His Grace Endures

by Emma Jensen

COULD THIS HANDSOME DEVIL BE THE VERY SAME BLACKGUARD SHE JILTED YEARS AGO?

If all went according to plan in London, Deirdre Broghan would have her precocious young sister-in-law engaged to a respectable beau by early summer so she could return to Scotland by June. However, past scandal seemed poised to interfere with her well-intended design.

The grand, arrogant Duke of Conover--the man she once left standing at the altar--was back at the most inopportune time. But as badly as Deirdre wanted to expose his lordship for the abomination he was, she feared the gossip would make mincemeat of young Olivia's chances for a match. As for the Duke, he had fallen in love. Again. For the spirited girl who refused him years ago was now a stunning woman whose heart he vowed to win once and for all!

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance, Regency, Historical

213 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 29, 1998

About the author

Emma Jensen is a bestselling author who has won both a Rita and a Reviewer's Choice Award for her Regencies. She grew up in San Francisco and among the vines of the California wine country. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, with degrees in nineteenth-century literature, sociology, and public policy.

Reviews

[OLT · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been on a nostalgic reread kick, back to HRs of the 1990s, a time when Regency romance authors didn't self-publish any old slapped-up words on pages and call them a book. They actually had to write something worthy of a publisher. It was a time when authors also had a good grasp of the English language, good grammar, spelling, vocabulary choices and good literary style. Yes, yes, I'm an Old Phart who's tired of the silly and badly-written HRs that many authors are putting out nowadays.

Emma Jensen published traditional Regency romances from 1996 to 2001, approximately. They were smartly written stories that supplied the reader with quality writing and a lovely romance without the need for extensive bedroom scenes. That means that even though her Regencies were short (usually less than 230 pages), there was plenty of relationship development with clever and sparkling dialogue, because there weren't all those filler pages of sex. Her books were smart, literate and literary, with allusions to Greek and Roman mythology, Celtic folklore, Shakespeare, poetry, and current events and people of the time of the story. Jensen had the academic and literary chops of Eloisa James and the wit and warm humor of Jayne Fresina in books that followed the clean, old-fashioned, traditional Regency format.

So I've just finished a binge reread of Jensen's first 6 traditional Regencies: CHOICE DECEPTIONS, VIVID NOTIONS, COUP de GRACE, WHAT CHLOE WANTS, all released in 1996, and HIS GRACE ENDURES and BEST LAID PLANS from 1998. These books follow a group of friends and families through a few years of the early 1800s, with the main focus, of course, the romance of one couple per book. Some are funny, some more serious, and all can be read as standalones. All are well written with great characters, excellent relationship development and heartwarming romance.

This one that I've chosen to review is perhaps my favorite Jensen romance. She won the 1999 RITA award for Best Regency for it. She also won the Romance Readers Best Regency Author award in the same year. (It must also be noted that Jensen won a second RITA in 2001 for A GRAND DESIGN, her last published traditional Regency. Considering that she only published 11 historical romances in all, to receive a RITA for two of them is quite the coup.)

HIS GRACE ENDURES is a beautiful second-chance romance. Young widow Deidre Macvail is back in London from Scotland to give her young irrepressible sister-in-law Olivia a Season and to find her a suitable husband. Unfortunately she'll be forced into the company of Lucas Gower, Duke of Conovar, the man she jilted at the altar 7 years ago to run off with his friend and fellow soldier, Jason Macvail. Deidre and Lucas's shared scandal will be the stuff of gossip. And, in addition, there are misunderstandings and misconceptions from so many years ago that need to be cleared up. Why did Deidre jilt him? Why does she resent him and feel that he is responsible for her husband's death?

This is not an unusual plot for a romance but Jensen makes it special because of her excellent characters, great dialogue and intelligent interactions and good story development. The hero of this romance is one of my favorites, a man who has always found it difficult to express his feelings but that doesn't mean the feelings aren't deep. The title of the book says it all.

My Jensen binge this week has been a great trip down memory lane. I just wish her books were available in e-format so that readers with taste similar to mine could also enjoy them. Jensen, an English professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has an author's page here at Amazon under her real name, Melissa Jensen, and has a couple of YA contemporaries available to purchase for Kindle but no mention of the HRs she wrote under the name Emma Jensen. They were nothing to be ashamed of so I'm not sure why she's ignoring them. Too bad. I would appreciate having those books for my Kindle. They're worth a reread every so often and my paperbacks are starting to show their age.

[BJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice historical romance with a large array of titled characters all with complex histories. It's witty and has a good plot but as the H endured, so did I. It wasn't very exciting as I found the Hero to be a weak man and the heroine annoying. So much dithering. A good read first time, but it frustrated me on my 2nd and final read.

[HR-ML · Rating 3 out of 5]

Received 1999 RITA award.

This PB book took place in England and Scotland
around 1816. I liked the 1st 1/2 better than the second.
Had 2 romances w/ mostly kisses only.

Young, beautiful widow, Deirdre, had responsibility
to assist Olivia, her impulsive, v. pretty SIL @ 18 to
find a proper mate. Yrs. earlier Deirdre had jilted
Lucas (who later became a duke) in favor of Jonas,
Olivia's brother. Lucas & Jonas in the past, both
served in the military. Deirdre had a small cottage
she shared w/ Olivia & they managed on dwindling
funds. These 2 ladies visited a female friend in London.

