Grade: B-

I really enjoyed the previous book in this series and was looking forward to this one. I was intrigued by the premise of a high-born lady falling in love with the peasant man who manages her estate and was curious as to how Ms. Hoyt would have the two leads overcome the class and societal boundaries. After I finished this book, I set it down and thought, “The heroine’s Earl brother is okay with his sister marrying a commoner? Really? And everyone’s okay with the little sister knowing that her older sister sneaks in at night to the steward’s cottage? Really?” Not that I’ve ever been a stickler for historical accuracy —hell, I don’t know any better— but what attracted me to this story in the first place is the seemingly insurmountable obstacle of societal rules. She’s nobility! He’s poor! She’s got tons of cash! He’s got one really old horse! Everyone’s okay with it? Really? Luckily, George and Harry were terrific characters and really made the book for me. I could have gone without George suddenly becoming a total idiot in the last two chapters for “conflict,” but honestly, the rest of the book was good times all around. Good times, I tell you!

The Plot: George Maitland is a twenty-eight year old spinster whose eccentric aunt left her a substantial amount of dough and a large estate in Yorkshire and made a proviso in the will that the loot is to stay with George no matter what and that she will be managing her own fortune. That suits George just fine, since she’s always been pretty independent anyway especially since she had to raise her four siblings on her own when her Earl father died and their mother went loco. Now that her siblings are grown and she’s got plenty of money, George is living a pretty good life… until a sinister force starts killing off the sheep in her neighboring estate in Yorkshire. George decides to investigate the matter herself with her totally hot estate manager Hairy Pie Harry Pye (honestly?) in tow. For some reason, the townsfolk are convinced that Harry is the sheep murderer because of some beef he had eighteen years ago with George’s crazy-ass neighbor. Their evidence? Well, Harry likes to whittle little animals out of wood and the killer tends to leave one of these at the scene of the crime? WHAT?!? Oh, and everyone wants Harry to hang for it. But not if George has anything to do with it. You see, George and Harry have gotten groiny with each other and damn it, Harry is innocent! Because he’s nice and he whittles little animals out of wood and picks up little beggar boys and he kisses really well!

The Heroine: George is not a ninny. She doesn’t let Harry intimidate her and gives as good as she’s got when he gets all… man-like. She’s level-headed and practical and is the type of woman who goes after she wants. Her bantering and flirting with Harry is delicious, especially since he starts out as a stick in the mud. She’s a happy person, though not irritatingly so, and seemed like a real person I could be friends with. I wish she had more interaction with her teenage sister Violet —a truly tragic figure who seems to be floating around without a strong female influence and was a rather irritating plot device— but I thought her scenes with her personal maid Tiggle were pretty funny, if a bit anachronistic in its “go get your man, girlfriend” vibe. I really liked George, which was why I was totally dismayed when she goes 180 in the end after steadily pursuing Harry throughout the book, saying crap like “Oh, I must run away! Run away, I tell you!” *flings arm melodramatically over eyes* “For I can never imprison a man like Harry within the confines of marriage! No! I will marry only for love! Love, I tell you! And he hasn’t said the three little words I so want to hear more than anything in the world!”

The Hero: Harry has your requisite romance novel hero issues. His mother was a whore! NOOOOO!! The crazy-ass neighbor horse-whipped him and his daddy once and he lost a finger! NOOOO!! His name rhymes with Hairy Pie. Nooooo!! And he’s poor and George is rich and people will think he’s George’s pet monkey lover and that he’s after her money—and, oh, it’s too much! Harry can’t take all this! But oh, I loved Harry. He’s charming when he needs to be and when he’s seducing George… swoon, he is the hotness! Oh, Harry… *sigh*

The Subplot: Someone is killing sheep (at least he’s not raping them first). Oh noes! Who could it be? Is it the secretly blood-thirsty Harry after all these years? Is it the ridiculously evil look-at-me-I’m-evil villain who is trying to frame Harry for some imagined slight? Is it the million other people in the village whom the ridiculously evil villain has offended in the past? WHO IS IT?!?! And gasp! George’s baby sister Violet is keeping a very dark thecret (I can’t wait to read her book because of it, btw) and she thinks Harry and George are all wrong for each other and she’s going to do EVERYTHING to make sure the two of them don’t end up together. Harry is a peasant, for God’s sake. EWWW! Doesn’t anyone care?

The Secondary Characters: George has three brothers, all of whom are boring and I don’t think they’re sequel bait. The eldest is an Earl, though, so maybe he’ll get his own book. There’s also Violet, the fifteen year old sister who has a deep, dark thecret that may or may not be interesting to explore in a book of her own. We see Simon Iddesleigh again— I lurve him— and I really can’t wait to read his book. Oh, and there’s the ridiculously evil villain. He tortures animals, pits one son against the other, rapes the innocent girls in the village, and I’m pretty sure he pisses in the drinking water, too. If he’d been gay AND a child molester, I wouldn’t have batted an eyelid. *sigh* But I guess it does fit with the fairytale feel of the story. Where would Snow White be without the nasty step-mother, after all?

The Final Word: Technically, this book was better-written than the Raven Prince— the characters were stronger, the dialogue was more clever, even the fairytale motif was woven more subtly into the plot. For some reason, I found myself skimming through the pages— especially through The Big Misunderstanding that Popped Out of Nowhere —and I didn’t do that once with The Raven Prince. Harry and George had really good chemistry and the development of their courtship was believable —though I had a hard time believing that everyone could be so chill about a wealthy noblewoman [spoiler]who gets pregnant and everyone talks about it like it’s no big thing and scandal? what’s that? and her servant — but I just didn’t connect with this book like I did with the Raven Prince. It’s odd, because my fellow readers preferred this book to the previous one. Hmmm. Not to say I didn’t enjoy this book (Harry and George are great), but I guess I was just meh about the set-up. The internal conflict wasn’t as strong as it could have been— more angst maybe? —and the external one… well, the suspense part just didn’t work for me. *shrug*

Nonetheless, it’s a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours and the sex is hawt. Please buy this book here.

Peace, Love, and Snarkage,

This entry was posted on Friday, April 27th, 2007 at 10:02 am and is filed under Books, Grade: B, Romance: Historical. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.