The Reforming of Lord Roth

by Emma Lange

Miss Isabella Ramsey was intimately acquainted with the facts of life. The facts of country life, that is. For she had to manage her family estate to keep her father from ruin and her sister dressed in the height of fashion.

Then Julian Montcrief the Marquess of Roth, and the most notorious rake in the realm, appeared on the rural scene. And from her first encounter with this dazzling lord, Isabella realized how very little she knew of the ways of the world and the wiles of love. What she didn't suspect, however, was how fast and how much all that would change...

Genres: Regency, Romance, Historical

222 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 4, 1990

Reviews

[Ilze · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather nice story with some fine moments and a genuine feeling of the Regency period, but written in a really ponderous style at the start that almost had me set it aside as a DNF. It picks up about one third of the way into the book, but drops again at the end which is somehow not as satisfying as it could have been. The secondary romance between the heroine's father and her fiance's aunt is not believable at all, considering the age difference between the father, who would be at most 50 years old, and the aunt - the fiance himself is over 50, so his aunt would have to be at least 60 or 65 (she is described as an "elderly lady" in at least one place in the book, so she might even be older).

There is a surprisingly large number of typos and misplaced commas in the book, e.g. the heroine's name spelled as both "Isabelle" and "Isabella" on the same page toward the end of the book.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love grows slowly, but believably, when an irresistible rake becomes stranded at a country estate, managed singlehanded by a dutiful young woman. The relationship between this unlikely couple works because their attraction grows over time, as they become enmeshed in each others troubles and families. Enjoyed how Emma Lange included an interesting, and smoothly integrated, cast of servants, grooms, stewards, and villagers to add a sense of historic realism to life on a regency estate.

[Melissa Levine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay… so I liked the storyline but there were so many times when I’d just skim the story because it was lagging and not holding my attention. Needless to say, I kept putting it down to read/listen to other stories before I finally got around to finishing it (as in it took a couple of months).

This was the first story involving the third-person omniscient point of view. I wasn’t a fan and found it confusing the first part of the book. All the “had” and “had been” were annoying when the author would talk about a past event and use one or the other with every verb/noun in the sentence.
I was surprised with how many mistakes I came across in just a short span of the story. One example was at the beginning of Chapter 12 when the line “The child is skittish, Isabella. Be firm with her” was used twice. Other mistakes included misspelled words, missing words/letters, incorrect punctuation.

There were some lines that made no sense to me or was a contradiction to previous lines, for example, Isabella goes back to see Roth two hours later and tells him that Liza isn’t around to chat. “'I have you some books in her place, my lord.’ To which Julian added, smiling, “and yours, Miss Ramsey.” And yours what? Or when Julian knew Lady Prim was going to sit with him and, “He thought the woman would the deadliest bore imaginable and would grate far more on his nerves than his books and journals, hence the hesitation before he made her enter (keep in mind the hesitation part). Yet “He allowed her entry after a single blink of his eye.” Meaning there was no hesitation.

There were several references to one location being closer or further from another location and I was sitting there like, “Huh? I don’t know where any of these places are.”

As another reviewer stated, the romance between Bella’s father and Lady Prim… why was their a romance? Yes, they spent a good deal of time together but it was like an afterthought.

[Donnalee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, with predictable badguy stuff--

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some cute parts, but all and all it was just okay.

[Kathryn Baron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't really remember, but I chose to keep.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't rate this until I re-read it but since it's on my keeper shelf, I'm safe giving it 3 stars at least.

Edited to say I always forget how excellent Emma Lange is at her best. What an antidote to the string of dismal Regencies I've recently run through. All the classic elements -- the marquess who "must" restore his estate, the capable heroine -- but it all comes together in a wonderful whole!

[Hilary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lord Roth is injured and brought to Lady Isabella Ramsey's home to recover. Bella is engaged to a scoundrel and Roth falls in love with his nurse. When he exposes Bella's fiance as a traitor and smuggler, Bella is free to marry him. Includes rascally dog, wraith-like child of former fiance, and young people facing hard financial times with nothing but love, determination, and ingenuity to sustain them. Reformed Regency Rake novel.