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The Cloisonne Locket
The devastatingly handsome, fabulously wealthy Duke of Rutland was sure that Miss Rosemary Barton was too good to be true-and too beautiful to be good. Surely this extraordinary, lovely young lady had put herself in his path so that she might wind up in his arms-and then in his marriage bed. Just as certainly, she had ingratiated herself with the duke's sister, Annabelle, to gain an ally in her campaign of coquettish conquest. The duke vowed not to be this doxy's dupe. Instead he would strip away her pretenses of propriety to reveal her for the title-hunter she was. And suddenly Rosemary, who knew so little of the world and even less of men, had to fight for her honor against the seductive stratagems and intoxicating advances of this man who thought he had none.
239 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
31 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Hazard
57 books15 followersBarbara (Booth) Hazard, a resident of Exeter, NH, died on October 25, 2019 in Boston, MA surrounded by family. Born in 1931 in Fall River, MA, the daughter of Albert L. and Lillian (Holland) Booth, she was raised and educated in New England. She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 1953 and was briefly employed by Ginn & Company in Boston as a Technical Editor. She married Donald T. Hazard in 1954 and next worked as a Graphic Designer/Artist for a Concord, NH advertising firm.
Originally trained as a musician, Mrs. Hazard also studied oil painting with Amy Jones and for a time had several shows in New York and Vermont. She began to write historical fiction in 1978. First published in 1981, she went on to write and publish 48 books, several of which are also in circulation abroad. She won several awards for her writing.
Mrs. Hazard wrote that there were several things in her life that she was most proud of; being Concertmaster of the MA All State Orchestra in Symphony Hall in Boston, having a successful career as an artist and as a writer, which was her greatest love besides her husband, three sons and their wives.
She loved New England and in particular, Cape Cod, which she visited every year for most of her life. Her other loves included her family, reading and music. She also wrote under the pen name of Lillian Lincoln.
Originally trained as a musician, Mrs. Hazard also studied oil painting with Amy Jones and for a time had several shows in New York and Vermont. She began to write historical fiction in 1978. First published in 1981, she went on to write and publish 48 books, several of which are also in circulation abroad. She won several awards for her writing.
Mrs. Hazard wrote that there were several things in her life that she was most proud of; being Concertmaster of the MA All State Orchestra in Symphony Hall in Boston, having a successful career as an artist and as a writer, which was her greatest love besides her husband, three sons and their wives.
She loved New England and in particular, Cape Cod, which she visited every year for most of her life. Her other loves included her family, reading and music. She also wrote under the pen name of Lillian Lincoln.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 1, 2019
3.5 stars.
A sexy, pompous, self important Duke meets a beautiful, wholesome, strong willed half Italian country girl who gives as good as she gets and turns his orderly life upside down !
This is the H, the Duke of Rutland:
This is the heroine, Rosemary:
In this slow burn, clean traditional Regency historical, Barbara Hazard weaves a little mystery into a romantic tale about two polar opposite MC's whose mutual attraction is almost as strong as their mutual distaste. And it's obvious, from the blurb, that this H is a major jerk and egotistical jackass. But that just made the story more entertaining to me, because I enjoyed watching him battle his feelings while telling himself that the heroine was the most unsuitable woman in the Ton.
Like most traditional regencies, this novel is more than just the MC's romantic storyline. The author focuses heavily on a strong ( and sometimes strange) cast of ensemble characters, who play important roles in the developing mystery. There's even a slight gothic element, when the heroine moves into Lady Emily's eery, dusty old London townhouse.
My favourite character is Rosemary, the heroine of the story. In some respects, she immediately reminded me of Thomas Hardy's heroines, in novels like Tess of the D'Urbervilles, The Return of the Native and Far From the Madding Crowd. Unlike those heroines, Rosemary doesn't suffer too much and she gets her HEA with her true love.
Rosemary is an effervescent and fabulously beautiful 18 year old orphan who lives in the country, with her prudish and judgemental paternal aunt. But, like Hardy's heroine Tess, beauty turns out to be a curse for Rosemary because most of the minor characters aren't willing to look beyond the superficial to appreciate her kindness, joie de vivre and empathy for others.
