion: she needs a man to work the land and coax a profit. She can't afford to pay him, so she decides to offer a marriage of convenience instead. The only eligible man in town is Tye Hatcher, whom Meg knew as a child. Meg is perhaps the only respectable person in town willing to give Tye a chance, aside from the Reverend. She thinks long and hard and decides to offer marriage - and her property - to him. It will save her from having to sell the rest of her furniture to pay the mortgage and will get Edwina & co off her back about selling.

Meanwhile, Tye has been approached by an old friend, Lottie, who is dying and wants him to take guardianship of her young daughter, Eve. Lottie plays on Tye's emotions to achieve this end, knowing how strongly he feels about being a fatherless child, and wanting to shield an innocent from such a fate. He agrees to take Eve, even though he can barely support himself, much less a child.

Meg's proposal comes just in time. Tye is shocked, and warns her that if he marries her, she will also be ostracized by the town. Meg is desperate enough to not care. They agree to marry, and Tye will move onto Meg's ranch. With her land and her stock, the rendering plant will be even more successful, even sooner - if they can make it through the season and keep the cattle alive long enough to be sold.

Meg doesn't quite believe Tye about the town turning their backs on her, but she gets a taste of it firsthand at their wedding, when nobody attends except her farm hands (her sister-in-law sneaks in, too, behind her husband's back, but only for a very short period). Meg is shocked, but swallows her pride and moves forward. She's struck her bargain and she's going to stick with it.

The dead husband, Joe, is a huge wedge between them. Meg loved him dearly and is not quite ready to let his memory go. Tye is jealous of this, and because Joe kept providing for her even beyond the grave: he sent home a pair of exquisite horses that Tye decides to stud out, covering some of their immediate monetary needs. Joe also built Meg a house and started the ranch, and Tye wonders how he could ever take his "rightful" place on the ranch that's now his.

Lottie dies soon after Tye and Meg wed, and Tye is forced to tell Meg about Eve. Meg balks at taking in a whore's illegitimate daughter, but Tye insists and brings Eve to the ranch. Meg softens towards the child, but becomes jealous of the bond that Tye and Eve forge. She fights with herself about her feelings, her memories, and her own pride, especially when she sees how shabbily the rest of the townspeople treat Eve.

There's a LOT of baggage to go around, and a lot of things that could've been solved if Tye and Meg had bothered talking to each other instead of making assumptions. Once they do being talking, tensions ease, at least between them. They decide to adopt Eve, legitimizing her and taking away the stigma that Tye labored under as a kid. They have a successful breeding season with the cattle and the horses. Tye even manages to buy back the ring that Meg had to sell at the beginning of their marriage to cover a mortgage payment, even though he does it in secret by returning to town to play nights in the saloon, leaving Meg to think the worst.

There's a lot to sink your teeth into, and a lot to mull over. Tye and Meg both deal with feelings of insecurity, jealousy, pride, shame, and humiliation. The author pulls no punches at how awfully the town (and Meg's family, led by Edwina) treat them all, even little Eve. There is an excellent moment of catharsis when Meg confronts her former mother-in-law about the terrible things she's saying about Meg and how Joe WOULD NEVER if he was still alive.

For all the awesome, there is some "meh" as well. Meg's absolute lack of knowledge of the marriage bed was unbelievable, considering she was happily married. She didn't know sex was supposed to be fun?! WTF?? Their own pleasure was basically the only thing women in 1865 had to call their own and no one else's, but Meg spends most of the book feeling ashamed for how lusty she feels over Tye, her own husband. (Yeah, okay.) She also apparently didn't know anything about the signs and symptoms of pregnancy. I just can't buy that a woman who is otherwise intelligent has absolutely no knowledge of her own body.

It is also disappointing that Tye has to make a Grand Gesture at the end to be accepted by the town, much less Edwina and the rest of the Telfords. Grand Gestures are some of my least favorite plot devices, and I kinda wanted them to keep forging their own way and to hell with those who were prejudiced against them. But, that's me. Obviously Tye proves his worth to the town, and to his wife, and they all live happily ever after.

It's another strong showing by Ms St John, and another great, meaty Western historical that hits all the feels. It was a great book to start this challenge with, and gives me hope for the rest of the prompts!

⭐⭐⭐1/2