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Lord Barry's Dream House
Following in the footsteps of her late architect father, Lady Juliana Hamilton plans to complete his greatest project, a magnificent English manor, but her hopes are thwarted by an outraged and amorous Lord Edmund Barry. Original.
224 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1996
About the author
Emily Hendrickson
58 books22 followersDoris Emily Hendrickson lives in Reno, Nevada, with her husband, a retired airline pilot. Of all the many places she has traveled around the world, England is her favorite, and the most natural choice as the setting for her novels. In addition to her Regency romances, she has written a Regency Reference Book.
She is also the recipient of the Romantic Times award for the Best Regency of 1993 for Elizabeth's Rake and the Colorado Romance Writers 1997 Award of Excellence for The Debonair Duke. She is a nominee for the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Regency Romance.
Emily also enjoys stamps and stamping, and several of her flower designs, originally created for bookmarks for her Regencies, have been made into stamps.
Many of my books were re-published in England by Robert Hale Publishing House of London. My publisher requested that I use three pseudonyms for my English hard cover books. I chose the names: Emily Hendrickson, Emily Johnson, and Emily Harland.
She is also the recipient of the Romantic Times award for the Best Regency of 1993 for Elizabeth's Rake and the Colorado Romance Writers 1997 Award of Excellence for The Debonair Duke. She is a nominee for the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Regency Romance.
Emily also enjoys stamps and stamping, and several of her flower designs, originally created for bookmarks for her Regencies, have been made into stamps.
Many of my books were re-published in England by Robert Hale Publishing House of London. My publisher requested that I use three pseudonyms for my English hard cover books. I chose the names: Emily Hendrickson, Emily Johnson, and Emily Harland.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 29, 2022
This was a nice little story.I liked the heroine Juliana who is smart,witty ,independent and responsible. Edmund the hero was also sweet. The only aspect which I didn’t like was much of the book is based on house building and all the conversations are related to architecture. There was hardly a few romantic scenes between the leads. Still nevertheless the writing was good and found this book to be charming
November 5, 2016
Went back and forth between 4 and 4.5 stars, but went with 4.5 because of the chemistry and the architectural details. Though I'm still not sure what a "Chinese dairy" looks like and Google was not helpful. Apparently Russia's biggest dairy is in China. Who knew?
I also enjoyed the side romance between Juliana's hard-of-hearing sister Kitty and Peregrine (son of her nemesis).
I also enjoyed the side romance between Juliana's hard-of-hearing sister Kitty and Peregrine (son of her nemesis).
September 23, 2017
Sweet Read
I enjoyed this book very much. The only thing missing for me was an epilogue. Otherwise very enjoyable clean read.
I enjoyed this book very much. The only thing missing for me was an epilogue. Otherwise very enjoyable clean read.
June 3, 2020
Much better than I had feared; man has grain of sense
July 23, 2026
The basic story is fine but the details about construction and architecture got tedious!
June 25, 2010
Lady Juliana Hamilton had but one wish: to finish her late father’s masterpiece of architectural design. She felt certain she could add some modern improvements of her own to the house and the patron wouldn’t mind at all. Unfortunately, she didn’t reckon on the patron being thoroughly enamored of having as traditional a new house as he could manage. Lord Edmund Barry, her patron, wasn’t certain what to be more dismayed about—the ‘water closets’ she wished to have installed, or the fact that his contractor was a woman with such radical ideas and stubborn ways!
LORD BARRY’S DREAM HOUSE is such an amusing Regency romance! The interaction between Juliana and Edmund is never very predictable; at times, they either wish to find out the truth of the matter or aggravate the other just to see how far they can push them. Edmund’s attempts at treating Juliana like an architect and not a lady is met with varying degrees of success. Juliana’s attempts to ignore just how handsome he is and how charming he can be, are even less successful. By about half way through the book, you will be pulling your hair out every time Edmund thinks to himself that Juliana is not what he wants in an ideal wife at all, and it was a damned shame at that.
The secondary characters are also of varying degrees of interest. I felt her mother, the dowager countess Lady Hamilton, and her middle sister, Barbara, were perhaps the most annoying of all the characters. Barbara was inconsistently portrayed—in the beginning she seemed to be vain and shallow, but loved her sisters and wanted to help them. By the end, however, she is still vain and shallow, but very willing to throw them under the bus to gain her wishes. Lady Hamilton was simply too shallow and neglectful for words. Juliana’s youngest sister, Kitty, was delightful. It was refreshing to see the author give Kitty an impairment as she did, but not to make Kitty bitter about it.
The villain of the piece, Sir Phineas, a rival builder who adored Gothic designs above anything else, was delightfully oily and sneaky. His son, Peregrine, was also interesting, but not until the last half of the book when he becomes a personality and not a fixture.
My only real complaint with the book is that the last third of it seems entirely too rushed and convenient. Without giving anything away, the underhandedness of Sir Phineas’ is dealt with too easily and not very satisfyingly, and a new character is introduced who, while entertaining, wasn’t mentioned at all before the plot needed her.
All in all it is well worth reading, especially the details in the book. The author must have put forth quite a bit of research in design and architecture and new ‘improvements’ during the time period, because there is a lot of detailed goings-on explained throughout.
LORD BARRY’S DREAM HOUSE is such an amusing Regency romance! The interaction between Juliana and Edmund is never very predictable; at times, they either wish to find out the truth of the matter or aggravate the other just to see how far they can push them. Edmund’s attempts at treating Juliana like an architect and not a lady is met with varying degrees of success. Juliana’s attempts to ignore just how handsome he is and how charming he can be, are even less successful. By about half way through the book, you will be pulling your hair out every time Edmund thinks to himself that Juliana is not what he wants in an ideal wife at all, and it was a damned shame at that.
The secondary characters are also of varying degrees of interest. I felt her mother, the dowager countess Lady Hamilton, and her middle sister, Barbara, were perhaps the most annoying of all the characters. Barbara was inconsistently portrayed—in the beginning she seemed to be vain and shallow, but loved her sisters and wanted to help them. By the end, however, she is still vain and shallow, but very willing to throw them under the bus to gain her wishes. Lady Hamilton was simply too shallow and neglectful for words. Juliana’s youngest sister, Kitty, was delightful. It was refreshing to see the author give Kitty an impairment as she did, but not to make Kitty bitter about it.
The villain of the piece, Sir Phineas, a rival builder who adored Gothic designs above anything else, was delightfully oily and sneaky. His son, Peregrine, was also interesting, but not until the last half of the book when he becomes a personality and not a fixture.
My only real complaint with the book is that the last third of it seems entirely too rushed and convenient. Without giving anything away, the underhandedness of Sir Phineas’ is dealt with too easily and not very satisfyingly, and a new character is introduced who, while entertaining, wasn’t mentioned at all before the plot needed her.
All in all it is well worth reading, especially the details in the book. The author must have put forth quite a bit of research in design and architecture and new ‘improvements’ during the time period, because there is a lot of detailed goings-on explained throughout.
March 5, 2015
actually really enjoyed this, loved the details of the house and how she talks him into a corner, into accepting her improvements, because who wouldn't want to be comfortable and have the same furnishings as the very best houses? Really loved how Juliana was really building her dream home, i guess he was lucky he was of good enough material to be included as the house husband =) felt the Peregrine character was unnecessary and distracting, also the ending could have been wrapped up better.
August 26, 2007
This is an unusual regency in that the house plays a role as large as any character! Author Hendrickson was building her own dream house at roughly the same time, and her care and painstaking attention to detail shine through in every paragraph. She provides the reader with a fun and detailed look at the regency home.
September 25, 2009
Regency
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews