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My Lord Murderer
Dashing. Debonair . . . Deadly?
Drew Jamison steels himself for yet another frivolous evening of dancing at his sociable sister's soiree. But when an enchanting young lady catches his eye, he realizes that this will be no ordinary night...
As Lady Gwendolyn Rowle enters the ballroom, she is accosted by a tiresome admirer. Soon enough, however, a breathtaking stranger sweeps her onto the dance floor. She enjoys a lively flirtation with her mysterious rescuer--until he reveals his identity...
For these two strangers have a tragic connection--the blood of Lady Gwendolyn's late husband is on Drew Jamison's hands! Yet despite what she knows, the lady is drawn to her husband's killer. How can such an unholy attraction exist? And what will Lady Gwen do about it?
Drew Jamison steels himself for yet another frivolous evening of dancing at his sociable sister's soiree. But when an enchanting young lady catches his eye, he realizes that this will be no ordinary night...
As Lady Gwendolyn Rowle enters the ballroom, she is accosted by a tiresome admirer. Soon enough, however, a breathtaking stranger sweeps her onto the dance floor. She enjoys a lively flirtation with her mysterious rescuer--until he reveals his identity...
For these two strangers have a tragic connection--the blood of Lady Gwendolyn's late husband is on Drew Jamison's hands! Yet despite what she knows, the lady is drawn to her husband's killer. How can such an unholy attraction exist? And what will Lady Gwen do about it?
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 1, 1978
16 people are currently reading
73 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Mansfield
59 books61 followersElizabeth Mansfield is the author of numerous regency romances. She is an intelligent and thoughtful writer, a hidden gem whose novels deserve to be more widely read and enjoyed.
Elizabeth Mansfield is the pen name of the talented Paula Reibel Schwartz. Ms Schwartz also wrote different genres under the pen names Paula Reibel, Paula Reid, and Paula Jonas.
Elizabeth Mansfield is the pen name of the talented Paula Reibel Schwartz. Ms Schwartz also wrote different genres under the pen names Paula Reibel, Paula Reid, and Paula Jonas.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
March 11, 2019
Charles van Buren
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not very interesting
March 10, 2019
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
I admit that I had never heard of Elizabeth Mansfield and was attracted to this book by the title and a brief description on one of the free book sites to which I subscribe. I was hoping for a Josephine Tey sort of book such as Brat Farrar. Instead I got bored.
It is very near the end of chapter one before anything even remotely interesting occurs. Before that, insipid characters meet and talk with other insipid.characters. The same afterwards through about 25% of the book which is where I stopped reading.
Several points in the plot make little or no sense such as Drew and friends trying to keep secret Lord Rowle's disgraceful behavior and death in a duel. This gave Rowle's unsavory friend and second an obvious opening to tell the widow a false tale which cast Drew in a poor light and as the villain of the piece. Why would they expect anything else?
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not very interesting
March 10, 2019
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
I admit that I had never heard of Elizabeth Mansfield and was attracted to this book by the title and a brief description on one of the free book sites to which I subscribe. I was hoping for a Josephine Tey sort of book such as Brat Farrar. Instead I got bored.
It is very near the end of chapter one before anything even remotely interesting occurs. Before that, insipid characters meet and talk with other insipid.characters. The same afterwards through about 25% of the book which is where I stopped reading.
Several points in the plot make little or no sense such as Drew and friends trying to keep secret Lord Rowle's disgraceful behavior and death in a duel. This gave Rowle's unsavory friend and second an obvious opening to tell the widow a false tale which cast Drew in a poor light and as the villain of the piece. Why would they expect anything else?
October 5, 2016
The premise was interesting, and I was inspired by the overall rating. Unfortunately, the writing was little clunky and more tell than do.
Skimming started by chapter two, and I did read the ending but that was about all I could do.
I think I was hoping for an edgy hero along the lines of Ruthless, The Duke, or What I Did For a Duke.
Skimming started by chapter two, and I did read the ending but that was about all I could do.
I think I was hoping for an edgy hero along the lines of Ruthless, The Duke, or What I Did For a Duke.
February 25, 2015
This is basically more of a spoiler filled rant than a review, but since its my review I can write anything I want. :D
so here goes-
I gave this book 2 stars because even though the characters were generally ok, I hated the plot.
it was the hero and heroine love each other practicably from the beginning, but there is an impediment to their love type plot. Since most of the cheap quality bollywood movies use that plot, I can't be blamed for disliking it.
