A Lady Never Tells [Mass Market Paperback]

[1824, London and the Lake District]
This is my third Candace Camp book in recent memory and I am coming to realize that she will probably never be one of my favorite historical romance authors. To sum up my complaints of this book: it basically lacked spark. The main characters were inaccessible (hero), or even worse, annoying (heroine); the chemistry between them was nonexistent; the mystery subplot was contrived, hard to believe, and not well done. The lighter moments between the three brothers brought some humor and the supporting character of Lady Vivian was very interesting, but neither of these aspects could by any means save A LADY NEVER TELLS.

WILLOWMERE SISTER SERIES:
Other people have summarized the book's plot, so I won't repeat it. This is the first book in the Willowmere series and will be followed next month by A Gentleman Always Remembers, starring Fitzhugh, the Earl and Royce's half-brother, as the hero.

CAMP'S WRITING STYLE:
I read The Marriage Wager (3 stars) and The Bridal Quest (4 stars) last year, Books 1 and 2 of her Matchmaker Series, and though I enjoyed the latter, I could not get beyond one aspect of her writing style: she always writes almost solely from the heroine's POV. Before reading THE MARRIAGE WAGER, I'd never read a book by an author who does that and it drove me absolutely nuts! It leaves the hero a complete enigma and definitely stops you from being able to fully understand or appreciate either him or the developing romantic relationship.

Another thing that drove me crazy in this book is that you never know anyone's ages - it's more annoying than it sounds. We find out on page 176 that Mary is 25 years old (at least, that's what I'm assuming from what she says there), and we know the evil Lady Sabrina is in her early 30s; other than that, nothing! I thought that Lily was in her pre-teens or early teens (more on that later), but in one section of the book she says that she was 14 "ages ago."

THE SISTERS:
I was not extremely fond of the Bascombe sisters - Mary, Rose, Camellia, and Lily. I found Mary to be too hot-headed, rash, emotional, and stubborn, and all of them could be extremely immature (them constantly being referred to as "the girls" probably didn't help). Throughout the first part of the book I enjoyed Lily and Camellia's antics, thinking that they were both in their pre-teens or early teens. When I found out they were much older, however, their actions quickly took on a new light; their shenanigans and over-the-top reactions border on the ridiculous sometimes (the encounter from which they acquire their dog, Pirate, comes to mind).

THE ROMANCE:
As previously said, writing almost solely from the heroine's POV leaves the hero inaccessible to the reader, so Royce remained a mystery to me for much of the book. I also felt his relationship with and feelings towards Oliver were not fully explored - as they could have been if we knew his thoughts!!

I'm always wary of romance books that feature an instant attraction, and so was disappointed when that seemed to be the direction the book was heading in with the first interaction between Mary and Royce. Not only that, but throughout the book I just did not feel any chemistry between these two characters, as I think another reviewer mentioned. We are told about their attraction, but we aren't shown it.

When Royce kisses Mary for the first time on page 20 and they are both full of wonder and amazement, I knew that this was just not going to be my cup of tea. They don't even know each other and have just met for the first time an hour ago, yet she's already all aquiver (I'm telling you, if I have to read one more time about Royce's "broad shoulders and muscular thighs" I'm going to shoot someone). Mary experienced so much quivering, trembling and tingling that I worried for her health and Royce's eyes darken and burn so often that I wanted to tell him to go see an optometrist.

FINAL CRITICISMS:
As I mentioned at the beginning, the mystery subplot left much to be desired. The added story of Royce's history with Lady Sabrina ended up just annoying me, because why would Mary so completely believe whatever this woman tells her? Also, when Royce explains that it all happened 12 years ago, Mary is still hung-up on it (12 years is a LONG time). Then, that she reads the old private correspondence between the two was completely despicable - and something she sadly never has to answer for. Finally, although historical romances are not known for their stellar titles, they're usually at least relevant; here I'm not even sure what the book's title refers to.
[This review is of an advanced copy format of the book]

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Here are a list of enjoyable books whose heroine is the oldest sister of orphaned siblings:
- The Perfect Rake by Anne Gracie (Merridew Series, Book 1), 5 stars
- Scandalous by Karen Robards (Banning Sisters Trilogy, Book 1), 5 stars
- A Notorious Love by Sabrina Jeffries (Swanlea Spinsters, Book 2), 4 stars
- At Last Comes Love by Mary Balogh (Huxtable Quintet, Book 3), 4 stars
- Mine Till Midnight by Lisa Kleypas (The Hathaways, Book 1), 4 stars

I'm beginning to suspect that romance novelists have a finite number of good books in them and once they've reached that certain number, they offer us readers books like this one or like the latest Kat Martin Brides trilogy or like Mary Jo Putney's Lost Lords series. These books have nothing new in them, and, worse, the authors make no attempt to present the re-hashed plots in entertaining or unusual ways. In this book we have 4 orphaned, impoverished sisters coming from America to England to find their grandfather, the Earl of Stewkesbury, who had disowned their mother years ago. He is deceased and the new Earl, their cousin, takes them on as his responsibility. The girls, ranging in age from mid 20s to teen-aged, are unsophisticated, badly dressed and in need of training in the ways of society. We are introduced, along the way, to many characters, some of whom will obviously have their romances in books to follow. In this one we manage to marry off Mary, the eldest, and Rose, who had left her heart in the U.S.A. There is a heavy-handed mystery, with attempted abductions of Rose, that only manage to exasperate, because of the silly, illogical way the girls react to everything. They expose themselves to danger stupidly, and think they are safe because they are knife- and pistol-packin' mamas. And as for the romances, oh, yuck. Mary and "dashing" Sir Royce Winslow are so attracted to each other they can't get within a foot of each other before they start kissing passionately. And then what does good ol' Royce do each time but blow hot and cold, abruptly and brusquely pulling away, saying things like, "I beg your pardon. My behavior was inexcusable" or, my personal favorite, "Bloody hell! Get dressed." Then the next time they are alone together he's grabbing and groping again. Until they finally do the deed, after which he says to our poor deflowered Mary, "Bloody hell. What have I done?" At about that time I was wishing Mary would use either the pistol or knife on him. Finally, by the end of the book, Royce manages to say something halfway romantic to Mary and she agrees to marry him. So the romance fell flat for me, the mystery was uninspired and the characters pretty run-of-the-mill. If, in a future book, there is a romance between Oliver, the new Earl, and Lady Vivian, that might be interesting because they were the only characters in this book that appealed to me.

I really wanted to like this book, but I finally gave up and put it down. It lacked realism. The romance wasn't believable and the girls just annoyed me. I agree with the other reviewer who said that their antics seemed appropriate for 15 year olds, but when you realize they are much older, they are just immature. I tried to tell myself that the story was set in a different time than what I'm living in, but I still can't imagine this was acceptable behavior for women in their late 20's. If anything, I would have expected them to be more prim and proper. So, I finally put the book down when I realized I really didn't care how it ended. There are way too many great books out there for me to waste my time on something I'm not enjoying. But, with that said, historical romance is not typically my favorite genre. I have read a few, but most of those were by authors known for their paranormal romance books (i.e. Kresley Cole) so I'm left wondering if the style of what I considered historical romance may be skewed from what is common in these types of books. Therefore, I gave it three stars since my issues with the book may not be 100% with the book itself but instead with the genre.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 28 reviews  3.3 out of 5 stars