Review: Not as good as its progenitor
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 09 4, 2013
Grace Burrowes lives within a few miles of me, so I want to first tell her I enjoyed her The Groom Wore Plaid, which is a fun story about 3 Scottish brothers who need to find wives, as well as their sister who is a widow.  That story is fun, sexy, and vivid -- highly implausible, but you get to do things like meet Queen Victoria's husband (the couple is vacationing in Balmoral Scotland), and enjoy a bit of the Scots view of life, family, and honor.  The Audible version of the book is very well narrated.This novella about Mary Fran and Matthew is a rather lame exploration of one of the 4 romances in the Groom book.  It's not consistent with the other book and does not fill in blanks that you care about.  I compare this kind of book to Pamela Aidan's books giving us Mr. Darcy's perspective of the events in Pride & Prejudice.  While Aidan's books are far from perfect in capturing Austen's writing (but at times she approaches the tone and manner), I actually appreciated what Aidan supplied and felt that I understood the original P&P; better because of her writing.Mary Fran and  Matthew is not up to that level at all.  The original book is fun and light -- no need to waste money hearing more about this couple's story.