(side note:I admit there are a few examples were this plot works in movies)
The heroine was obstinate. Her insistence that the hero was a murderer in every other page was boring. As for the hero, I did not like the way he sometimes acted when the heroine continually insulted him. He acted like a bitter petulant child. I know the heroine was being very thick with all that "you murderer!" business, but he really should have handled the situation better.
Elizabeth Mansfield has written better books.
This is just an opinion. Feel free to disagree.
PS. I wish she did a bit more research. Sir George Pollard is a baronet not a baron and is not as she wrote a "peer of the realm".
so here goes-
I gave this book 2 stars because even though the characters were generally ok, I hated the plot.
it was the hero and heroine love each other practicably from the beginning, but there is an impediment to their love type plot. Since most of the cheap quality bollywood movies use that plot, I can't be blamed for disliking it.
(side note:I admit there are a few examples were this plot works in movies)
The heroine was obstinate. Her insistence that the hero was a murderer in every other page was boring. As for the hero, I did not like the way he sometimes acted when the heroine continually insulted him. He acted like a bitter petulant child. I know the heroine was being very thick with all that "you murderer!" business, but he really should have handled the situation better.
Elizabeth Mansfield has written better books.
This is just an opinion. Feel free to disagree.
PS. I wish she did a bit more research. Sir George Pollard is a baronet not a baron and is not as she wrote a "peer of the realm".
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 22, 2017
3 1/2 stars.
Great characters, but at times I wanted to shake the heroine into her senses.
Great characters, but at times I wanted to shake the heroine into her senses.
December 22, 2014
I just couldn't find much too like in this book.
The heroine was ridiculously stubborn about her views about the hero's involvement in her husband's death during a duel, and he is over-honourably stiff-necked about telling her that her husband (whom she didn't love anyway) was a complete bounder and fired before he as supposed to during the duel. It's all over-done and padded out by excessive dialogue and a romance between the hero's best friend and a poverty-stricken girl who is engaged to a ne'er-do-well.
It's not particularly well written and didn't engage me at all. I skim read most of it, to be honest.
The heroine was ridiculously stubborn about her views about the hero's involvement in her husband's death during a duel, and he is over-honourably stiff-necked about telling her that her husband (whom she didn't love anyway) was a complete bounder and fired before he as supposed to during the duel. It's all over-done and padded out by excessive dialogue and a romance between the hero's best friend and a poverty-stricken girl who is engaged to a ne'er-do-well.
It's not particularly well written and didn't engage me at all. I skim read most of it, to be honest.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 4, 2022
I have read many books by this author. As best I can remember I have given maybe one 5 star, a couple of four stars, but mostly two and three. This is a one. The plot is poorly developed around two very unlikable characters. There is no humor. There’s no reference to anything that makes this a regency. It was boring, repetitive, and I can find nothing in it to recommend.
November 11, 2017
A tangled plot
Reminds me of Elizabeth Bennet's capitulation when she realized Darcy's true character. Gwen was an idiot and I don't know why Drew loves her. Tom, Hazel, Hetty and Wystan are all delightful!
Reminds me of Elizabeth Bennet's capitulation when she realized Darcy's true character. Gwen was an idiot and I don't know why Drew loves her. Tom, Hazel, Hetty and Wystan are all delightful!
January 29, 2025
Gah!!!! The heroine is so infuriatingly blindingly stupid and stubborn that I cannot root for the main romance in this one.
The h has been widowed due to an unfortunate duel 6 months earlier between the H and her late husband, a gambling idiot who was in with a wrong crowd. There was an investigation that proved it was an accident and the H was cleared, but he refused to let the details out because it would have painted the late husband in a very bad light and he didn't want to hurt the widow and the man's mother knowing. (H tried to delope by pointing up, late husband not only shot the H but shot before he was supposed to, which caused H's arm to fall and the gun went off as his muscles clenched in pain, and it somehow magically went off at the exact place to shoot the late husband through the heart)
H meets h at a ball, neither know each other and they waltz, but as h discovers who H is, she denounces him publicly as a murderer (even though no one else in society thinks that at all).
Anyway, instead of listening to literally everyone around her who says she's way overreacting and H is a good man, she spends the entirety of the book blaming him, treating him like crap, insisting on never seeing him, blaming him for other situations also not his fault, painting him as a murderous, violent brute who is a bad influence on her brother, and generally just being an idiot, up to and including continuing to hang out with the very same crowd of men her late husband hung out with, whom she knew to be a bad influence on him.
She then, in a burst of brilliant idiocy, decides to elope with the main bad influence because she thinks she can make up for not helping her late husband be a better person by marrying this dude and reforming him... it's just crazy.
H deserves better than her. Mind, he has some faults too, such as insisting on silence regarding the details of the duel to the detriment of his own reputation as well as his standing in h's eyes, AND the inutterably idiotic decision to lend his DUELING PISTOLS to fmc's young impressionable brother, who immediately proceeds to get himself shot with them. That was the only sitch in which FMC was right about MMC; that was just a dumb, dumb thing for him to do.
The rest of the characters are delightful, especially the FMC's mother-in-law, the MMC's best friend and his romance, and the little bro in spite of his own idiocy lol.
But at 90% in, with the MMC finally absolutely DONE with FMC's constant character assassination of him, and the FMC finally realizing she's been wrong about him the entire time (after accusing him wrongly of stabbing her freaking kidnapper who tried to murder him with a sword), I'm tempted to leave it at this because I think this ending will be way more satisfying than seeing MMC be tied to life with such an unworthy spouse.
The h has been widowed due to an unfortunate duel 6 months earlier between the H and her late husband, a gambling idiot who was in with a wrong crowd. There was an investigation that proved it was an accident and the H was cleared, but he refused to let the details out because it would have painted the late husband in a very bad light and he didn't want to hurt the widow and the man's mother knowing. (H tried to delope by pointing up, late husband not only shot the H but shot before he was supposed to, which caused H's arm to fall and the gun went off as his muscles clenched in pain, and it somehow magically went off at the exact place to shoot the late husband through the heart)
H meets h at a ball, neither know each other and they waltz, but as h discovers who H is, she denounces him publicly as a murderer (even though no one else in society thinks that at all).
Anyway, instead of listening to literally everyone around her who says she's way overreacting and H is a good man, she spends the entirety of the book blaming him, treating him like crap, insisting on never seeing him, blaming him for other situations also not his fault, painting him as a murderous, violent brute who is a bad influence on her brother, and generally just being an idiot, up to and including continuing to hang out with the very same crowd of men her late husband hung out with, whom she knew to be a bad influence on him.
She then, in a burst of brilliant idiocy, decides to elope with the main bad influence because she thinks she can make up for not helping her late husband be a better person by marrying this dude and reforming him... it's just crazy.
H deserves better than her. Mind, he has some faults too, such as insisting on silence regarding the details of the duel to the detriment of his own reputation as well as his standing in h's eyes, AND the inutterably idiotic decision to lend his DUELING PISTOLS to fmc's young impressionable brother, who immediately proceeds to get himself shot with them. That was the only sitch in which FMC was right about MMC; that was just a dumb, dumb thing for him to do.
The rest of the characters are delightful, especially the FMC's mother-in-law, the MMC's best friend and his romance, and the little bro in spite of his own idiocy lol.
But at 90% in, with the MMC finally absolutely DONE with FMC's constant character assassination of him, and the FMC finally realizing she's been wrong about him the entire time (after accusing him wrongly of stabbing her freaking kidnapper who tried to murder him with a sword), I'm tempted to leave it at this because I think this ending will be way more satisfying than seeing MMC be tied to life with such an unworthy spouse.
March 7, 2021
My Lord Murdered is a Regency-era romance novel written by the award-winning Paula Reibel Schwartz under the pen name Elizabeth Mansfield in 1978. This is my first experience reading a Regency-era novel to completion, yes, that even includes Miss Jane Austen. Even though Miss Austen’s books are on my TBR list, I still have not taken the time to read any of her novels. I have watched many movies and television shows set in the Regency-era, but I definitely will read more books now.
I have to say after reading My Lord Murderer as an immersive experience(book+audiobook); I feel like it will be easier to read books set in this era. In the past, I found it difficult to read these types of books because of the language and dialog barrier. They simply sometimes can be very hard to understand. I could follow along with the dialog, and it was a delightful experience. Elizabeth Mansfield did a wonderful job with this story, and it is undeniable that a lot of research went into her writing. She penned over 30 Regency-era romances during her career. As well as a novelist, Ms. Mansfield was also a talented playwright.
The story was a light read. It is tasteful and very witty. It is not at all like the Bridgerton television series on Netflix. True to the time, the characters were everything I expected, and Jane Copland did a wonderful job of bringing this story to life. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I have to say after reading My Lord Murderer as an immersive experience(book+audiobook); I feel like it will be easier to read books set in this era. In the past, I found it difficult to read these types of books because of the language and dialog barrier. They simply sometimes can be very hard to understand. I could follow along with the dialog, and it was a delightful experience. Elizabeth Mansfield did a wonderful job with this story, and it is undeniable that a lot of research went into her writing. She penned over 30 Regency-era romances during her career. As well as a novelist, Ms. Mansfield was also a talented playwright.
The story was a light read. It is tasteful and very witty. It is not at all like the Bridgerton television series on Netflix. True to the time, the characters were everything I expected, and Jane Copland did a wonderful job of bringing this story to life. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
November 21, 2025
This was an interesting plot setting up an enemies-to-lovers plotline. But it turns into an instaluv instead. The FMC Gwen's husband was killed in a duel that he and the MMC Drew fought. The first time they met, she calls him a murderer. The second time they met, he proposes to her. The third significant conversation leads to a declaration of love. It all happened rather fast but there are more twists before they can be happy together.
I was entertained but I can't really understand why Gwen was in the dark about what happened in the duel if the magistrate investigated the events. Wouldn't it be their responsibility to be to inform the next of kin of the victim? I guess there would have been no book then.
And I don't really understand why they thought that a relationship with Drew and Gwen would improve his standing re: unpleasant gossip regarding the duel. It seems like it has the potential to fuel a whole lot of new unpleasant gossip, speculating that it was some kind of a Batsheba situation and he killed her husband so he could one day take his place.
I was entertained but I can't really understand why Gwen was in the dark about what happened in the duel if the magistrate investigated the events. Wouldn't it be their responsibility to be to inform the next of kin of the victim? I guess there would have been no book then.
And I don't really understand why they thought that a relationship with Drew and Gwen would improve his standing re: unpleasant gossip regarding the duel. It seems like it has the potential to fuel a whole lot of new unpleasant gossip, speculating that it was some kind of a Batsheba situation and he killed her husband so he could one day take his place.
Read
October 23, 2023As with some of the previous Elizabeth Mansfield books I've read, the main characters in MY LORD MURDERER frustrated me. They fell in love too easily, and then stubbornly refused to ask the questions or allow the conversations that would have cleared things up so they could get together. If Gwen and Drew were the only interesting characters in the book, it would rank pretty low in my estimation.
But Mansfield seems to have had a gift for creating beta couples and secondary characters who steal the show, and this book was no exception. The marital dynamics between Hetty and Selby were honestly more interesting to me than the interactions between the main couple. I also enjoyed Wys's romantic arc, which could have been turned into an entire novel of its own.
I'm not sure that I would recommend this book, because so many things about the central plot irritated me, but Mansfield does display considerable talent for character creation.
But Mansfield seems to have had a gift for creating beta couples and secondary characters who steal the show, and this book was no exception. The marital dynamics between Hetty and Selby were honestly more interesting to me than the interactions between the main couple. I also enjoyed Wys's romantic arc, which could have been turned into an entire novel of its own.
I'm not sure that I would recommend this book, because so many things about the central plot irritated me, but Mansfield does display considerable talent for character creation.
May 18, 2025
The heroine is pig-headed idiot, bet on cutting off her nose to spite the face. The hero is a noble idiot who refuses to defend his honor out of misplaced chivalry. They fall in love at first sight, without even knowing each other's names. 90% of the novel would not be needed if the MFC and MMC would just TALK to each other. I usually take the woman's side in stories, but in this case I wanted to say: "Drew, my boy, a brief bout of lust (and your feelings for Gwen are definitely mostly lust) isnot worth a lifetime of misery with such a bitch. Just turn 180 degrees and run, do not turn back".
July 25, 2025
Found this story incredibly irritating and skim read most of it in the hope it would improve but it just went from bad to worse. The h was unbelievably stupid from the start and against all the evidence continued to call the H a murderer which became very boring. I liked the H to start with and couldn’t understand why he put up with the h but then he started to behave very stupidly as well. Will not read anything else by this author.
January 15, 2024
Very silly, and not well-developed. Ended up doing some skimming to stay interested, which is never a good sign.
November 5, 2024
This was not quite 4 stars, but I really liked the main male character. I didn't like how the main female character was fooled by the villain. I thought she was smarter.
May 25, 2025
Goddd Jamison is everything 🥺😍😍
October 8, 2025
What a wonderful story! I confess to getting a bit aggravated at the heroine and hero for being so blind at times, not to mention being so stubborn! But I will definitely read again in the future!