IMO there was too much tug-of-war between Lucas
& Deirdre in the present + not enough togetherness.
It took forever for them to discuss the jilting incident.
And rumors spread RE the faulty character of Lucas.
I did not feel their love.

Olivia had too many tantrums & someone owned a pet
monkey. I dislike monkeys in romance stories: they bore
me.

This author, I've found, generally writes better stories.

[Kitcatscratch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy Emma Jensen's HR books quite a bit. They're never over the top sensual but they are also not what would fall under the term "clean." What scenes there are are so tightly bound with the character's emotions that they come across seamlessly. Out of her books that I have read so far, this is not particularly my favorite. It's well written and the emotions are there (ah the angst) but I felt so much for the H that I found it hard to truly enjoy the story. I honestly couldn't figure out what exactly he did that was so awful that the h held such a huge hatred towards him for 7 years. Especially as she learns that she held several mistaken beliefs about him. Even as they start to become close her anger and resentment would continuously come back. The H even says at one point that she forgives but never forgets. That over the years, she will bring back all the old resentments and mistakes and throw them in his face. And he will spend the same time apologizing and he didn't want that. Now granted, at this point the h has a bit of an epiphany that the H is correct in that she has surrounded herself with all this...I don't know what to call it. Sort of a "the world...as represented by you the H...have just wronged me and woe is me." His Grace Endures is correct. He puts up with so much. He feels so deeply and yet he withstands the hatred, disregard, the fickleness of all those around him including the ton for his seeming transgressions (and again, I can't figure out what exactly they were that was so horrendous other than there is another character in the book who is spreading malicious gossip and lies about him). And yet, I so liked the H because he continues to face them with such...grace.

Anyway, it's Emma Jensen and if you like her works, this is worth reading.

[Meanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, not for me

I have been waiting for this book to come out on ebook for a long time. So I was super excited to find it by accident and couldn't wait to begin the book and enjoy the story. For such a short book which I would normally devour in a day, it took me several starts and stops to finish in 4 days. I couldn't relate to both the H and h, which I find so surprising since I'm quite capable of suspending belief for these kind of stories. The wilful misunderstandings were simply frustrating to me that I had to skim a few scenes which I don't normally do. I'm so sorry I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

[Basbouseolz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I downloaded this since the blurb sounds promising, only to find that I’ve already read half of it??
I can recall nothing of this book but I’ll trust my past self judgment on why she dnfed this and leave it at that

[Pauline Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very strange read for me. The plot had so much potential, and yet somehow the author never quite seemed to make things flow smoothly. Or maybe it’s just the odd way the characters behaved, with endless talking but no action, that felt out of kilter. I don’t know.

Here’s the premise: seven years earlier, Deirdre had walked out on her betrothed literally at the altar, and run off to Scotland with his charming friend. Now her soldier husband is dead, and Deirdre has to re-enter society to bring out her husband’s sister. Inevitably she’s going to meet the man she jilted, who is now the powerful Duke of Conovar. Oh yes, and she blames him for her husband’s death. Now, this is all promising stuff, and the early meetings between the two are very tense. He’s surprisingly gracious. She’s surprisingly calm. They try to keep apart and it seems as if that will prevent any explosions of anger or resentment.

But gradually the swirl of rumour and curiosity surrounding them grows, aided by a painting of Deirdre executed by Raeburn (a famous Scottish portraitist), portraying her as the tragic heroine Deirdre of the Sorrows, an Irish tale. Suddenly, Deirdre shifts from being a disgraced jilt to a victim evoking society’s sympathy and Lucas the stiff-necked duke is no longer the dupe but the wicked villain. Things come to a head when they both get drunk and meet at a ball, resulting in a massive outbreak of hostilities. I have to say, this scene is probably the most over-the-top argument I’ve ever read, conducted in full view of half the guests and involving a great many family secrets, holding nothing back.

Naturally for a book of this era (first published 1998), the romantic difficulties are smoothed away only in the last few pages, but before that we get an inordinate amount of back and forth, as Deirdre veers about between overt hostility and something approaching sympathy. I had quite a lot of sympathy for the duke myself, because whenever he manages to inch himself closer to Deirdre she cold-shoulders him again, and starts pouring out her resentment once more. And the poor chap has been in love with her all the time!

But then he’s partly to blame for his own troubles, for no matter how honestly she expresses her dislike to him, he never quite manages to put his own feelings into words, or actions. He simply takes everything she and society throw at him. His Grace endures, indeed. At one point (that monstrous ball scene) she screams at him to show a bit of emotion for once, and I almost punched the air in glee. Yes! Maybe he’ll simply sweep her into his manly arms and kiss her. But no, we weren’t even two thirds of the way through the book so there was no chance.

This is not to suggest that I didn’t enjoy the book. I did, quite a lot, and the little side romance for the sister-in-law, who was unpromisingly immature at the start, was actually rather splendid. The Regency atmosphere was well drawn and there were very few Americanisms, the story intrigued me greatly and I read it pretty much straight through. There’s some lusting and discussion of sex, but nothing on-screen more graphic than a passionate kiss or two. A very readable story, only marred for me by too little actual emotion and too much conversational angsting. Four stars.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall high on dramatics but still a good time

[Giulia Vasquez · Rating 1 out of 5]

the start was already very off-putting with how insufferable the sister-in-law is and how the dialogue between the two of them is artificial
why do authors choose to write female characters whose personality revolves around being annoying is really beyond me
I really couldnt get past that