Fair Juno

Regencies #4

by Stephanie Laurens

When the Earl of Merton suddenly finds himself playing the knight in shining armor to a damsel in distress, he knows his days as a notorious rake are numbered. But though the lady seems grateful for his assistance, she flees the scene without revealing her name. And though past scandals and present dangers threaten his pursuit of the mysterious lady, he knows she is to be his destiny.

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical, Regency, Regency Romance, Fiction, Historical Fiction

297 pages, Paperback

First published June 11, 1994

About the author

Stephanie Laurens was born in Sri Lanka, which was at the time the British colony of Ceylon. When she was 5, her family moved to Melbourne, Australia, where she was raised. After continuing through school and earning a Ph.D. in Biochemistry in Australia, Stephanie and her husband moved to Great Britain, taking one of the last true overland journeys from Katmandu to London.

Once in London, Stephanie and her husband both began work as research scientists in Kent. They lived in an area surrounded by history. Their own cottage was built in the 16th century, while next door were the protected ruins of an early Roman villa, and nearby was a 14th century castle.

After four years in England, Stephanie and her husband returned to Australia, where she continued to work in cancer research, eventually heading her own research laboratory. One evening Stephanie realized that she did not have any more of her favorite romance novels to read. After years of thinking about writing her own novel, during nights and weekends for the next several months, she began crafting her own story. That manuscript, Tangled Reins, was the first of her books to be published. After achieving a level of success with her novels, Stephanie "retired" from scientific research and became a full-time novelist. Her novels are primarily historical romances set in the Regency time period.

Stephanie and her husband live on peaceful acreage on the outskirts of Melbourne. If she isn't writing, she's reading, and if she's not reading, she's tending her garden.

Reviews

[Gamze · Rating 1 out of 5]

Historical'un klasikleşen hikayesini bile çok çok sıkıcı anlatmış.
Kafa dağıtmak için okumaya başladım, ona rağmen bitirebilmem günler sürdü -_-

[HÜLYA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seriyi sanırım tersten okumaya başladım. Bu kitap daha iyice idi.

[Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only finished this book to explain, in detail, everything that I disliked.

The hero had a mistress. While this isn’t normally a deal-breaker for me (I like heroes and heroines with romantic/sexual experience, and past relationships/mistresses work within the context of a historical), I found this particular situation in this particular novel disturbing. The hero did not have just any mistress, we are told, but “the best mistress he had ever mounted.” Now, who was his mistress? A Jamaican woman, Erica, with “black ringlets and coffee colored skin.” Yikes on many, many levels!

Now shall we compare Erica with our “Fair Juno,” the heroine Helen? Helen’s the typical peaches and cream English flower, described (in the same paragraph as Erica’s description!) as gold and ivory. So, we have a food stuff description of the mistress versus precious materials of the heroine/future wife. Perhaps I’m reading too deeply, but the comparison immediately sets the impression that Erica is good for sex but not marriage material, while Helen is marriage material. Using the term “mounted” also has an animalistic connotation that, when used in reference to a woman of color, is deeply disturbing. Blah blah blah the past is a different country and all, but when I’m reading a romance I’d prefer for my heroes to not treat and speak of women in such a terrible, dehumanizing way. And Erica, let us take note, was a woman the hero LIKED!

Speaking of the way the hero treats women, let’s talk about three other women in the story- his mother, his dead brother’s wife, and his spurned pursuer. His mother was/is a mean woman who hates her son (and he hates her just as much, it seems), but the hero seems to take a perverse delight in messing with this woman. She’s awful, it’s true, but her meddling could easily be resolved if the hero wasn’t so high-handed. Just say “nope, got my own plans” and follow through, she’s a woman in 19th century England and can’t make you do anything, dude! And while this is a minor moment at the beginning of the story, I think the way he describes his sister-in-law is sad and disturbing. He treats her more like she’s furniture than a person. Doesn’t even speak to her or say hello! Yikes! Everyone forgets poor, plain Melissa, and it’s treated like a funny joke.

Then there’s the spurned pursuer, which... yikes. Yikes yikes yikes, was this a plot point that made me set the book down for the day. So she was a debutante who had her feather set for the hero, but he wasn’t interested. So she concocted an entire story of how he raped her so he’d be forced to marry her, and then he was sent off to Jamaica to make his fortune (and we all know that, no matter how nicely and quickly you gloss over THAT detail, meant that the hero likely made his money off of enslaved people). Of course, she’s proven to have made everything up and she’s really just The Worst and wants to ruin the hero’s life because she’s Petty Like That (TM). The absolute rarity of false rape accusations combined with the amount of people who are never charged with the rapes they committed makes this plot point an upsetting one for me.

Add to this mess the hero’s spoiled younger brother who just wants to ruin the hero’s life because ~reasons~ like jealousy, and you’ve got a recipe for all the outside conflict you need for the rest of the book! Our heroine, Helen, who is praised for her forthrightness and non-“missish-ness,” suddenly refuses to have the frank conversations she’s famed for with the hero, and we’ve got our third act conflict that is hastily resolved after the heroine spurns the hero’s marriage offer for a second time and then he “rescues” her from marrying another man before having that all important conversation! Our hero and heroine, everyone!

That’s the end of my review. I put way too much thought into this than I should have, but I was too angry to let it sit and fester. The author has a way with words, and maybe her other romances are different (this was published in the early 90’s, the genre has changed over time). However, I was pretty badly burnt by this one and I don’t know if I can pick up another one.

[Pınar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kitap fena değildi. Malum bu yazarın son çıkan kitapları gerçekten fecaatti. Bu bir tık daha iyiydi. Tabii bizim demirbaş tarihî aşk romanlarımızdan olamaz ama okurken sıkmayan, çabuk biten bir kitap oldu.
Ben ne istediğini bilen ve onların peşinden giden karakterleri severim. O yüzden ayrıca bir artı aldı benden.
Redaksiyon da rahatsız etmedi. Hatalar illa ki vardı ama gözardı edilebilecek düzeydeydi.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Repetitive and without any drama as to the romance. The two are clearly in love from the beginning and then begins a long tedious, playacting courtship that goes on and on and on. No sizzle either.

[Şeyda · Rating 3 out of 5]

tam bi ehh iste kitabi

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fair Juno is as captivating as any Laurens book. Martin Willisden, Earl of Merton and renown rake rescues Miss Helen Walford from her would be kidnappers. This starts off a chain of events whereby she seeks to ensure her anonymity and Willisden seeks to know first who she is and then to know her intimately. However, she is no ninnyhammer after a rich, aristocratic husband instead she stands by her independence. She is also wary because of her own slightly scandalous past. Undeterred Willisden seeks to show her that what he wants from her goes far beyond being a rake’s conquest. As the novel progresses so does the emotion between the two as they start to fall in love. Yet that is not enough to cause Helen to accept Willisden’s hand. She is caught in intrigue of her own as well as being susceptible to the manipulations of Willisden’s weak younger brother. This results in her continual refusal of Willisden. A refusal she undertakes because she thinks she has to save Willisden’s estate. The book races along at a cracking pace with plenty of sex, intrigue and romance to satisfy most readers of this sort of fiction.

[Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dreadful

Not up to her usual standards. This book was such a let down. The description is accurate but what was written was excessive. I expected a small encounter followed by Merton figuring out who she was. Nope, it was a long drawn out mess. Way too drawn out. Then followed by a courtship. But when the multiple marriage proposals are rejected it was so bad o wanted to brain myself with a rock! She doesn’t even use the correct punctuation! I am shocked she let this be published under her name. It was terrible. I gave it two stars instead of one because the premise was good even though the delivery was subpar.

[Drew Doll · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was loving this book until we got to the "Oh, I can't tell him what his brother said because it will cause him too much anguish. I'll just marry this repugnant man instead."

I hate, hate, hate the stupid plot device of people not just talking to one another. This heroine who through the entire book has been open and remarkable because she "is not missish" and is forthright all of a sudden will not talk with the love of her life to see if what she was told is true.

Sheesh. DNF'd.

[Desi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Leído en marzo 2010

2.5 estrellas

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books I Own. Kobo+ Mad About Series HRBC Challenge 2025. Tropes: Regency Romance, Widow, Family/Friends, Scandal.
MC's. L. Helen Walford (widow)aka Jair Juno by H. Martin Willisden, Earl of Merton, 35, just home from the West Indies. Mother Catherine Willisden, brother Damien, 24. Father and older two brothers deceased. One sister in law Melissa.

This was a romcom adventure at the beginning of the story when Martin came to Helen's rescue from being abducted by two men. Martin knew she was the one and started courting her. His brother Damien didn't want his brother married as he was the heir to the Earldom and wanted all the money for himself. He interfered causing a break up between the besotted couple. Eventally Helen's reputation was in question and she moved to her little cottage in Cornwall. Martin doesn't give up fighting for her and actually walks in on her wedding to another man and break it up. He carry's her off to his home and they marry at the Hermitage. A HEA.

This book actually follows the first book Tangle Reins, with Helen being a friend of the Marquess of Hazelmere and his wife Dorothea.

I gave this 4 stars.

[Yvonne Boag · Rating 2 out of 5]

Helen has been kidnapped but is quickly rescued by the Earl of Merton. Both are smitten but the barriers between them are huge especially when someone else is stirring the pot.

This book was quite stupid and I didn't enjoy it at all.

[Barbara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't say I like the narrator.

I no longer have any patience with conflict that could be resolved with a few words. Very few.

[Allarice · Rating 1 out of 5]

I generally don't write reviews for romance novels, but I had to make an exception for this one.

Martin, our swashbuckling earl, literally cannot get over our heroine, Helen. In fact, he can only try to forget her by thinking of the woman of color who was his mistress in Jamaica, then a British colony, where he made his fortune:

“Then he tried thinking of Erica, the mullato mistress he had left behind. That did not work either. Somehow Erica's dark ringlets and coffee-coloured skin kept transforming to golden curls and luscious white curves. ”

See, unlike his ivory-gold goddess, Erica is not white. Martin pictures his beautiful, white English rose:

“He wanted to see her standing before his fireplace, with his son in her arms.”

But, non-white Erica, with dark curly hair and tanned skin, is merely “the most satisfying mistress he had ever mounted.”

Forget white Madonna, black whore. Mounted. You don't mount humans. You mount horses. The white woman is his wife, and the non-white woman is likened to an animal. At this moment, you are acutely reminded that our very British, very elite hero made his entire fortune in Jamaica at the start of the 19th century.

By complete happenstance, of course, at the start of the 19th century the British elite were enslaving and dehumanizing thousands upon thousands of (non-white) people in the Caribbean in order to export sugar to their tea parties in London. In fact, Jamaica is still requesting reparations from the UK government, even today, hundreds of years later. Given that great loads of money don't fall from the sky, the only way our hero wasn't complicit in the pillaging and exploitation is if God personally sent an archangel to oversee that money materializing on the ground instead.

I get it. The novel is set in 19th-century Britain. It was another time. Fine.

But in the same way I expect novels not to glorify wife-beating, which was also a legal practice in early 19th-century Britain, I expect a novel published in 1999 not to cheerfully feature a hero who made his fortune on the backs of slaves.

And please, please don't non-ironically compare British imperialists' exploitation of women of color to mounting a horse. Actually, don't even do it ironically.

DNF.

[Yaren Y. · Rating 1 out of 5]

👎🏻 1/5
Zamanında bu türde çok fazla kitap okuyunca ister istemez bazı kitaplar kağıt israfı geliyor gözüme. Lisa Kleypas’ı bu türün kraliçesi ilan ederken bu yazarın onun yanından yakınından geçemeyeceğine eminim. Her ne kadar yarattığı karakterlerin belli bir çekicilikleri olsa da bu yeterli olmamış kitabı zevkle okumamız için.
İlk başlarda adapte olamadım, ki bunda hem çeviri hem de redaksiyonun berbat olmasının etkisi var. Sonraki kısımlarda ise biraz şundan biraz bundan kafasıyla kopuk kopuk kısımlar sayesinde okuma hevesimin kaçtığını itiraf etmeliyim.
Arka kapağın ve bazı bloggerların yaptığı yorumların vadettiği o tutkulu, güzel aşkı maalesef hissedemedim.
Hatta sonunu okuduktan sonra çığlık çığlığa “çok berbattı” nidaları attım. Zira her ne kadar kötü olsa da her historical romance’ten beklediğimiz gibi hafif tatlı, mutlu bir son bekliyoruz.
Olayların giriş ve gelişmesinde olduğu gibi sonunda da her şey havada kalmıştı.
Sanırım kitapta sevdiğim kısımlar yalnızca balolarda birbirlerine kur yaptıkları kısımlardı.
Onun dışında bu kitaba ayıracağınız vakitte çok daha güzel ve etkileyici Historical Romance’ler okunabilir.
Ki bunu okuyana dek Lisa’nın Gecemi Aydınlat’ını okuyup feels üstüne feels geçirir Harry ve Poppy’e duyduğum hayranlık ve aşkı tazeleyebilirdim.
Maalesef önerebileceğim bir kitap olmadı Yarınlarım Senin 👎🏻

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has been a while since I have read the previous books in this series, so while I recognized the names Hazelmere and Fanshaw I did not really remember them or their books. However, they only played small roles in this book. This was about Martin and Helen. Martin is the third son, who finds himself the new Earl. Helen is a widow. They meet by accident; she gets abducted and he stumbles upon it and saves her. They meet again at a small dinner party and he begins his pursuit in earnest. I was surprised that the villain, the person who orchestrated the kidnapping did not play a bigger role in the book. Instead, the true villain was Damion, Martin's younger brother. He tells Helen lies, she believes them and ends her budding romance with Martin to protect him. Well, his mother, who was not really fond of Martin (she preferred Damion, the baby), finds out what happened and tells Martin so he can set things right. Martin arrives just in time to stop Helen from marrying the kidnapper, who doesn't actually want her he just wants her land. Helen and Martin are in love and it ends with them planning their wedding. This was a good, quick, easy read. I enjoy this author and will be reading more from her. I will be interested in seeing if Damion gets a redemption story.

[Kerry Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well the steak had to end eventually. My 11th Stephanie Laurens and it wasn’t a 4-5 stars.

The first half of this book was great, but then the miscommunication hit and my enjoyment went downhill. In A Lady of Expectations the money miscommunication made perfect sense. How was she to talk about finances when it would go against all social etiquette to ask about it! In this one social etiquette is out the window and yet she doesn’t bother to actually talk about the issues. She says “you mother” and he says “even if” EVEN IF. If I say “even if” it’s a hypothetical babe.

But also like just because the mum is an invalid and says some half ass apology doesn’t mean she should be as easily forgiven for wishing her son dead for 13yrs because he didn’t suck up to her.

And the kidnapper gets to maybe lease some mines?? He Is A KIDNAPPER! I know he can’t go to jail because scandal, but like he shouldn’t get to profit?

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely not as good as the first book of the series. Really not a fan of the woman in the book who claims rape to trap the main male character into marrying her. It doesn't work--he heads to the colonies and comes back to save the day with a different female character. This book really shouldn't have been packaged into a 2-for-1 book by Harlequin with the first book in the series--the plots are very similar.

[Miriamgreen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a reread. I have no idea when I first read it but coming off of Sarah McLean it is like brushing your teeth to get rid of morning fuzz.

Sometimes reviews spoil the read
In this case, they warned of a situation that I find untenable — miscommunication
Too frustrating
The first half was most enjoyable, and I skimmed quite fast to the end of the book
The characters were perfectly matched
The brother rotten the scorned woman vile
Definitely not a reread

[2Winters · Rating 3 out of 5]

2024-good writing, interesting start. Liked 1st half=5. 2nd half silly=2-.


Spoiler-second half introduced a theme I do not like in my HRs. Both MC love one another but one of them refuses to marry the other for the good of the other person. Once that theme was started I could barely make myself skim to the end. I deleted book

[ANYELYS OGANDO · Rating 3 out of 5]

Considero este libro en un rango normal de las novelas rosas, ya que no sentí la química como usualmente se describe en los personajes. A mi entender, será un poco por el perfil de los personajes principales, en cuanto a los lugares y épocas estuvo bien desarrollado.

[Liz Cooksey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last part of the book kept me turning pages but some of the actions of the heroine had me wanting it hang it up before I got there. I’m an avid Stephanie Lauren’s reader and this isn’t what I’d consider her better series but she still keeps me coming back.

[Lesley Field · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story, so typical of Stephanie Laurens. Twists and turns, misunderstandings, but a hint of humour throughout. Not going to say more of the story line, as I don't want to spoil it for readers. Well deserved 5 stars.

[Frances Law · Rating 5 out of 5]

The gold at the rainbow’s end.

Fair Juno is one of my favourite Stephanie Laurens books despite the fact that the heroine was far too self sacrificing. Still, it’s a very nice read and can be read more than once.

[Leeann Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely story!

Loved the characters and story line. Enjoyed the heroin positive attitude and entertaining thought patterns to scramble the hero's expectations. Fun and enjoyable. Must read!

[Louise Broadfield · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book was really good at the begning but near the end it got a little boring.
still an alright story glady to see the hero and heroine from book 1. wish we got to see the other couples again from book 2 and 3. o well

[Donna F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

miscommunication

Helen gets in several mishaps and is not my favorite of Lauren’s leading ladies but her hero is strong and determined and works through all the trials to bring her a happy ending. Ok but not the author’s best.

[Debbie Dodd · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading.

[Karen Darling · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really hate this book. The hero is too perfect. He is wealthy, handsome, sexy, titled, intelligent, and everyone loves him. So sick of him. I couldn't finish this book.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick and fun read.