Affectionately Yours

by Kathryn June

Anna Tremain was thrilled when after months of silence she received a letter from her dearest friend, Valerie Monroe. Welcoming their renewed correspondence, Anna happily revealed her most intimate thoughts and fondest wishes to her cherished confidant. Then Anna met Valentine, Lord Alverston, Valerie's sensitive, handsome brother, who seemed to know her every secret desire.

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance, Regency, Traditional Regency, Historical

256 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2000

Reviews

[Kathy * Bookworm Nation · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought the plot sounded like a lot of fun, kind of like a Regency You’ve Got Mail. Unfortunately, it kind of failed in the execution. I think my biggest problem with the book was the over detailed descriptions and repetitiveness. For me, it caused the story to drag and I caught myself skimming quite a bit. In so doing, it made it hard for me to really relate to the characters or their situation. I liked the idea of Valentine writing to Anna (pretending to be his sister), I was glad the letters didn’t go on and on and pretty soon into the story the two actually meet up in London. It then took quite a while for his secret to come out; actually it didn’t happen until the very end. The whole middle section was hard to get through. By time we get to the big secret reveal I didn’t really care anymore. There were some nice moments during the story and Anna and Valentine were likable enough, it just wasn’t for me.

Content: Clean.

[Fangirl Musings · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pages survived: 40

So, at forty pages into this novel, I was already start to lean towards the idea that such was heading straight towards Suckage City. The brief introduction we, the reader, is given of the hero was so stiff, jaunty, and disconnected that I immediately didn’t care about who he was, or his back-story. However, I bided my time, for I firmly believe more than one novel's aspect has to suck in order for me to cease reading so PDQ. Well, then the letter exchange starts happening. And. I. Was. Bored!

That’s bored with a capital B, honestly. The exchange, even considering hero's masquerade with the heroine, was so one-sided of dialogue investment that it was almost purely a heroine introduction. Which, you know, makes sense, considering that at 40 pages in, the reader has still yet to get face-time with said female. But, by 40 pages of epistolary exchange, I was convinced I didn't even want to meet this woman. So full of happy-happy joy-joys was this chick that I thought I would stroke out into a diabetic sugar-induced coma; it was that bad. So, boring hero? Check. Irritating heroine? Check. Dry, stilted writing? Check. A DNF, perchance? I didn't know. I'm often a fence-sitter, what can I say?

So, I Googled for some reviews (Goodreads was sans any in depth ones, once more), and apparently, I was dead-on about this book's crappiness. Apparently the heroine (I honestly can’t recall this chick’s name, nor do I even care to check, so apathetic am/was I) has no character evolution or dynamic what-so-ever. Her entire on-page presence, as the reviews tell me, consists of Hi-I’m-Happiness-And-Fake-But-Real-Smiles-All-Day-Long-ness. Add that to the fact that my original premise, the plot being El Boreo, holds true, and this book turns into a total bomb for me. I don’t mind character-driven plots that are entirely internal, but if this story-telling device is going to be utilized, c’mon, peeps, you KNOW the author must follow through with some awesome characters.

I realize that a reader's absolutely character adoration can’t be established within just forty pages. I’m cool with that. I can’t, however, be cool with heroines that are irritating paired with heroes that literally had me all droopy-eyes with sleepiness. As always, there are too many other potentially good books waiting for me to waste time on the possibility that this novel -might- improve. So...This book = fail.

PS: Lastly, can anyone PLEASE tell me why the name of the hamlet/county/city/town where the heroine lived always had to be edited out? ‘Cause, really, c’mon, ____shire was as irritating as the female lead chick.

[Sonja Likness · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book not only for its romance but also for a well done glimpse into the fringes of London society we don't often get to see in Regency novels. I think there's a little bit of country girl in all of us, and it was fun to read about Anna falling in love with a man she thought was so out of her league, even as he had already fallen head over heels for her. I'd love to read more from Kathryn June. Here's hoping there's more to come.

[Evelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable. I think Anna overreacted somewhat when she discovered it was Valentine who had written the letters, and not Valerie. But I feel I can overlook that since I liked the way it ended. :)

[Hopefulpuffin]

DNF at @ 30%

I love epistolary romances. This one wasn't very good. It was repetative. So repetative. Repetative. Like that.