Review: Long ago (1977) and far away from Virgin River, Robyn Carr did Restoration England HRs.  Who knew?
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 10 2, 2011
If you rate this book by how many words you get to read for the $1.99 paid out, this is a tremendous bargain.  But if you factor in the time you spent reading that you'll never get back again, well, you have to ask "Is this book worth it?"  I'd say 'no'.Much before Robyn Carr was writing her very popular contemporary romance series such as Virgin River and Shelter Mountain, she was fascinated by the Restoration period in England and decided to write her first book with that setting.  I definitely can admire that very young Robyn Carr (26 at the time), with two babies (1 and 3 years of age), who wrote this  book at the table and had to clear off her typewriter at dinner time so her young family could eat together, but, honestly, sometimes an author's very early work should not be resurrected on Kindle.  Sometimes these books are no longer in publication for a reason.At that time Carr was inspired by Kathleen Winsor's FOREVER AMBER and Anya Seton's body of work.  Unfortunately, she seems to have been inspired to compete in novel length, in addition to time frame, and this novel is much too long and wordy.  To be fair, I have to say that the book has some good moments.  If I hadn't already read so many historicals about the Restoration, I'd have found some bits of interest here.  And she made her Charles II dissolute (as he was) but also very charismatic (which he also was).Sadly, Charles II was my favorite character in the book, followed by hero Chadwick's friend John and by heroine Chelynne's uncle and these were all secondaries.  The hero and heroine were not to my liking.  Well, I'll cut some slack for the 16-year-old heroine.  She's maybe too young to expect wise and mature actions from her.  The hero, however, is 33.  He gets no passes from me.  There are no excuses for his actions.OK, let's ignore the "ick" factor of a 33-year-old man marrying a 16-year-old girl.  This was the 1600s and it happened frequently enough.  We have to put aside our 21st-century sensibilities in that regard.  But what I can't ignore is the hero's behaviour towards the heroine.  Yes, this was a marriage of convenience he agreed to because of some actions on his father's part, but that does not justify his coldness, uncaring indifference, and even emotionally cruel treatment of Chelynne.  He even refuses to consummate the marriage, leaving her feeling completely rejected.Hero Chadwick's rationale for this is that he's not really over the loss of his first wife, with whom he had a son who is now 7 years old (or thereabouts).  Now, this first marriage plays a big part in this story, because written registry of it is seemingly missing and his son's legitimacy is in question.  BTW, I forgot to mention that poor little Chelynne has no idea of any of this (first marriage and son) because Chad leaves her in the dark about everything.Enter villainess other woman (Chad's former lover) to fill in the voids in information left by Chad with lots of misinformation and to make Chelynne's life even more miserable. Evil Other Woman also connives with Chelynne's Evil Cousin to cause other problems, one among them being the puzzle of Chelynne's true parentage.  This whole book is one big Lack of Communication, Big Misunderstandings and TSTL behaviour.  That's probably par for the course in a 1977 HR but I didn't need to read it in 2011.If you want some good Restoration England historicals to read, try Karleen Koen'sDark Angels: A Novel, Judith James'Libertine's Kiss (Hqn)andThe King's Courtesan (Hqn), or Jude Morgan'sThe King's Touch.