August 27, 2015
If you can ignore the silly chit who is the h, and love-at-first-sight, this is a lighthearted, decent read.
h thinks H murdered/shot in cold blood, her drunk gambler of a husband (against whom she sometimes had to lock her bedroom door, when he returned home drunk and having lost money). He pursues, she acts like a touch-me-not, he pursues her some more.
He's nice to her brother, he's nice to her mil (the drunk gambler's mother!), and he insists on not making details of the duel public (he raised his hand to delope, h's husband shot him accidentally, and then H shot him, accidentally... so his death was an, you got it, accident!)
h hangs out with her deceased husband's friend, whom she did not htink had been a good influence on him. I found that strange and stupid. Also, she believes his version of the duel. Again, strange and stupid. She runs off to get married with him (he only intends to compromise her and force her to become his mistress, while he's contracted to marry a rich cit's daughter).
Wonder what happened to Trixie, the girl H was taking out after h demanded that he leave her alone. Didn't like that part. Or the H's reminiscence about how much fun they had with some innkeeper's daughter and her friend, just four months before, before 'falling in love'. (That's where that one star went. I can put up with a lot of silliness, but not rakishness).
The secondary romance was also love at first sight, but sweet. The H's sister and her husband, those scenes were good as well.
Pleasant read.
h thinks H murdered/shot in cold blood, her drunk gambler of a husband (against whom she sometimes had to lock her bedroom door, when he returned home drunk and having lost money). He pursues, she acts like a touch-me-not, he pursues her some more.
He's nice to her brother, he's nice to her mil (the drunk gambler's mother!), and he insists on not making details of the duel public (he raised his hand to delope, h's husband shot him accidentally, and then H shot him, accidentally... so his death was an, you got it, accident!)
h hangs out with her deceased husband's friend, whom she did not htink had been a good influence on him. I found that strange and stupid. Also, she believes his version of the duel. Again, strange and stupid. She runs off to get married with him (he only intends to compromise her and force her to become his mistress, while he's contracted to marry a rich cit's daughter).
Wonder what happened to Trixie, the girl H was taking out after h demanded that he leave her alone. Didn't like that part. Or the H's reminiscence about how much fun they had with some innkeeper's daughter and her friend, just four months before, before 'falling in love'. (That's where that one star went. I can put up with a lot of silliness, but not rakishness).
The secondary romance was also love at first sight, but sweet. The H's sister and her husband, those scenes were good as well.
Pleasant read.
March 29, 2018
This book makes me really appreciate Stephanie Laurens. I am an erratic reader of romance novels. My problem with them, especially historical romance is that the heroine is usually an insipid addle brain. By the end of most books, it is difficult to see why on earth the hero would waste a moment, much less the rest of his life on a such a stupid, vacuous character. That is why I appreciate Stephanie Laurens books. The underlying plots might be impractical or unbelievable, but there is always a plot, a storyline distinct from the will she/won't she tug of the heroine. The ratio of sexual activity to everything else might be extremely high, but at least the reader has proof that the characters like and desire each other. In most of Lauren's books the heroines are as equally strong and intelligent as the heroes and while they do still act irrationally at times, so do the men.
My Lord Murderer was the perfect example of a plot totally dependent upon the idiocy of the heroine. If she isn't ridiculously gullible and prone to making the exact opposite of the decision any reasonable woman would make, then there is no point to the book. It is totally implausible that the hero would desire her, another woman would be her friend or her family would tolerate her. This is the kind of book that gives romance's a bad name. A silly waste of time.
My Lord Murderer was the perfect example of a plot totally dependent upon the idiocy of the heroine. If she isn't ridiculously gullible and prone to making the exact opposite of the decision any reasonable woman would make, then there is no point to the book. It is totally implausible that the hero would desire her, another woman would be her friend or her family would tolerate her. This is the kind of book that gives romance's a bad name. A silly waste of time.
February 12, 2017
Quite, erh, dramatic.
February 28, 2015
I just love Elizabeth Mansfield's books. "My Lord Murderer" is no exception.
This story has an unlikeable heroine, one filled with hatred and disdain for the hero. Personally, I thought he would be better off without her, but he was determined that she was the only woman for him. No matter how much he did for her, she was ungrateful and insulting.
So, needless to say, Gwen was not your usual heroine, but her brother Tom was a sweetheart. Drew, the hero, was honorable to the point he didn't want Gwen to hear the truth about the duel in which Drew killed Gwen's dishonorable husband. As a result, Gwen heard a greatly altered version of the duel in which Drew cold-bloodedly shot a frightened and begging young man.
The supporting characters were lively and interesting, and I enjoyed this book very much.
This story has an unlikeable heroine, one filled with hatred and disdain for the hero. Personally, I thought he would be better off without her, but he was determined that she was the only woman for him. No matter how much he did for her, she was ungrateful and insulting.
So, needless to say, Gwen was not your usual heroine, but her brother Tom was a sweetheart. Drew, the hero, was honorable to the point he didn't want Gwen to hear the truth about the duel in which Drew killed Gwen's dishonorable husband. As a result, Gwen heard a greatly altered version of the duel in which Drew cold-bloodedly shot a frightened and begging young man.
The supporting characters were lively and interesting, and I enjoyed this book very much.
July 21, 2016
Finally. I was starting to worry that the Elizabeth Mansfield that I had liked so much before was a fluke for her. This was good. This was more than good. It moved along well and it had plot to it. Plus the characters were interesting and charming. I actually liked a lot of them and approved of them and their logic/motivation/quirkiness. It was actually a FUNNY book, too. Mind you, it wasn't perfect and there were moments where I wanted to shake the hell out of the heroine because she was very stubbornly tunnel-vision. On the other hand, reasons were given for it and, while they were perhaps stretched beyond normal belief at times, they were sound and realistic. You definitely ended up sympathizing with the hero at those times, though. Heh.
January 17, 2016
Murder, dueling, secrets and lies
A pathetic duel ending in a accidental death. A secret is vowed by those who witnessed it. Then the man who lived meets the widow and falls in love. And the widow sees a murderer. Quite a plot, skillfully done will keep you turning the pages in this very unique Regency Romance.
A pathetic duel ending in a accidental death. A secret is vowed by those who witnessed it. Then the man who lived meets the widow and falls in love. And the widow sees a murderer. Quite a plot, skillfully done will keep you turning the pages in this very unique Regency Romance.
May 25, 2009
It was a light romance as I like it. Very well written.
February 15, 2016
Not on my keeper shelf.
September 25, 2009
Regency
unfinished
March 28, 2017I gave up on this one at 25%
April 28, 2017
Although I felt the heroine was utterly silly, her stupidity almost made me stop reading the novel, but I really liked the writing style of the author, it make reading so amusing and entertaining almost like watching a movie.
January 22, 2018
Two questions: Is it good writing to piss the reader off? Is that what the author intended? It is, after all, some kind of reaction! Personally though, I suspect the plot device took over and the author didn't know how to resolve it without shortening the page count of the book. It could've been done, though.
Mixed feelings about this book, no mistake. Really enjoyable minor characters - you can tell the author had a lot of fun creating them and writing about them. I liked the premise, and the hero a lot. He was just a decent sort of guy, plus handsome and affectionate! I can kind of buy into the far-fetched idea that a woman suffering from a huge guilt complex might project that guilt onto the person she holds responsible for keeping her from "fixing" or resolving her guilt. But to totally ignore one's own common sense and judgement, not to mention freaking out as though common masculine pursuits of the day were tantamount to being a brutish cave-man? That's a little harder to swallow.
Anyway!
It's hard for me to root for a character that I actually ended up wanting to see punished, and I mean badly punished, for their stupidity and self-pitying blindness. I don't like it when I'm swearing at the heroine, thinking she deserves what she gets herself into, and yelling at the hero, "No, don't go save that idiot! Let her find out what she's done to herself the hard way!"
I thought I'd like this one a lot more than I did. The previous book of Mansfield, "The Phantom Lover" was quite a charming little regency. This one had me wanting to:
Mixed feelings about this book, no mistake. Really enjoyable minor characters - you can tell the author had a lot of fun creating them and writing about them. I liked the premise, and the hero a lot. He was just a decent sort of guy, plus handsome and affectionate! I can kind of buy into the far-fetched idea that a woman suffering from a huge guilt complex might project that guilt onto the person she holds responsible for keeping her from "fixing" or resolving her guilt. But to totally ignore one's own common sense and judgement, not to mention freaking out as though common masculine pursuits of the day were tantamount to being a brutish cave-man? That's a little harder to swallow.
Anyway!
It's hard for me to root for a character that I actually ended up wanting to see punished, and I mean badly punished, for their stupidity and self-pitying blindness. I don't like it when I'm swearing at the heroine, thinking she deserves what she gets herself into, and yelling at the hero, "No, don't go save that idiot! Let her find out what she's done to herself the hard way!"
I thought I'd like this one a lot more than I did. The previous book of Mansfield, "The Phantom Lover" was quite a charming little regency. This one had me wanting to:
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