The heroine attracts too much attention from all men ( literally ! ). Her cousin Henry, her uncle, her cousin Eleanor's male suitors, the male servants and even the men from the village all seem to fall into a literal daze whenever she's in the vicinity.
In fact, men ( including the H ) consistently behave like greedy dogs, chasing after treats, when they see the heroine. LOL...
Consequently, she's always viewed as a threat by other women; younger unmarried ones are jealous of her beauty, matrons think that their daughters won't receive marriage proposals if they cultivate a friendship with the heroine and new brides think she'll steal their husband's attention.
This is why her prudish, sourpuss aunt sends her to London, to stay with an estranged elderly relative named Lady Emily. This weird old woman is an eccentric, agoraphobic widow who's reminiscent of the villainous Miss Havisham from Dickens' Great Expectations.
In London, Rosemary develops a friendship with a sweet, disabled girl named Belle, who lives in the mansion opposite Lady Emily's townhouse. Belle's the H's younger sister and he's against their friendship been he thinks that Rosemary is just using his sister to foster a closer relationship with him. Desperate, title hunting women have done that before and Mark ( the H ), doesn't want his sister to be hurt again.
He's also got these fake, preconceived notions that the heroine is a wanton, Jezebel maneater who's put on earth to destroy men with her seductive wiles. That's because he himself developed an intense insta-lust when he first saw her and he's never reacted that way to a woman before. He's also incapable of staying away from her or taunting her about her pseudo feminine wiles.
The funniest and most endearing thing, is that the heroine, while fully aware of her own attractions, goes out of her way to avoid giving men the wrong signals. And a few other characters, like the plain Jane, pastel wearing, 4 years on the shelf spinster OW, Lady Margaret, spurn the heroine, based on envy and/or malice.
Lady Margaret has been waiting years, for the H to propose to her and she's very territorial about him - even though he's never kissed her or hinted at an imminent proposal. She soon starts to freak out when she notices how the H is easily affected by the heroine. This leads her to meddle and spread vicious lies about the heroine, in an effort to destroy the latter's reputation.
As if that's not bad enough, the strange Lady Emily ( Rosemary's London guardian ) unravels into an unhinged meltdown mode ! This is linked to the novel's mystery storyline and to the titular cloisonne locket itself. Lady Emily, like Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, has been a recluse for over 30 years. Relatives think it's due to the death of her husband.
The truth is more dramatic, because it lends an insane twist to the story. Three decades ago, Lady Emily had been the lover of the H's late father. The late duke had been unmarried at the time and, like most men in the Ton, often felt it was safer to engage in affairs with married women, like Lady Emily.
Things had been fine until Lady Emily's husband suddenly died and her expectations changed. She was obsessively in love and hoped the duke would propose to her. The duke, meanwhile, had already earmarked a young debutante as his future wife. Lady Emily begged and grovelled, but all she received was a cloisonne locket with a miniature picture of the duke inside.
Like all proverbial scorned women, Lady Emily has been waiting for decades, to get her revenge. She can't seek vengeance against her former dead lover, but she's determined to destroy his lookalike son - the H. She gets this opportunity when she observes the H's developing attraction for her ward, Rosemary. Just like Miss Havisham had done to Pip and Estella in Dickens' masterpiece, Lady Emily schemes to use the heroine to break the H's heart.
I won't go into all the details, because this is one long novel, but I will add that Lady Emily includes her lecherous, gold digging nephew Mr. Edson and her awful servants in her dark plan to destroy the H and prevent the MC's from getting their happy ending. She takes extreme measures, like imprisoning Rosemary in the attic while telling the H that the heroine had eloped with another man.
I was quite prepared to give this novel 4.5 stars, because I really enjoyed the overall story. I didn't even mind that it was a clean regency with an ultra slow burn storyline. That's because I was keenly interested in the unfolding events of the plot and the minor characters were well fleshed out as well.
Unfortunately, the final section and the resolution of the story occurred too quickly and the ending was rather abrupt. The MC's had waited such a long time for their HEA that I wished the author had added an epilogue or extended the ending to include a wedding. I was also disappointed that the villains received inadequate punishment.
Lady Emily absconded into the night with her nephew, her servants, her bullying dog Prinny and was never seen again, while the wannabe OW, Lady Margaret, got her off page comeuppance when the H confronted with her with her lies and told her that he's not going to be proposing marriage - ever !
There were a lot of memorable quotations I would've loved to include in this review, but couldn't because I borrowed this from Open Library online. Fans of clean, well written, slow burn traditional regencies with a memorable cast of characters, might enjoy this novel.
Safety: No sex, no cheating, a wannabe OW and numerous wannabe OM who kept hanging around the heroine.
A sexy, pompous, self important Duke meets a beautiful, wholesome, strong willed half Italian country girl who gives as good as she gets and turns his orderly life upside down !
This is the H, the Duke of Rutland:
This is the heroine, Rosemary:
In this slow burn, clean traditional Regency historical, Barbara Hazard weaves a little mystery into a romantic tale about two polar opposite MC's whose mutual attraction is almost as strong as their mutual distaste. And it's obvious, from the blurb, that this H is a major jerk and egotistical jackass. But that just made the story more entertaining to me, because I enjoyed watching him battle his feelings while telling himself that the heroine was the most unsuitable woman in the Ton.
Like most traditional regencies, this novel is more than just the MC's romantic storyline. The author focuses heavily on a strong ( and sometimes strange) cast of ensemble characters, who play important roles in the developing mystery. There's even a slight gothic element, when the heroine moves into Lady Emily's eery, dusty old London townhouse.
My favourite character is Rosemary, the heroine of the story. In some respects, she immediately reminded me of Thomas Hardy's heroines, in novels like Tess of the D'Urbervilles, The Return of the Native and Far From the Madding Crowd. Unlike those heroines, Rosemary doesn't suffer too much and she gets her HEA with her true love.
Rosemary is an effervescent and fabulously beautiful 18 year old orphan who lives in the country, with her prudish and judgemental paternal aunt. But, like Hardy's heroine Tess, beauty turns out to be a curse for Rosemary because most of the minor characters aren't willing to look beyond the superficial to appreciate her kindness, joie de vivre and empathy for others.
The heroine attracts too much attention from all men ( literally ! ). Her cousin Henry, her uncle, her cousin Eleanor's male suitors, the male servants and even the men from the village all seem to fall into a literal daze whenever she's in the vicinity.
In fact, men ( including the H ) consistently behave like greedy dogs, chasing after treats, when they see the heroine. LOL...
Consequently, she's always viewed as a threat by other women; younger unmarried ones are jealous of her beauty, matrons think that their daughters won't receive marriage proposals if they cultivate a friendship with the heroine and new brides think she'll steal their husband's attention.
This is why her prudish, sourpuss aunt sends her to London, to stay with an estranged elderly relative named Lady Emily. This weird old woman is an eccentric, agoraphobic widow who's reminiscent of the villainous Miss Havisham from Dickens' Great Expectations.
In London, Rosemary develops a friendship with a sweet, disabled girl named Belle, who lives in the mansion opposite Lady Emily's townhouse. Belle's the H's younger sister and he's against their friendship been he thinks that Rosemary is just using his sister to foster a closer relationship with him. Desperate, title hunting women have done that before and Mark ( the H ), doesn't want his sister to be hurt again.
He's also got these fake, preconceived notions that the heroine is a wanton, Jezebel maneater who's put on earth to destroy men with her seductive wiles. That's because he himself developed an intense insta-lust when he first saw her and he's never reacted that way to a woman before. He's also incapable of staying away from her or taunting her about her pseudo feminine wiles.
The funniest and most endearing thing, is that the heroine, while fully aware of her own attractions, goes out of her way to avoid giving men the wrong signals. And a few other characters, like the plain Jane, pastel wearing, 4 years on the shelf spinster OW, Lady Margaret, spurn the heroine, based on envy and/or malice.
Lady Margaret has been waiting years, for the H to propose to her and she's very territorial about him - even though he's never kissed her or hinted at an imminent proposal. She soon starts to freak out when she notices how the H is easily affected by the heroine. This leads her to meddle and spread vicious lies about the heroine, in an effort to destroy the latter's reputation.
As if that's not bad enough, the strange Lady Emily ( Rosemary's London guardian ) unravels into an unhinged meltdown mode ! This is linked to the novel's mystery storyline and to the titular cloisonne locket itself. Lady Emily, like Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, has been a recluse for over 30 years. Relatives think it's due to the death of her husband.
The truth is more dramatic, because it lends an insane twist to the story. Three decades ago, Lady Emily had been the lover of the H's late father. The late duke had been unmarried at the time and, like most men in the Ton, often felt it was safer to engage in affairs with married women, like Lady Emily.
Things had been fine until Lady Emily's husband suddenly died and her expectations changed. She was obsessively in love and hoped the duke would propose to her. The duke, meanwhile, had already earmarked a young debutante as his future wife. Lady Emily begged and grovelled, but all she received was a cloisonne locket with a miniature picture of the duke inside.
Like all proverbial scorned women, Lady Emily has been waiting for decades, to get her revenge. She can't seek vengeance against her former dead lover, but she's determined to destroy his lookalike son - the H. She gets this opportunity when she observes the H's developing attraction for her ward, Rosemary. Just like Miss Havisham had done to Pip and Estella in Dickens' masterpiece, Lady Emily schemes to use the heroine to break the H's heart.
I won't go into all the details, because this is one long novel, but I will add that Lady Emily includes her lecherous, gold digging nephew Mr. Edson and her awful servants in her dark plan to destroy the H and prevent the MC's from getting their happy ending. She takes extreme measures, like imprisoning Rosemary in the attic while telling the H that the heroine had eloped with another man.
I was quite prepared to give this novel 4.5 stars, because I really enjoyed the overall story. I didn't even mind that it was a clean regency with an ultra slow burn storyline. That's because I was keenly interested in the unfolding events of the plot and the minor characters were well fleshed out as well.
Unfortunately, the final section and the resolution of the story occurred too quickly and the ending was rather abrupt. The MC's had waited such a long time for their HEA that I wished the author had added an epilogue or extended the ending to include a wedding. I was also disappointed that the villains received inadequate punishment.
Lady Emily absconded into the night with her nephew, her servants, her bullying dog Prinny and was never seen again, while the wannabe OW, Lady Margaret, got her off page comeuppance when the H confronted with her with her lies and told her that he's not going to be proposing marriage - ever !
There were a lot of memorable quotations I would've loved to include in this review, but couldn't because I borrowed this from Open Library online. Fans of clean, well written, slow burn traditional regencies with a memorable cast of characters, might enjoy this novel.
Safety: No sex, no cheating, a wannabe OW and numerous wannabe OM who kept hanging around the heroine.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 5, 2016
Conceited hero,contrived plot and I dont care if they fall in love. I just know I wouldnt.
March 29, 2016
THE CLOISONNÉ LOCKET, by Barbara Hazard, has all the makings of a particularly fun gothic romance. A beautiful young girl, innocent to the ways of the world; a cynical jaded Duke attracted to her; a certifiably insane, reclusive relative and a revenge plot decades in the making. This is in fact categorized under the heading of 'Regency Romance', but the atmosphere is very foreboding.
Poor Rosemary Barton can't help how she looks—an exotic beauty she inherited from her Italian mother, she had spent the last eight years of her life with her father's sister, Mary Fleming, and her family. A more unremarkable family you shall be hard to meet. With her older cousin about to be set out into society, Aunt Mary turns a jealous eye towards her niece and sends her packing to her reclusive cousin Emily in London. A worse mistake she could never have made.
Hazard does a very good job of setting up the eeriness of Rosemary's new surroundings with Emily. Cantankerous old servants, dingy living conditions and Emily contemptuously telling her that she never wants to know she is even in the same house, all serve to make the reader understand Rosemary's dismay. Her one ray of light at first is her Aunt Mary's childhood friend, the dashing Lady Agatha, wife of a diplomat. She takes Rosemary under her wing and offers her the life all girls her age dream of.
If only I could be as happy with the Duke! From his very first meeting with Rosemary he is antagonistic, ungentlemanly, and outright accusatory of her actions. Further meetings yield scathing glares, disdainful sneers and more mocking words. He is convinced, merely because of how she looks and his own inflated ego, that she is chasing after him. That everything she says, or does, is merely meant to entrap him. It's obvious he is attracted to her, but until the last quarter of the book you'd never guess he was in love with her.
The other cast of characters—from his flighty card-happy mother, his younger crippled sister, prudish wannabe fiancée and Emily's own sleazy nephew—all serve their purposes well. I will say out of them all, his mother gave me the most surprise later in the book.
