Books: Joan Wolf - "The Deception", "Golden Girl", "American Duchess"
Alas, Joan Wolf continues to disappoint me. After His Lordship's Mistress, I still haven't found a novel that matches that one in quality. I forgot to mention yesterday that not only did "The Gamble" rip off a series of Georgette Heyer novels, "Fool's Masquerade" rips off Josephine Tey's novel The Daughter of Time" most royally.
As someone who went out and tried to read everything regarding poor maligned Richard III after reading The Daughter of Time", it's really looks as though everything Wolf learned about Richard III she learned from the discussions between Inspector Alan Grant and Marta Hallard (stunning actress) and Grant with Brent Carradine (Marta's woolly lamb :)! It's quite unbelievable. Anyway, I read two more books - being "The Deception" and "Golden Girl".
The Deception.
Blurb: When Kate Fitzgerald's horse-trader father is killed, she's placed with her malicious uncle, who spitefully manoeuvres her into marriage with Adrian, Earl of Greystone. Waterloo hero Greystone accepts the unfortunate situation, but Kate falls deeply in love. Against the colourful racetrack background of the running of the Guineas at Newmarket, she schemes to entrap the aristocrat who murdered her father. One caveat: Kate is wonderful, though a bit dense; it takes her forever to realize Adrian cares for her.
My Thoughts: Kate is not wonderful at all. She isn't just dense, she's incredibly stupid. I lost track of the number of times she put herself into Dire Peril because of her own stupidity. It wasn't bad luck, it wasn't misfortune - she was just a very early winner of the Darwin awards. Wolf tries to make Kate likeable and unusual by having her a good judge of horseflesh, but nothing really redeems her. When Adrian suggests that she should write a book about equitation, my first thought was: "Kate knows how to read and write?" Also, clearly Wolf loves the name Adrian for some reason because this is the second or third time it's shown up as the name of her hero.
Golden Girl.
Blurb: The only way that Anthony Selbourne, the new Duke of Cheviot, can save his centuries-old estate and redeem his father's debts is by marrying "golden girl" Sarah Patterson, granddaughter of a vulgar multimillionaire. Sarah doesn't want to marry--she'd rather paint. Anthony seduces her with his extraordinary good looks and promises to encourage her artistic endeavours. But Anthony encourages more than her art, and the two are surprised by an unexpected and intense love. A foe is introduced in Max, Anthony's jealous secretary who perceives Sarah as a rival. When attempts are made on Sarah's life, the twisted finger of suspicion suddenly points to Anthony. Will love and trust conquer all?
My Thoughts: Oh gosh. I had hopes for this novel because (1) Sarah was actually very likeable and intelligent; (2) In this novel, the roles are reversed and it's the guy who's short of money and desperately needs to marry wealth in order to fix his problems. Naturally his monetary problems are not his - it was his father who landed him in the basket and he has inherited the mess. Naturally he can't just live in poverty and work his way out of the situation because of course he has a stepmother and two dependent children to support so he MUST marry money. The problem is, in this novel, it's the hero who is a bit too stupid to live. He really is very dense and his secretary is a complete and utter bunny-cooker. His secretary Max is obsessed with and madly in love with Anthony and if this was Wolf's attempt at portraying gay love, she really didn't put a very nice spin on it at ALL. Max is an absolute caricature of maniacal madness. Seriously bad ...
American Duchess.
Blurb: Tracy Bodmin was raised in America, but her father, originally from England, wished her to have an English title. She loved him enough to go along with his wishes, though she left Adam Lancaster behind in the New World. But marrying the Duke of Hastings put Tracy directly in the world on the aristocracy, where her spirit and independence could be a liability.
My Thoughts: I gave up on his once I discovered that the hero was penniless and needed to marry money - again not because of his own misdeeds but because of his father ... Once I realised that Wolf was rehashing the same plot, I rolled my eyes. The real nail in the coffin was that almost on every single page, Wolf had to describe Tracy's beauty and winsomeness in snoring detail. I know that this is normal in a romance novel, but Wolf's generally quite plain in her writing - short sentences, not too much flowery prose. It was a bit nauseating to have to read through how natural, charming, effervescent, lovely and gorgeous Tracy is and how lively and unspoiled she is compared to her English counterparts. This is when it becomes really clear that Wolf is an American and wanting to talk up how wonderful Americans are compared to their stuffy British cousins. It read a little like Susan Coolidge in her book "In The High Valley" in which Imogen Young goes on and on and ON about how bad American girls are compared to English girls :D
Why do I continue to subject myself to this torture? Wolf's books are pretty quick to read and I cannot bring myself to believe that His Lordship's Mistress was an anomaly :D
As someone who went out and tried to read everything regarding poor maligned Richard III after reading The Daughter of Time", it's really looks as though everything Wolf learned about Richard III she learned from the discussions between Inspector Alan Grant and Marta Hallard (stunning actress) and Grant with Brent Carradine (Marta's woolly lamb :)! It's quite unbelievable. Anyway, I read two more books - being "The Deception" and "Golden Girl".
The Deception.
Blurb: When Kate Fitzgerald's horse-trader father is killed, she's placed with her malicious uncle, who spitefully manoeuvres her into marriage with Adrian, Earl of Greystone. Waterloo hero Greystone accepts the unfortunate situation, but Kate falls deeply in love. Against the colourful racetrack background of the running of the Guineas at Newmarket, she schemes to entrap the aristocrat who murdered her father. One caveat: Kate is wonderful, though a bit dense; it takes her forever to realize Adrian cares for her.
My Thoughts: Kate is not wonderful at all. She isn't just dense, she's incredibly stupid. I lost track of the number of times she put herself into Dire Peril because of her own stupidity. It wasn't bad luck, it wasn't misfortune - she was just a very early winner of the Darwin awards. Wolf tries to make Kate likeable and unusual by having her a good judge of horseflesh, but nothing really redeems her. When Adrian suggests that she should write a book about equitation, my first thought was: "Kate knows how to read and write?" Also, clearly Wolf loves the name Adrian for some reason because this is the second or third time it's shown up as the name of her hero.
Golden Girl.
Blurb: The only way that Anthony Selbourne, the new Duke of Cheviot, can save his centuries-old estate and redeem his father's debts is by marrying "golden girl" Sarah Patterson, granddaughter of a vulgar multimillionaire. Sarah doesn't want to marry--she'd rather paint. Anthony seduces her with his extraordinary good looks and promises to encourage her artistic endeavours. But Anthony encourages more than her art, and the two are surprised by an unexpected and intense love. A foe is introduced in Max, Anthony's jealous secretary who perceives Sarah as a rival. When attempts are made on Sarah's life, the twisted finger of suspicion suddenly points to Anthony. Will love and trust conquer all?
My Thoughts: Oh gosh. I had hopes for this novel because (1) Sarah was actually very likeable and intelligent; (2) In this novel, the roles are reversed and it's the guy who's short of money and desperately needs to marry wealth in order to fix his problems. Naturally his monetary problems are not his - it was his father who landed him in the basket and he has inherited the mess. Naturally he can't just live in poverty and work his way out of the situation because of course he has a stepmother and two dependent children to support so he MUST marry money. The problem is, in this novel, it's the hero who is a bit too stupid to live. He really is very dense and his secretary is a complete and utter bunny-cooker. His secretary Max is obsessed with and madly in love with Anthony and if this was Wolf's attempt at portraying gay love, she really didn't put a very nice spin on it at ALL. Max is an absolute caricature of maniacal madness. Seriously bad ...
American Duchess.
Blurb: Tracy Bodmin was raised in America, but her father, originally from England, wished her to have an English title. She loved him enough to go along with his wishes, though she left Adam Lancaster behind in the New World. But marrying the Duke of Hastings put Tracy directly in the world on the aristocracy, where her spirit and independence could be a liability.
My Thoughts: I gave up on his once I discovered that the hero was penniless and needed to marry money - again not because of his own misdeeds but because of his father ... Once I realised that Wolf was rehashing the same plot, I rolled my eyes. The real nail in the coffin was that almost on every single page, Wolf had to describe Tracy's beauty and winsomeness in snoring detail. I know that this is normal in a romance novel, but Wolf's generally quite plain in her writing - short sentences, not too much flowery prose. It was a bit nauseating to have to read through how natural, charming, effervescent, lovely and gorgeous Tracy is and how lively and unspoiled she is compared to her English counterparts. This is when it becomes really clear that Wolf is an American and wanting to talk up how wonderful Americans are compared to their stuffy British cousins. It read a little like Susan Coolidge in her book "In The High Valley" in which Imogen Young goes on and on and ON about how bad American girls are compared to English girls :D
Why do I continue to subject myself to this torture? Wolf's books are pretty quick to read and I cannot bring myself to believe that His Lordship's Mistress was an anomaly :D