Lady Edith's Lonely Heart
by Audrey Harrison
Lonely Hearts Series - Book 1
Publisher: Audrey Harrison
Release Date: February 23, 2020
Reviewed by PJ
She is under pressure to find a
husband she doesn't want.
He keeps to the fringes of society
because of family constraints.
Will the written word be enough to
bring two lost souls together?
Lady Edith Longdon is an heiress, in
danger of being classed a spinster, and disillusioned with the fops, dandies,
and fortune hunters surrounding her in society. Deciding it’s time to take her
future into her own hands, she devises a foolproof way of finding someone she
can love. She's convinced nothing could go wrong…
Lord Ralph Pensby, overwhelmed by a
sense of obligation, and with no one he can turn to, is adrift from those
around him…
Two people drawn together, both on a
journey which will affect them in ways they could never have foreseen.
Secret correspondence, mistrust and confusion, not to mention cads of the
highest order, make this novel a fast-paced, heart-warming story, with
appealing characters and a strong sense of time and place.
PJ's Thoughts:
I was intrigued by the premise of this book and eager to give it - and the new-to-me author - a try. I appreciated the fact that Lady Edith is a bit older (23) and knows her own mind. I understood her frustration with her place in life but there were more than a few times when I lost patience with her. Then there's the hero. I've never been a fan of a mama's boy and, even though Ralph has good reason to be concerned about his mother, the author paints a picture of their relationship that would have me running in the opposite direction...though I did like his mother. And he does come around in the end. Don't even get me started on Lady Edith's mother, though. What an awful person.
This book has a good story line, with plenty of potential, but I wanted more, especially as pertains to the characters. I needed more development, less tell and more show. I wanted to feel their emotions rather than be told what they were feeling. I needed to engage with them but I struggled to feel the connection...except within the letters the hero and heroine exchange. Within those missives, the author does a good job of exploring beneath the surface of the characters and showing the motivation for their actions but those letters comprise a very small part of the book.
If you enjoy regency romance with traditional roles, formal dialog and limited physical chemistry (a few kisses), this might be a good book for you. I was left wanting more depth, but that's just me.
~~~~~~~~~~
Audrey was born about two hundred years too
late. She wants to belong to a time when men were men and women were dressed in
gowns and could float, simper and sigh.
In the real world she has always longed to write, writing a full manuscript when she was fourteen years old. Work, marriage and children got in the way as they do and it was only when an event at work landed her in hospital that she decided to take stock. One Voluntary Redundancy later, she found that the words and characters came to the forefront and the writing began in earnest.
So, although at home more these days, the housework is still neglected and meals are still late on the table, but she has an understanding family, who usually shake their heads at her and sigh. That is a sign of understanding, isn't it?
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Thank you for your honest review of this book. I will probably opt to leave this one on the shelf. My philosophy is there are too many other really good books waiting to read...and at my age, I don't have time reading the not-so-good ones.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it will appeal to many readers but I struggled to get through it.
DeleteI like spice in my books, so I will pass on this one.
ReplyDeleteAs you said, the premise of this books is interesting. It is unfortunate that it didn't draw you in a bit more. I would give it a try. I read a wide variety of books, and every once in a while one with only a little heat is nice for a change. The library where I was the children's librarian had a program where we delivered books to shut-ins. I took over the program for a bit in addition to my other duties. At that time all that participated were elderly women. Most of them preferred christian fiction or sweet romances. This sounds like a book I would have selected to take out to them.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the review.