Nell

Governesses Trilogy #2

by Elizabeth Bailey

Practical Nell would never be so fanciful as to believe a mysterious Gothic castle and a darkly enigmatic baron would bring her a fairy-tale romance…

The star pupil from the Paddington Seminary, governess Miss Helen Faraday, prides herself on her common-sense approach to work. But Lord Eden Jarrow’s imposing abode is enough to test the steadiest of nerves—and the brooding man enough to test the steadiest of hearts!

Can one with such a shadowed past be capable of love, and loving a governess at that? When Nell is drawn into a desperate battle alongside Eden to save his young daughter from an unexpected, unknown danger, she is set to find out….

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance, Harlequin, British Literature, Historical, Regency, Historical Fiction

278 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 6, 2002

About the author

An avid reader from an early age, Elizabeth Bailey grew up in colonial Africa under unconventional parentage and with theatre in the blood. Back in England, she trod the boards until discovering her true métier as a writer in her thirties, when she fulfilled an early addiction to Georgette Heyer by launching into historical romance. Eight years and eight books later, Elizabeth joined the Harlequin Mills & Boon stable, fuelling her writing with a secondary career teaching and directing drama, and writing plays into the bargain.

With 18 historicals published, Elizabeth turned to other genres, producing two titles (Fly the Wild Echoes and For One More Tomorrow) in the cross-genre literary/paranormal field as well as a suspense novella (Silence of a Stranger). She has several short stories available too and a guide for writers on editing.

Continuing her foray into other genres, but returning to her favourite historical period, Elizabeth turned to mystery. She placed her female sleuth in the late Georgian world of intrigue, elegance, aristocrats and rogues, where privilege rubbed shoulders with the harsh realities of making ends meet. While Ottilia moves in the upper echelon of Society, she is thoroughly at ease in the lower, which allows Elizabeth to cross boundaries with impunity. These novels are now published with Sapere Books and the list continues to grow.

Sapere also publish her Brides by Chance Regency Adventures, a series dedicated to the countless women who could not ordinarily hope for romance and marriage: poor relations, dowerless females, those who did not "take", orphans. In a word, the classic Cinderella heroine.

Now retired from teaching, Elizabeth concentrates on writing and promotion, with a sideline in running an assessment critique service for writers.

Reviews

[Georgeanne]

A gothic masquerading as a regency romance.

[Rod]

A clean story. Second book in this series, which left me a bit non plussed. A girl goes to be a governess and is taken to a castle which seems to be in a dark wood, a highway man stops here on the way there but the castle groom/ staff collecting her don’t seem worried. The child you have now guessed apparently has ‘issues’ - tempers and the like, only an obviously dodgy nurse can control her, everyone seems to go for walks around the castle roof as if it’s Hyde Park at promenade time. Everyone also seems to include said child who is 6ish if I recall. Then there’s a crypt, turrets with dodgy staircases. All very gothic rather than regency romance. I also was surprised when Toly, having murdered his sister, hit various people over the head and threatened our heroine with a pistol, acknowledged as having psychological issues, is not handed to the authorities or restrained merely allowed to remain in the castle. I agree with Nell who thought he may come after them later on. The story did not draw me in or really engage me. I did finish it so it just scrapes 3 stars, but I doubt I will now bother with Book 3.

[Carol]

Gothic indeed

A full blown gothic romance, Nell’s story is also littered with elements of farce and of melodrama. What spoils the reading of the tale are the long passages of characters ruminating over what to do, what is right, what is wrong, and charging themselves repeatedly to take control of their emotions. So very boring.
Eden is an arse. The tragedy in his life is no excuse for his black moods and angry responses. Equally, his refusal to believe Nell is ridiculous. Hetty is a better drawn character than her father or uncle.
Steadfast and honest, Nell is a true heroine and she makes the book readable.
I had to skim through all the extraneous waffle that made it a slog getting to the end, and that left me disappointed.

[Patrizia]

Avevo cominciato, e lasciato da parte, il primo libro di questa trilogia, perché mi trovavo a collocarlo nello 'scaffale' più basso della produzione di EB – un'autrice i cui romanzi coprono per me un ampio range di valutazioni.
Ma la scelta del genere gotico, pur con il ricorso ai più banali luoghi comuni (dal castello medievale con le sue sinistre torrette e l'orribile cripta fino agli ambigui o folli protagonisti e gli spettri, con l'ulteriore finezza del 'cameo' Hitchcockiano del bicchiere di latte) ha messo in gioco le migliori abilità di invenzione e di scrittura della Bailey, portando stavolta il mio giudizio fino (quasi) alle quattro stelle.

[Mrs Wendy Castling]

A little disappointing

I am finding this series not as enthralling as The Lady Fan stories. In fact, a bit boring at times. Hopefully I will enjoy other stories written by this author more captivating.

[Danielle Warner]

Great clean read

Nice suspenseful story. Although very predictable it had a little mystery involved and the characters were well developed. Worth reading.

[Kirsteen Lyons-Benson]

five stars for the whole governess trilogy.

[Josh]

The setting of a gothic castle was very atmospheric. I liked the characters, and the mystery was interesting but just a little too drawn out for me.

[Roger L Gilbert]

Good, but …

Only four stars because I didn’t like the resolution of the ending. Otherwise it was a great “gothic romance full of suspense”.

[Lisa]

What's good. But I thought I would go nuts waiting for them to just communicate. Argh!

[GG]

More suspense than romance. I came close to DNF a couple of times.