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Daughter of Fortune
England's most celebrated rake is taunted, tempted, and tamed by a bold young beauty . . . Sylvie, the prize in a card game, and the Earl of Ives, who wins the game, wage a war of wills, each desperately hoping to capture the other!
Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
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About the author
Dawn Lindsey
20 books2 followersA Regency/Historical author. In 1978, Doubleday published The Duchess of Vidal; in 1979, Playboy Press reissued it, in paperback.
Dawn Lindsey continued to write Regency romance throughout the 1980's and 1990's.
Dawn Lindsey continued to write Regency romance throughout the 1980's and 1990's.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 23, 2016
Closer to 4.5 stars.
Miss Sylvie Fairfield, an almost-20-year-old, had never had a season. Her mother had died when she was four and her father felt nothing but contempt for her. Plain in appearance, she made do with what she had, unaware that everything was about to change.
'Nicky', the roguish Earl of St. Ives, had looks, money and a title. At 31 years of age, he was beginning to tire of his lifestyle. Betting, drinking and debauching himself with various women had lost its appeal. So when he got plastered one evening and gambled for another man's daughter - and won!- little did he know how this episode was going to affect him. After all, he needed a wife.
Except Sylvie had other plans, none of which included this man with a temper. He promised her a settlement if she would chaperone his half-sister. He'd give her a house in London as well as other estates.....and an income that could buy her anything she fancied. And once she gave him an heir she could go her own way as long as she was indiscreet. Her answer was still no but he would not accept that. The battle had just begun.
Starting out slowly, this traditional regency gave new meaning to the term 'anti-hero'. Nicky had it all and he knew it. The little time he spent with his own parents before they passed away taught him to act cold, be disagreeable, present himself as willful and remain unfaithful to any woman that he had a relationship with. Until he met Sylvie.
Both innocent and feisty, she made it known from the first that St. Ives had finally met his match. It took him awhile but little by little she inserted herself into his life. He earned her love slowly. And he became her protector while still in denial of his true feelings. Not just a romance, there is some mild suspense in the last quarter of the story. By the time it ended I was emotionally satisfied with their much-earned HEA.
Miss Sylvie Fairfield, an almost-20-year-old, had never had a season. Her mother had died when she was four and her father felt nothing but contempt for her. Plain in appearance, she made do with what she had, unaware that everything was about to change.
'Nicky', the roguish Earl of St. Ives, had looks, money and a title. At 31 years of age, he was beginning to tire of his lifestyle. Betting, drinking and debauching himself with various women had lost its appeal. So when he got plastered one evening and gambled for another man's daughter - and won!- little did he know how this episode was going to affect him. After all, he needed a wife.
Except Sylvie had other plans, none of which included this man with a temper. He promised her a settlement if she would chaperone his half-sister. He'd give her a house in London as well as other estates.....and an income that could buy her anything she fancied. And once she gave him an heir she could go her own way as long as she was indiscreet. Her answer was still no but he would not accept that. The battle had just begun.
Starting out slowly, this traditional regency gave new meaning to the term 'anti-hero'. Nicky had it all and he knew it. The little time he spent with his own parents before they passed away taught him to act cold, be disagreeable, present himself as willful and remain unfaithful to any woman that he had a relationship with. Until he met Sylvie.
Both innocent and feisty, she made it known from the first that St. Ives had finally met his match. It took him awhile but little by little she inserted herself into his life. He earned her love slowly. And he became her protector while still in denial of his true feelings. Not just a romance, there is some mild suspense in the last quarter of the story. By the time it ended I was emotionally satisfied with their much-earned HEA.
March 30, 2013
In sum: Effing brilliant.
In more detail: I realize Georgette Heyer's name is bandied about promiscuously when contemporary authors manage to find the sweet spot in Regency romances, balancing the wit of hero and heroine and their conflict, offering up a rogue's gallery of secondary characters who add perspective and humor to the storyline, and the interference, well-meaning and otherwise, of other women populating the plot. When it all comes together elegantly, it is a thrill and great pleasure to read. (I don't care if this is an 'homage to/rip-off of' GH, it's still a wonderful read.)
This is a lovely, elegant, inevitable-feeling reformed-rake story as good as the best of Heyer. The story revolves around a rakish earl and the young woman he's 'won' from a dissolute father. This author got it right-er than any human being (other than G. Heyer herself at her best. (Frederica has a similar situation, though that rake does not speak up, Frederica simply overlooks his interest as she tries to settle her siblings).
The hero: A dedicated rake and rascal meets his match, an unprepossessing woman who reminds him of a little brown sparrow at first.
The heroine: a self-possessed young woman with innate dignity and a sense of the absurd, whose gallant spirit wins the rake's heart and, whose repeated refusals, inspires in him a perverse determination to win her for himself.
How I love the subtle wit of characters' dialogue! The secondary characters are wonderfully well-drawn and enrich the story.
This is absolutely worth hunting down an OOP paperback copy. I did and it's losing its pages (pub. 1979). But I will baby this copy forever in order to re-read this regularly. It's an excellent, excellent book recommended to me by Mary here in GR. You must try to find this. (It's a 'clean' HR and the language is neither old-fashioned nor oddly contemporary. Well-researched as far as I can tell.)
In more detail: I realize Georgette Heyer's name is bandied about promiscuously when contemporary authors manage to find the sweet spot in Regency romances, balancing the wit of hero and heroine and their conflict, offering up a rogue's gallery of secondary characters who add perspective and humor to the storyline, and the interference, well-meaning and otherwise, of other women populating the plot. When it all comes together elegantly, it is a thrill and great pleasure to read. (I don't care if this is an 'homage to/rip-off of' GH, it's still a wonderful read.)
This is a lovely, elegant, inevitable-feeling reformed-rake story as good as the best of Heyer. The story revolves around a rakish earl and the young woman he's 'won' from a dissolute father. This author got it right-er than any human being (other than G. Heyer herself at her best. (Frederica has a similar situation, though that rake does not speak up, Frederica simply overlooks his interest as she tries to settle her siblings).
The hero: A dedicated rake and rascal meets his match, an unprepossessing woman who reminds him of a little brown sparrow at first.
The heroine: a self-possessed young woman with innate dignity and a sense of the absurd, whose gallant spirit wins the rake's heart and, whose repeated refusals, inspires in him a perverse determination to win her for himself.
How I love the subtle wit of characters' dialogue! The secondary characters are wonderfully well-drawn and enrich the story.
This is absolutely worth hunting down an OOP paperback copy. I did and it's losing its pages (pub. 1979). But I will baby this copy forever in order to re-read this regularly. It's an excellent, excellent book recommended to me by Mary here in GR. You must try to find this. (It's a 'clean' HR and the language is neither old-fashioned nor oddly contemporary. Well-researched as far as I can tell.)
February 22, 2013
WARNING: Excessive exclamation mark use ahead.
AHHHHH!!! LOVED IT! LOVED IT! LOVED IT! LOVED! LOVED IT!
This is a truely an under-rated treasure among Regencies and it has become one of my all-time favourites. After reading a spate of books that were average, mediocre or forgettable, this book brought back the can't-put-it-down fervent reading, giddy butterflies and total investment in the characters that I had so missed. Trust me, I have the eye bags to prove it.
The story, is a familiar one - After a game of incredibly deep card play between four gentlemen with varying levels of inebriation, a notorious and impossibly handsome rake wins a young girl called Sylvie from a horrible, selfish father who's desperate after the severe losses he suffered in the hands of said rake, the Earl of St Ives. Nicolas Staunton. Taking her back to London with him he later finds out she is no milk and water miss and they take an instant disliking to each other. He hands her over to his grandmother and her godmother while he continues his hedonistic lifestyle despite feeling thoroughly bored and disenchanted with it all. Grandmother and Godmother take a great liking to Sylvie and soon plans are underway to have her come out in London and of course play matchmaker, positively sure Sylvie's just the girl to tie the cynical bachelor down. Their paths frequently meet with St Ives doing the honourable and offering multiple times to marry her to save her precarious reputation despite her repeated protests for she will not marry without love. Later he just claims her possessively (without malice but like a favourite plaything) He provokes, teases, taunts and flirts with her feeling totally in control and yet so unaware he is falling head of heels in love. Oh it's delicious!
