Listened to the audio narrated by Rosalyn Landor.
This is the first novel in a
regency romance series focused on the Hathaway family. This series is somewhat loosely paired with
Kleypas’ popular Wallflowers series (i.e. characters and couples from that
series make limited appearances in these novels) and in fact the male
protagonist of this story, Cam Rohan, was introduced in “Devil In Winter”.
In this initial book the Hathaways
are introduced as a close but rather luckless family who are in upheaval. The parents have died, leaving 4 daughters, a
son and a gypsy foster son/family factotum to fend for themselves. Shortly after the parent’s death, their
family and community was struck with scarlet fever which killed the son Leo’s
fiancé and he has since become unglued.
In addition, through a remote relative, Leo has inherited a Viscountcy
which has given him further license to rabble rouse and live a life of
dissipation as he tries to drown his grief.
This is where the book starts; Leo has been missing for a few days and
the eldest female sibling, Amelia is out with Merripen, the gypsy foster
brother searching for Leo. The search
takes them to the gambling establishment where Cam Rohan works and thus our
romance begins.
Amelia is what we would call in
modern times “a control freak”. As the
oldest sister, she feels a great responsibility to manage and take care of
her family. At 26 she has embraced her spinsterhood because she is afraid that
a husband would take away her independence and ability to manage things as she
sees fit. She’s uptight, proper,
headstrong, and wants at all times to be in control of the situation, of
herself, and of her family. She refuses
to admit that she needs help handling anything and will not indulge herself or
allow herself a moment of weakness. Amelia is definitely not the most likeable of
the Hathaway family but I for one very much identified with her which kept me
tolerant when she was acting particularly obnoxious.
Cam Rohan is half Gypsy/half
Irish and has worked at Jenner’s, a very upscale gambling club in London, since
he was a boy. He was dropped off there
by his tribe as a boy and told that he was in danger; that they would come back
for him when the danger is passed, but he hasn’t seen his tribe since. Despite his many years in “gadjo” (the gypsy
word for white folk) society he still embraces many of his Romany beliefs and
traditions. He’s highly intelligent, and
capable, laid-back and calm. He takes
the world as it comes and trusts himself to handle anything that can be thrown
at him. His years at the gambling club
have made him exceptionally worldly and an excellent fighter. Amelia isn’t the sort of Lady he’d normally
be attracted to but as these things often go in romance novel land, there is
just something about her that gets under his skin.
As mentioned, the initial part of
the book takes place in London but the action quickly moves to the rural Hampshire estate
the family inherited along with the title of Lord Ramsey. The estate has not been occupied for many years,
and the house and lands are barely habitable.
In a romance novel twist of fate Cam happens to be visiting with the
next door neighbors and after encountering Amelia a couple of times, decides
they must be together and sets about wooing her in the Romany way…i.e. there is a
lot of sex and compromising of her virtue and making himself indispensable
with all the crazy shit going down with the Hathaway family. To wit, the crazy
shot going down with the Hathaway family:
1)Winnifred, sister #2 is an invalid after barely living through the
scarlet fever and she 2)is yearned for (and possibly yearns back) by their
Romany foster brother Merripen who 3) is burned badly and almost dies after
4)Leo, who in a gothic turn of events is being haunted by his dead fiancé,
almost burns the entire house down in a drunken, supernatural stupor/rage. Oh and Kleptomania makes an appearance. I.E. it’s enough to make any control freak,
lose their ever-living mind.
As may be apparent, this book has
a lot going on and it’s pretty overwrought.
I think Kleypas, in part, tries to embrace the gothic novels of the time
and it was interesting but not sure how well it worked. Thankfully, Kleypas has a really great sense
of humor and can really create romantic tension without taking
itself too seriously so It didn’t feel like it got too overwrought. Cam is likeable but having read on in the series, I didn’t like him
as much in this book as I do in the later books in the
series – apparently he fits better as a secondary character and in later books
you can really appreciate what a great addition to the Hathaway clan he is and
what a well-suited couple he and Amelia are.
I liked the book and burned
through it pretty quickly. As I
mentioned I can identify with Amelia in many respects so I enjoyed her as a
heroine even despite some of the silly choices she makes. This is a good start
to a new series and I think I may have enjoyed it more than some of the
Wallflowers books. I have continued
along into the rest of the series because my favorite of the Hathaways is
Beatrix, the youngest sister, whose book is number five.
A final comment on the
narrator. Rosalyn Landor is the narrator
who I recently indicated I did not like when I listened to her reading of Mary
Balogh’s Simply Love. She is obviously a
favorite for reading regency era romances but I am personally not crazy about her,
particularly for how she reads the men.
However, I tolerated her much better with this book, I think because I
liked the book better and it didn’t have the florid language the Mary Balogh
book had. Anyway, she is not my favorite
narrator but tolerable for this book.