I do have a few minor problems with the book, such as what would happen exactly when Rosemary told her aunt of Emily's insanity. It's brought up by a few characters that Mary wanted Rosemary gone and never to return, but she did have affection for the girl and no matter what would happen to her daughter's romantic prospects, I wouldn't think she'd have deliberately sent her there if the full extent of Emily's 'eccentricities' had been known. There is also the matter that I would think that Emily's actions at the end of the book would have brought the police into it, at least mentioned if nothing else.
All in all this is an enjoyable read with enough gothic flair to make reading this a cut above the normal Regency romance.
Poor Rosemary Barton can't help how she looks—an exotic beauty she inherited from her Italian mother, she had spent the last eight years of her life with her father's sister, Mary Fleming, and her family. A more unremarkable family you shall be hard to meet. With her older cousin about to be set out into society, Aunt Mary turns a jealous eye towards her niece and sends her packing to her reclusive cousin Emily in London. A worse mistake she could never have made.
Hazard does a very good job of setting up the eeriness of Rosemary's new surroundings with Emily. Cantankerous old servants, dingy living conditions and Emily contemptuously telling her that she never wants to know she is even in the same house, all serve to make the reader understand Rosemary's dismay. Her one ray of light at first is her Aunt Mary's childhood friend, the dashing Lady Agatha, wife of a diplomat. She takes Rosemary under her wing and offers her the life all girls her age dream of.
If only I could be as happy with the Duke! From his very first meeting with Rosemary he is antagonistic, ungentlemanly, and outright accusatory of her actions. Further meetings yield scathing glares, disdainful sneers and more mocking words. He is convinced, merely because of how she looks and his own inflated ego, that she is chasing after him. That everything she says, or does, is merely meant to entrap him. It's obvious he is attracted to her, but until the last quarter of the book you'd never guess he was in love with her.
The other cast of characters—from his flighty card-happy mother, his younger crippled sister, prudish wannabe fiancée and Emily's own sleazy nephew—all serve their purposes well. I will say out of them all, his mother gave me the most surprise later in the book.
I do have a few minor problems with the book, such as what would happen exactly when Rosemary told her aunt of Emily's insanity. It's brought up by a few characters that Mary wanted Rosemary gone and never to return, but she did have affection for the girl and no matter what would happen to her daughter's romantic prospects, I wouldn't think she'd have deliberately sent her there if the full extent of Emily's 'eccentricities' had been known. There is also the matter that I would think that Emily's actions at the end of the book would have brought the police into it, at least mentioned if nothing else.
All in all this is an enjoyable read with enough gothic flair to make reading this a cut above the normal Regency romance.
March 20, 2020
Enemies to lovers
Mistaken motives
Delicious evil villain
Meddling vicious OW
Whats not to love?
Could have been 5 stars except no justice dished out tot the evil villain and the OW. Plus the ending could have been better.
Available on open library.
Mistaken motives
Delicious evil villain
Meddling vicious OW
Whats not to love?
Could have been 5 stars except no justice dished out tot the evil villain and the OW. Plus the ending could have been better.
Available on open library.
May 15, 2019
The Duke of Rutland believes that Miss Rosemary Barton is a title hunter. He thinks she is using his sister, Annabelle to get a proposal from him. She really was a naive sweet girl. But as the Duke shares his opinion of Rosemary with the gents of the ton, she has to fight off unwanted advances. Rosemary is also devastated to learn what the Duke really thought of her.
The Duke courts another who is very formal and stiff. Everyone is appalled by this turn of events as she makes him act even more snobbish and formal. The Duke eventually realizes that Rosemary is not a title hunter and he tries to steer eligible young men to her at ton functions.
There is a murderous relative who wants revenge against Rosemary for something her parent did. It is very cliche and love will out. They do end up together.
The Duke courts another who is very formal and stiff. Everyone is appalled by this turn of events as she makes him act even more snobbish and formal. The Duke eventually realizes that Rosemary is not a title hunter and he tries to steer eligible young men to her at ton functions.
There is a murderous relative who wants revenge against Rosemary for something her parent did. It is very cliche and love will out. They do end up together.
September 21, 2014
gothic regency romance. fun, felt villains deserved a little more of their comeuppance for their misdeeds
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews