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Product Description
Book Description
Prudence Youlgrave is out to marry above her station and secure a happy life. Catesby Burgoyne is out to continue his noble family's good name. When fate pushes them together, they are married-but this inconvenient marriage of convenience quickly turns into something much more...
About the Author
Jo Beverley is widely regarded as one of the most talented romance writers today. She is a four-time winner of Romance Writers of America's cherished RITA Award and one of only a handful of members in the RITA Hall of Fame. She has also recieved the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award. Born in England, she now lives with her husband and two sons in Victoria, British Columbia, just a ferry ride away from Seattle, WA.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.4 out of 5 stars (34 customer reviews)
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
5 stars for the Historical, 2 for the Romance., Mar 3 2011
By Old Latin teacher - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: AN Unlikely Countess: A Novel of the Malloren World (Mass Market Paperback)
I appreciate Jo Beverley's historical accuracy and attention to even small details of life in the time periods of her books. She has done a stellar job here of illustrating social class and gender issues in Georgian England. The hero, upper-class Catesby Burgoyne, younger brother of the Earl of Malzard, has just left the army and is at sixes and sevens in his life and at odds with his family. He meets middle-class heroine Prudence Youlgrave, daughter of a deceased librarian and sister to a lawyer, when rescuing her from thugs late at night as he is passing through the town she lives in. Prudence has come down in the world after the death of her father and later mother, receiving no help from an ungrateful brother, and is forced to live in a very poor, lower-class area.Cate and Prudence end up married (part of the white-knight rescue) and Cate ends up as Earl of Malzard, after the unexpected death of his older brother. Prudence's struggle to be accepted into Cate's family is well portrayed and social hierarchies both below- and above-stairs at Cate's estate is a big part of the story. The characters illustrate the huge gaps in social equality, Cate's family feeling superior to Prudence and even Prudence at first shows some feelings of superiority to her lower-class, uneducated neighbors. Even within the servant class at the Malzard estate, we see how hierarchy is also in place.
In addition to the inequality issues, Beverley also supplies interesting minutia of daily life in 1700s England. Unfortunately, when reading this I felt that Beverley had set out to educate me rather than to entertain me, as though this book were her antidote to the myriad mass market superficial and anachronistic HRs we're being inundated with lately. I suppose for those readers who are getting their historical perspective only from that kind of HR, maybe this one should be required reading. It does supply more insight into how people really lived in the times.
However, this is supposed to be an historical "romance" and what it does not supply is a really good love story. The H-h relationship does develop slowly and realistically and this is good, but it lacks any heat and the warmth of the romance is almost tepid. I can live with a romance lacking hot and graphic sex scenes, but I do expect it to give me the warm fuzzies and this one failed on that account.
One more peeve I have with these more recent novels in the "Malloren world" is that they don't even come close to the original Malloren series in quality and romance. Yes, Beverley continues to write well but my interest flags in her more recent series. No new character compares to the Marquess of Rothgar or his wife Diana, the Countess of Arradale, and they are sadly underused in these books, putting in only cameo appearances.
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A boy named Cate, Mar 7 2011
By Ann Elliot "A. Reader" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: AN Unlikely Countess: A Novel of the Malloren World (Mass Market Paperback)
I'm betting there will be a wide range of stars, from 1 to 5, for this book. The story will resonate strongly with some readers and not at all with others, because the novel is more an example of the "romantic" school of writing than of a romance novel. For very practical reasons (these are the days before reliable birth control or Maury to determine paternity) the couple does not fall into bed together, swept away by passion. Instead, they work through their personal demons, build love and trust between them, and face an outside menace.I enjoy rags-to-riches stories, and this one shows a heroine, Prudence, who has fallen into great poverty--not just the down-to-only-two-servants kind often found in the romance genre. Jo Beverley gives an interesting, realistic account of the difficulties presented to the women of the time and Prudence bravely does her best with the limited options available to her.
Apparently, naming a boy Cate (short for Catesby)has much the same effect as naming a boy Sue had in the old country song. Cate grows up independent, strong, and able to fight for himself and those he loves. He appreciates Pru, who stands in stark contrast to the local women presented to him as candidates for marriage.
With two such complex and endearing main characters, the book can't help but be interesting, but those who like sizzling romance may not find it entertaining. I enjoyed watching Pru begin in the worst of circumstances and work her way through myriad problems. Jo Beverley must have felt the same satisfaction. She based the story on a historical case that turned out badly and made it come out happily through her version.
My main quibble with the book: The resolution with the villain of the story was anticlimactic and did not ring true. Cate's personality and previous actions seemed to dictate a different ending. Not a violent one, but a different one. Cate didn't seem like a Not-in-My-Backyard type who would let a villain go off to torment others.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unless you are a night owl ..., Mar 4 2011
By Arabella H. - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: AN Unlikely Countess: A Novel of the Malloren World (Mass Market Paperback)
don't start this one late at night! Luckily I began in early afternoon, because I couldn't put this one down. Jo Beverly is one of my favorites even though I prefer Regencies to Georgians. No one creates an entire world like JB, and even after dozens of novels she can still surprise. Prudence and Cate may not have much in common on the surface, but in their hearts they both yearn for the same things: home, family, comfort, love. Each struggles with conscience, desires and finding their place in the world. This book is about the internal struggles, which is why I read romances. Beverly makes those conflicts feel very real. Yes, there is a villain to test our couple, but he's less important than Prudence's anger at her brother's neglect or Cate's guilt over his brother's death. Prudence and Cate land in places they never expected to be and cope the best they can, making very human mistakes along the way. I love that they don't react the way you might expect (Prudence's laughter upon discovering that she is a countess) and that the things another writer would make into a "stupid misunderstanding" are resolved so wittily here.Great romances aren't always about wild passion, which can so easily burn out. Beverly got it absolutely right when Cate and Prudence found the warmth that had been missing from their lives in a simple hug.
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