The Hermit's Daughter

by Joan Smith

FLIRT WITH THAT JACKDAW LORD MONSTUART? WHY, SHE'D RATHER COZE WITH A WEASEL!But Miss Sally Hermitage was hellbent on seeing her dear sister happily wed-even if it was to Monstuart's ward. No matter to her that the arrogant gentleman was just as determined to prevent the marriage. With her green eyes flashing, Sally vowed to beat the crafty, money-grubbing snob at his own romantic game.After all, if the widow and daughters of the infamous "Hermit" did not find rich husbands, they'd soon be in the poorhouse.Though Monstuart's blighting presence was enough to cool any girl's interest, Sally secretly enjoyed their fiery confrontations. Monstuart was thoroughly insensitive, inconsiderate, incoherent, insane, and -- Sally would soon discover--quite in love with her!

Genres: Romance, Regency, Historical Romance, Enemies To Lovers, Traditional Regency, Humor, Historical Fiction

204 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 27, 1988

About the author

Joan Smith is a graduate of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and the Ontario College of Education. She has taught French and English in high school and English in college. When she began writing, her interest in Jane Austen and Lord Byron led to her first choice of genre, the Regency, which she especially liked for its wit and humor.
Her favorite travel destination is England, where she researches her books. Her hobbies are gardening, painting, sculpture and reading. She is married and has three children. A prolific writer, she is currently working on Regencies and various mysteries at her home in Georgetown, Ontario.
She is also known as Jennie Gallant

Reviews

[Preeti ♥︎ Her Bookshelves · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Hermit, a play on their family name Hermitage, was the h's father sobriquet, who was a solicitor of great cunning and repute and had died about 3-4 years ago. Leaving his wife and two daughters not quite destitute but certainly with limited and waning funds. The situation is not helped by the widow's belief that only a lavish lifestyle will attract worthy suitors for her daughters who no doubt are both beautiful but as she understands correctly, a lack of dowry can stump even an Incomparable's chances. She has great hopes for the younger biddable one who already has a young earl besotted with her but she despairs of older opinionated and shrewd daughter, a throwback to her father.

They are living an almost bucolic life in Kent as London - then Brighton and Bath - were proving too expensive but they (yes, all three) hope that the young earl will come to heel soon and they can move to London for the season at his expense where the older daughter can have a late come-out. Things seem to be finally working out.
But of course, smooth sailings can always hit a unseen obstructions.

The young man has a cousin, a Marquess who's also his guardian. The boy thinks that his blessings are only a formality but the Hermitages are leery of this new complication. And they are right. The Marquess arrives, sees right through them and says a big NO along with some uncharitable words. He also threatens to block his ward's funds. The women are upset and scared that the young man, who's known to fall in love at the drop of a hat would prove fickle. But apparently, he's made of sterner stuff.
The wedding goes forth and the four of them move to London. Idea is to live off the widow's £15000 till a year when he's supposed to get his inheritance, at 25. Things, of course get quite complicated before getting sorted.

The H/h's romance progresses with all this in the background. A enemies to lovers plot if ever.
“You will make an admirable husband, ma’am. I envy your wife.”
He finds her very attractive but doesn't trust her or her family.
“He hadn’t seen such fastidious grooming on any woman outside of the muslin company, whose bodies were their only asset.”
I like the h's characterization as a strong willed and opinionated woman, one who's clever like her father. But strangely, after the initial impression she doesn't seem that bright. Her not knowing chess or being really bad at it was a neither-here-nor-there fact. “I think you are playing chess and I am playing hopscotch,” she confessed”
She loves London (“London was her native habitat.”) but she's the only one who's worried about the financial aspect as the other three are pathetically bad at economizing.
But, once in London, instead of being a success (as usually happens in such plots), she's mostly ignored by eligible men as the H does his best/worst - and portrays her and her family quite uncharitably. Whether in spite or he wants her himself is a moot point. I hated to see her so disappointed.

Also, in last couple of chapters, I hated how her family ignore her and happiness, even finding her a burden as they all look forward to their own happilys. Even the mother. Only the reader is aware of the bad-mouthing she gets from the family she's always stood up for, behind her back. It really saddened me as it paints a very lonely and unappreciated of picture.
“Sally? No such a thing. Who would ever offer for—not to say she is unattractive, but such a tongue! ”

So disappointingly, the book loses much of its promise, as the fun and witty charm wears off after a while and the book takes a downturn. The ending and the proposal scene has a vague-ish conversation with much allusions and less forthrightness.
Okay, so they are to have a hea at last. Zero exciting.

[Nabilah]

DNF at 22%. Not a bad book, but I made a mistake in reading a review which contains spoilers. So, that made me lose interest. The dialogues are, as always spot-on. I might continue with this later.

[Linda (NOT RECEIVING NOTIFICATIONS) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not my favorite HR of Joan Smith by no means, but the dialogue between the MCs had plenty of spit, sparks and snaps. If Miss Sally Hermitage lived in 2023, I would consider her an enabler. She liked to be in the thick of things whether it was justified or not.

Lord Monstuart was what I consider a snooty H. I am not sure how much older he was than Sally, but clearly he had never fallen in love before meeting her. And he didn't know what to do with his frustrations except open his mouth and spew a bit of beastliness. No wonder they couldn't be in the same room for long without coming to a head.

There was a period of time in the middle of the story when 'Monty' was out of town. I missed him on the pages. Enough so, that I am giving this traditional-style regency 3.5 stars.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

So Faro's Daughter is my favourite Heyer and Talk of the Town is my favourite Smith. If those two books had a synoptic lovechild, it would be The Hermit's Daughter. If you dislike hate-to-love stories or arrogant, high-handed heros who are combative but destined to live under the heroine's paw, I wouldn't recommend this book for you.

For me though, THD follows a formula I can't get enough of: smart, beautiful heroine unjustly accused of swindling inheritances/money + gullible young lords + bumbling family members + said lord's family head, guardian & alpha male determined to stop it from happening + mild blackmail = the heroine and hero are at each other's throats and flirt-fighting the entire book end-to-end and it's deeeeelicious! For those who like to know, Montstuart's age is not told, but he's under 36 - I'd say roughly 30. Sally is 21.

I won't really focus on the plot in this review so going back to the OGs, the only thing I could really level at Faro's Daughter and Talk of the Town is at times they feel simplistic and they are short for the amount of interaction between between the h&H. This book feels like it addresses those shortcomings by being more meaty... there's more days that pass in the book, more chance and planned encounters between the h&H, more conversations that keeps the pace brisk and the chemistry bubbling along nicely. In many other books, the hero resolves (but ultimately fails) to stay away and consequently disappears for chunks of the book and the OTP doesn't get much interaction – that's always so frustrating! Monstuart does the same but recognises almost instantly that he's mega-attracted to Sally Hermitage and pretty much make any excuse to show up at her front door including being the stickiest third wheel ever!

He's more witty than Ravenscar (FD) or St Felix (TotT), he smiles frequently and is all-round more flirty. He's flinging insults while simultaneously beaming heart-eyes at Sally every encounter. It's a wonder she didn't pick it up earlier, he was very pointed! Ivo from Heyer's Bath Tangle is an example of a hero who has sharper edges than Montstuart – Ivo's set-downs have more ferociousness, his demeanour more actually stiff rather than appearing stiff.

Montstuart's not perfect though, he is arrogant, bossy and high-handed. Some readers might find Montstuart's financial manipulation off-putting - the way he treats his nephew, who is of age, as a bumbling teenager was too over-protective and he probably needed to step back and let the boy make some of his own life mistakes. However, to me he never crosses into abusive territory to either his nephew or to Sally unlike the hero in say Jessabelle by Maggie MacKeever. Now that dude needs a restraining order.

Sally is all you want in a feisty heroine and her character is not one dimensional; she has her own interests, her own insecurities and flaws. She's burdered with being responsible for her family - reining in their spending and generally being the brains of the outfit. Shrewd and fearless, she brings the banter and I love her for it, even if she's a bit slow in recognising the mooning bachelor's intentions in front her face!

The Hermit's daughter is Joan at her most playful, the story and the writing is sprightly and full of zingers. It is an excellent read. She does sprinkle some older English words in THD compared to her other books so I found I had to look up a word here or there eg jeroboams, pelter, bibelot, bethump, febrile, dunned, fadge, cawker, andiron etc

Lastly I'll finish that the ending of The Hermit's Daughter is good but a little offbeat as Monstuart proposes in a rather obtuse way. The proposal also has a stop-starty rhythm which takes the wind out of the sails and making it less rapturous, especially compared to Faro's Daughter which is exactly the same ending but packs a bigger emotional punch. Ravenscar was spectacularly insulting, the tension was palpable and he later grovelled appropriately. I've lost count how many times I've read that ending, a few pages have come loose from the binding. It's a shame THD doesn't quite nail the ending and I'm undecided as yet on where this sits in the favourites list but it's definitely up there (like a good meal it needs to rest, digest and then I'll assess) ;P

Rating: Five market-fresh fishes
Re-readability: For sure, good thing kindle pages don't fall out!

[MissKitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful read.

The heroine is everything I like, exquisite, sophisticated, intelligent and she gives as good as she gets. The Hero could never best her!

[Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been reading a LOT of Joan Smith's books lately. Sometimes she manages to write entertaining characters that definitely shouldn't end up together... I felt like this was one of those. I was waiting for Sally to actually *like* Monstuart. I'm done with the book and still waiting, I think.

[suzi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like the hero. I thought he was an ass and I can't fathom why the heroine liked him.

[Bookish · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5-4⭐️ Mixed feelings about this one. It made me feel uncomfortable sometimes. The couple had a rough path, which I don’t mind, but there was unkindness in several occasions. That made it unpredictable, which is always a plus, and the minimal change in the characters at the end more realistic.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much fighting

This is another one where the 2 main characters never really get over their enemy phase. They continue bickering until they become engaged, and there seems to be no reason for them to be in love unless it's because they love fighting.

[Elen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a nice read... or so I guess. I read this a month ago, can't remember any details!

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful story of who is trying to best who.

[Tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I own this book, but will not be keeping it. I used to enjoy regency romances more than I do now. The story was ok, but so predictable. And the characters were kind of boring and cliched.

[Fluttershy · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars

[Margaret Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never read a Joan Smith story that I didn't love the characters and their witty dialogue.

[Pia Kavka · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm really sorry... But I seldom read a Story with two Protagonists so unlovebable. Both are so unfeeling. Not the Best Story of Joan Smith! But there is always a Bad nut..

[A Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was well written, just very unlikeable main characters.

[Kiran Mascarenhas · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delight to find a Heyeresque writer!

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this enemies to lovers story. The banter was fantastic and there were so many great scenes.

[P.]

Nicely written, of course, but I'm not that fond of bickering, which takes up more than a fair share of the dialogue in HD. It is quite funny at times but, even if one assumes [although the unpleasantness of the bickering doesn't show] that this bickering is caused by unresolved, even unaware, feelings the two leads in this book have for each other, there is far too much of it and it drags the book down with it.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I almost didn't admit to reading this book because of the cover that pops up here on goodreads. The kindle cover is much better. I liked this story and the characters.