My Darling Caroline (Paperback)

Unfortunately, before I'd managed to get out of the first chapter, quite a few of my 'uh-oh' buttons had been pushed, and by page 65--chapter six--they were worn out from so much pounding, and I closed the book.

If you want to read about very modern-day characters, using modern-day language, but grafted onto a supposedly historical novel set in 1815, then you might be able to like this book. "Please respect that decision" is not quite what I would imagine a new wife of that era telling her husband, after she's calmly informed him that she has no intention of carrying a child. Any child. Regardless of her supposed intelligence, I found Caroline to be a very one-sided character, and Brent no better. Their 1999 sensbilities grated immensely, and even by page 65 I was confused about time-lines, etc. Too many books, too little time.

Caroline Grayson is not simply intelligent, she is brillant and wonderfully talented with plants. Ever since she discovered her affinity for flowers, she has wanted to study botany with her idol who is a professor at Oxford University. However, when she is cruely dismissed because she is female, she disguises her gender and applies, and is accepted, to study in New York.

However, things don't go as planned when her father announces that she must marry Brent Ravenscroft, an impoverished lord who has come to her father to demand the return of property which was improperly sold to him when Brent went off to war. Caroline's father tells Brent that he must marry Caroline in order to get back what was sold, throwing both of them into a relationship that neither desired. Caroline believes, since Brent doesn't want to marry her anyway, that she can simply get an annulment and fulfill her dream by going to New York. Of course, things don't work out quite that way...

What follows is a truly touching story about what it means to love and be loved. The pain, excitement, and healing that often goes with falling in love with a person who truly is meant for you.

The most amazing thing about this book, and other Ashworth titles like Winter Garden, are the characters. The reader has the joy of watching two people who had planned different futures for themselves, ultimately find happiness and love. Both have emotional scars, Caroline from growing up brillant, but limited by her gender, and Brent from dealing with his family. I was touched when Ashworth described the pain Caroline felt when she had to stand outside classrooms in order to learn more about the science she so loved, enduring comments about her feminity. So often authors tell us that a heroine is intelligent, but so few show it as well as Ashworth. Thank you Adele Ashworth for giving us romance readers such a wonderful and moving story. For those of you who find yourself without something to read, and have not all ready devoured this book like I and so many other have, or for those of you who simply wonder what all the fuss is about, read this book. It's magic.

I've good news and bad news. The bad news... nothing can live up to my expectations. By now, I thought it would be a cross between Rhett's staircase kiss and a direct revelation from God. But when I finished it, I felt as if what I'd really gotten were a few Hershey's chocolate nuggets (you know, satisfyingly good but not that great) and that God was actually just some guy over the store loudspeaker.

I like my men to be gentlemen. Brent wasn't. Oh, he has a title, and you're suppose to think that underneath that tough, unloved exterior he is. I'll buy that, but that doesn't rub away my impression that he's just kind of... cold. And blunt. Expect him to be very blunt and straight-forward, expect a lot of twists, misunderstandings... that began to annoy me when Ashworth would pile one "incident" on top of the other until... I didn't really care, anymore. You can read the list of the reviewer underneath, but come on, babe, it's FICTION, and I've never came across anything in my life that was perfect. But the good news, now. Despite what I've said, it's very well-written, and the heroine far surpasses the hero in my opinion. She's smart and ambitious and kind in her own particular way. Every modern woman would understand Caroline's position, as in, encountering even today in our "enlightened" times bigotry about women's intelligence, and the issue of pursuing a career or having a family.

Take a chance, and see if this book works for you.