hancock

An earl's daughter runs off from a betrothal to someone awful, and becomes a governess. Her employer is a young man who has just been given custody of his vile but loved cousin's children after he and his wife freeze to death in the colonies on their way to a party. Yes, that is how they die and yes the male characters joke about it. The hero, North, is a complete dick who acts as such for the ENTIRE book, refusing to speak to the governess or see the children (except in a guise as his 'elderly secretary'), making bets on the welfare of the children under his care, and setting them up to live in a brothel. That said, I actually enjoyed this book for the most part. It wasn't good by any means, but I had fun reading it. I hated most everyone in it, especially the hero, but I ENJOYED hating the hero. I got indignant and angry on the heroine's behalf and that was somewhat fun. At a certain point though, it became an overwrought melodrama. What began as children forcing themselves to vomit copiously onto everyone so as to get their own way ended up as a treatsie on identity, responsibility, love etc. Bleh. Spoilery bits that I was unhappy with: -Children end up kidnapped. Even though the action is ostensibly to find them, they are completely out of the story for basically the rest of the book. -Heroine finally is all cleaned up as befitting her station. The children complain that she "smells like mama" (signifying abusive and aloof I guess). Next we see the children is in the glossed over epilogue. We never resolve that heroine can be a lady and still love/be involved with her children. -Romance is completely secondary to everything else in the story. I stopped enjoying the book when the action pretty much ended and there were still 50 pages to go and it was all boring romance. We have one vague mention of the heroine deciding "oh ok I guess I love him though" and that is it. -Hero treats heroine like crap, a heroine who ran away to work and be broke rather than marry a rich jerk. Hero is a rich jerk. Hero asks her to marry him, basically forces her for appearances. She says no. Somehow we are supposed to see these two rich jerks as different. A servant even yells at her for refusing to marry hero, saying he offered her everything and she spurned his heart and therefore she is NOT a good person and has a black and angry heart plus she is a huge bitch I guess? I love writing annoyed romance novel reviews.

2022-11-14 17:24