Sylvie is a darling! intelligent and forward without being a hoyden, yet naive and innocent and entirely feminine. She feels completely alive and well realised as a character. I loved her! St Ives is a real tour de force. At the start he's mercilessly cynical and sports a monstrous temper and only unleashing The Charm very rarely, and only to his best advantage. In wooing Sylvie he finds he has no choice but to bring out every charming trick he knows and finds he rather likes having his will crossed by her. By the end he's totally willing to be a hen-pecked husband with wifey ruling the roost. Oh you reformed rake you!!!
Above all else the one thing that makes me want to sing this book's praises to high heaven is the perfectly timed pacing of the plot. After reading several books before where the pacing was wildly uneven, Dawn Lindsey in contrast is incredibly talented writer who builds her story to a gradual and enormously satisfying crescendo. The interactions between the H/h are frequent yet paced out so there's no excessive amounts of time with no contact between them and each conversation builds on the previous conversation so you see how their knowledge of one another changes over time, how their feelings change and grow with every spark-filled meeting. It's actually not so much sexual tension but it's just tension as they dance around each other and skirt around confessing their feelings.
It's never frustrating to read but rather it builds and builds and puts you on the edge of yourseat bed, cursing that your eyeballs can't read any faster because the next page could be that elusive climax you're dying to read. Or the next page. Or the next page... ARGH IT'S ALMOST DAWN!!!! CRAAAAAP!!! (literally what happened).
There's a host of great side characters too like St Ives's grandmother the Dowager Duchess (who for once is not a dragon!) and Mr Strickland who's one of St Ives's Corinthian pals. It's a shame he held steady to his bachelor-dom because it would have been great to have a second romance as he was a great guy. It was just a case that the OTP H/h pairing had such gravitas in the story there really wasn't any room for another.
In conjunction with the pacing I also relished the length of the book - so often Traditional Regencies are too short and romances happen across the space of a week or two and it feels like nothing much actually happens. Daughter of Fortune is 329 pages with small print and it never, ever feels too long.
Had a small few quibbles but they ceased to be signficant after reading on and loving the book so much. First, idiot Editor didn't seem to catch that Sylvie's name was spelled differently on the blurb and in the book. She is Sylvie Fairchild on the blurb and Sylvie Fairfield inside. It was also said Sylvie is a beauty on the cover when a few pages in she's described as not pretty. Second, add to that the character introductions aren't established well at the beginning of the book with first mentions of people are sometimes in passing, mentioned by their last name or title and then called by their nickname the second time without establishing the connection made me flip back and forth a few times going "Who the hell is this?!?" But seriously, once you know who's who and who's a what then all the earlier confusion is forgotten.
Honestly, do what you can to get yourself a copy of this book! I got mine from abebooks.
Rating: 5 little sparrows
Re-readability: Absolutely. I'm re-inforcing my book because it's probably going to fall apart with the re-reads.
AHHHHH!!! LOVED IT! LOVED IT! LOVED IT! LOVED! LOVED IT!
This is a truely an under-rated treasure among Regencies and it has become one of my all-time favourites. After reading a spate of books that were average, mediocre or forgettable, this book brought back the can't-put-it-down fervent reading, giddy butterflies and total investment in the characters that I had so missed. Trust me, I have the eye bags to prove it.
The story, is a familiar one - After a game of incredibly deep card play between four gentlemen with varying levels of inebriation, a notorious and impossibly handsome rake wins a young girl called Sylvie from a horrible, selfish father who's desperate after the severe losses he suffered in the hands of said rake, the Earl of St Ives. Nicolas Staunton. Taking her back to London with him he later finds out she is no milk and water miss and they take an instant disliking to each other. He hands her over to his grandmother and her godmother while he continues his hedonistic lifestyle despite feeling thoroughly bored and disenchanted with it all. Grandmother and Godmother take a great liking to Sylvie and soon plans are underway to have her come out in London and of course play matchmaker, positively sure Sylvie's just the girl to tie the cynical bachelor down. Their paths frequently meet with St Ives doing the honourable and offering multiple times to marry her to save her precarious reputation despite her repeated protests for she will not marry without love. Later he just claims her possessively (without malice but like a favourite plaything) He provokes, teases, taunts and flirts with her feeling totally in control and yet so unaware he is falling head of heels in love. Oh it's delicious!
