My Lady Benbrook

Angel Dawson #2

by Constance Gluyas

This book was first published in 1974 and is the sequel to "The King's Brat".
The Earl of Benbrook had schooled Angel Dawson well. The street accents were gone from her speech when he presented her as a gracious lady at the court of the King. And Angel had taught Nicholas, too, the lessons of love. They had earned her an even more precious honor; she was now his wife, the Lady Benbrook.

But Barbara Castlemaine, first among the King's mistresses, cannot forgive Angel for her beauty, charm and her special place in the King's heart and engineers a plot against her destined to bring about her downfall.

Genres: Historical Romance

263 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1975

About the author

Constance Gluyas was born in London in the lean years following World War I and left school at the age of fourteen to go to work. During World War II, she served in the Women's Royal Air Force and supervised the main switch-board with a direct line to Europe during the Normandy invasion.
After moving to California, where she lives with her husband, Donald, and daughter, Diane, Mrs. Gluyas began her career as a writer.

Reviews

[Helen Robare · Rating 4 out of 5]

So after going through my boxes (50 or more) of books, I came across the first book in this two-book series (The King's Brat). So of course, I just had to dig through several more boxes of books until I found the sequel (My Lady Benbrook). Then I took both books (along with a few boxes of books) into my apartment, made myself a cup of coffee, and then made myself comfortable and opened the first book. I tore through that one in a matter of hours.

Though I had loved both books as a teenager when I bought them brand new from the Book Store, I couldn't remember much about this one. That was a good thing as this made it almost a brand new book again. :)

This book continues the story of Angel Dawson, now the Countess of Benbrook. It is set back in the days of Bonnie Prince Charlie (King Charles Stuart/King Charles II). Like any man in any century with a beautiful young wife, the Earl of Benbrook wants to show her off. So the Earl takes his lovely wife to the court of Bonny Prince Charlie. (NOT a smart move. lol). Charles, of course, hits on Angel and she turns him down but keeps his friendship. However, Charles' mistress, Barbara Castlemaine (whose real name in history was Barbara Palmer, Countess of Castlemaine) takes exception to Angel and the king's friendship and makes it her goal to get rid of Angel.

This was a great book back in the day. Now it's a good book bordering on great. The characters are pretty well written and fleshed out. The plot (while predictible) is still interesting, and the glimpse back into a time long past was even more enjoyable this time around and many decades later. :)

[ANGELIA · Rating 2 out of 5]

(This is a combo review of both "The King's Brat" and "My Lady Benbrook")

Boy, did I waste my time! I read the first book to this sequel - "The King's Brat" - and thought it wasted a lot of time, keeping the MC, Nicholas, Lord Benbrook, and Angel Dawson apart. It started out kind of like "My Fair Lady", with Nicholas playing Professor Higgins, turning his Eliza Doolittle/Angel from the London slums, into a lady, and then passing her off as one in the court of King Charles II, recently returned to England to reclaim his late father's throne. (Nicholas was instrumental in bringing that about). As with Higgins and Eliza, Nicholas and Angel soon develop feelings for each other that they both try hard to ignore. Angel's never known love, her only friends the people on the streets where she's forced to steal, while Nicholas is way too cynical about it, having grown up with a weak wimp of a father and an amoral slut for a mother, who got her kicks from having little boy Nicholas in the room while she had sex with her lovers. it's not surprising his opinion of women wasn't too high. He had plenty of sex, but never fell in love. Because of this, he's all too quick to believe that Angel's become King Charles's mistress, and just when he was ready to marry her, he ended up calling her a whore, and left her for almost two years!

There were too many separations for a real relationship to develop. First, Nicholas left for his country estate, tom have time tom sort through his feelings for Angel, staying longer than he intended, while angel stayed at court with the king and Queen Catherine, fending off Charles's advances, as well as those of other men. Later, there's the two years I mentioned, with a heartbroken (as well as angry) Angel tempted to take a lover and get revenge on Nicholas, but not following through with it. Then, no sooner are they reunited and reconciled (he admits what a jerk he'd been) then Nicholas comes down with the plague! Angel and her black manservant, M'Zele (a.k.a. pip), nurse him back to health, but then Angel gets it, collapses outside, gets mistaken for a corpse, escapes, collapses again outside a convent, loses her memory, is cared for by the nuns, regains her memory after almost a year, returns to Nicholas, and the stage is set for a HEA.

Unfortunately, it was a very weak stage and soon collapsed. I finished the first book and thought how silly it was for Ms. Gluyas to waste so much time and keep the couple apart so much, so when I discovered the sequel, I figured that would make up for it. HAH!! What joke on me! No sooner does this book start, then it's revealed that Nicholas's bout with the plague left him with a weak heart and he doesn't have much time left. (WTF!!!) They make plans to marry anyway (though Nicholas played the noble sacrifice routine and offered to let her go, but she wouldn't), but as soon as Nicholas's handsome friend, Alex was introduced, I knew where this story was going. Naturally, he falls for Angel at first sight, and of course, she finds him attractive, but her heart belongs to weak hearted, soon-to-be-corpse Nicholas. They get married, he manages to consummate it, is soon feeding the worms, and the HEA is reserved for Angel and Alex, who spent more time together than she and Nicholas ever did.

Why the author chose to write two books about a couple who barely spent two days together as a couple is beyond me. She could have combined the two into one book, and instead of all the nonsense about Nicholas and Angel being true lovers (what a joke), she could have made it that Angel felt grateful to Nicholas for all he did for her, mistook that for love and agreed to marry him because she owed him so much, then, after he died, found the real thing with Alex, instead of her going on about Nicholas being her true love and grand passion (the guy could barely get it up by the time they finally got in bed), and Alex settling (like a dummy) for second best.

Now that I think about it, it seems like Ms. Gluyas had something against Nicholas, as he had an unhappy childhood, lost people he loved (including his sister, who was mistakenly arrested and died in prison, which is where Angel met her, and led to her meeting Nicholas), led a lonely life, despite his many mistresses and being a part of Court, then, when he finally lets himself go and admits his love for Angel, one after the other, things go wrong, and then he dies. Maybe she wrote him in the image of her ex-whatever, who treated her badly, and this was a vicarious revenge?

Both books held my interest more for the intrigues at court, the protocol, the relationship between Charles and Catherine (she loved him so much and put up with his womanizing, while he cared deeply for her, but could never return her love), Charles's love interests, like the conniving Barbara Castlemaine, and the atmosphere of both the Court and the streets of London.

For history, these books are great. For romance, they stink.