A Purchase Review by Nigella.
If you're a lover of Regency novels, as I am, you'll know how easy it is when browsing Amazon to find yourself lured to books read by other readers. That is precisely what happened with books by this particular author. It's one of a series so I bought two by the same author. How sad it is when the books one has high hopes for are so badly written. I tried really hard to salvage something worthwhile from this novel. However, it left me cold. It was incredibly dull. The narrative laboured along without a shred of vibrancy to the prose and the characters were lack lustre. Was this meant to be a Regency? If so, it failed to reflect Jane Austen's Regency era. To me it read as a Bostonian novel, Boston USA and not one ounce of Englishness was evident. As it is the character names escape me. Which in itself bodes ill for any book. With book two browsed it is fair to say it holds no appeal whatsoever to this ardent fan of Regency romances. For me vibrant characters and beautiful prose are vital for any Regency novel.
It was stated in the book's details 'Cheryl Bolen returns to the Regency England she knows so well. . .If you love a
steamy Regency with a fast pace, be sure to pick up The Bride Wore Blue. –
Happily Ever After'.
Sadly the author's Regency England is wide of Georgette Heyer's Regency England, or that of Regency Bath. Regency street plans are all well and good for authors and do help in getting a feel for English cities. When real time Regency places of note escape the author entirely with exception the more famous venues, knowledgeable readers gasp in dismay. Which leads me to say Cheryl Bolan has missed out gems of places which would have convinced me she knows Regency England as well as her imagination does. A lonely widow and two admirers gave great potential for a riveting story. Instead the narrative trudged along and repetitive descriptions drove me to distraction. Steamy? Where? Had I bought a paperback version of the novel I am sure it would have met with a wall. My Kindle is too precious to toss around the room.
Amazon