Sylvie is a darling! intelligent and forward without being a hoyden, yet naive and innocent and entirely feminine. She feels completely alive and well realised as a character. I loved her! St Ives is a real tour de force. At the start he's mercilessly cynical and sports a monstrous temper and only unleashing The Charm very rarely, and only to his best advantage. In wooing Sylvie he finds he has no choice but to bring out every charming trick he knows and finds he rather likes having his will crossed by her. By the end he's totally willing to be a hen-pecked husband with wifey ruling the roost. Oh you reformed rake you!!!
Above all else the one thing that makes me want to sing this book's praises to high heaven is the perfectly timed pacing of the plot. After reading several books before where the pacing was wildly uneven, Dawn Lindsey in contrast is incredibly talented writer who builds her story to a gradual and enormously satisfying crescendo. The interactions between the H/h are frequent yet paced out so there's no excessive amounts of time with no contact between them and each conversation builds on the previous conversation so you see how their knowledge of one another changes over time, how their feelings change and grow with every spark-filled meeting. It's actually not so much sexual tension but it's just tension as they dance around each other and skirt around confessing their feelings.
It's never frustrating to read but rather it builds and builds and puts you on the edge of your
There's a host of great side characters too like St Ives's grandmother the Dowager Duchess (who for once is not a dragon!) and Mr Strickland who's one of St Ives's Corinthian pals. It's a shame he held steady to his bachelor-dom because it would have been great to have a second romance as he was a great guy. It was just a case that the OTP H/h pairing had such gravitas in the story there really wasn't any room for another.
In conjunction with the pacing I also relished the length of the book - so often Traditional Regencies are too short and romances happen across the space of a week or two and it feels like nothing much actually happens. Daughter of Fortune is 329 pages with small print and it never, ever feels too long.
Had a small few quibbles but they ceased to be signficant after reading on and loving the book so much. First, idiot Editor didn't seem to catch that Sylvie's name was spelled differently on the blurb and in the book. She is Sylvie Fairchild on the blurb and Sylvie Fairfield inside. It was also said Sylvie is a beauty on the cover when a few pages in she's described as not pretty. Second, add to that the character introductions aren't established well at the beginning of the book with first mentions of people are sometimes in passing, mentioned by their last name or title and then called by their nickname the second time without establishing the connection made me flip back and forth a few times going "Who the hell is this?!?" But seriously, once you know who's who and who's a what then all the earlier confusion is forgotten.
Honestly, do what you can to get yourself a copy of this book! I got mine from abebooks.
Rating: 5 little sparrows
Re-readability: Absolutely. I'm re-inforcing my book because it's probably going to fall apart with the re-reads.
April 7, 2019
I loved it
It is Phoebe (Sylvie) with equal measures of Vidal and Sylvester (St. Ives).
It was a real pleasure to see these favorite characters in a different story.
Lord Timothy is Vidal’s uncle and the dowager duchess is Phoebe’s grandmother.
I should say most if not all characters seems to have come from GH.
I’ve read some of Ms Lindsey’s work, and I must confess I like them better where I can find more of GH in them.
This might be the best 😆of her work. Though I suppose this is no praise at all.
It is Phoebe (Sylvie) with equal measures of Vidal and Sylvester (St. Ives).
It was a real pleasure to see these favorite characters in a different story.
Lord Timothy is Vidal’s uncle and the dowager duchess is Phoebe’s grandmother.
I should say most if not all characters seems to have come from GH.
I’ve read some of Ms Lindsey’s work, and I must confess I like them better where I can find more of GH in them.
This might be the best 😆of her work. Though I suppose this is no praise at all.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews