Review: Promising New Author
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 20, 2013
To understand my review I need to give some perspective.  The romances I read are exclusively of the Regency variety.  I cut my eyeteeth on Georgette Heyer and number Carla Kelly and early Mary Balogh as favorites.  Alas, Heyer is no longer with us, Kelly is drifting toward Mormon romance, and Balogh has lost her way.This author stunned me with this entry.  The emotional roller coaster she constructed took my breath away and brought me close to tears.  This story is so descriptive of Cressida and Morgan's love, with its moments of agony and glory. It would seem this author has adopted the attitude of 'go big or go home' when it comes to describing relationships.I also like the implied sex though some would argue.  It seems that too many authors are using steamy sex scenes to masquerade poor writing.  The title was quite nice too, with its layered meaning.  Some titles out there are truly awful.However.I will not belabor the grammatical/spelling errors though they certainly exist.  Others have not been shy to do so.  My issue is with historical accuracy (though I give her credit for not having a white wedding dress and for mentioning the Serpentine).Titles are badly mangled (Lady Rosalie, please, Lady Wortham is her mother).Banns were for the poor - Common license or Special license would have been more appropriate and timely.Age of marriage during that era was considerably higher than Regency authors would have us believe.  Lady Harriet Cavendish married at age 24.  I think teenage brides are a Heyer conceit.While I am delighted the author did not name her heroine Brittany, I think a more suitable Regency name could have been substituted.  Though Greek antiquity was all the rage, the upper classes did not give their children such names.  Do a web search on 'regency names' and one will get an idea.I do not recommend that anyone try to copy Jane Austen's writing style in this day and age (though Stephanie Barron has done it wonderfully in her Jane Austen mysteries), it would not hurt to incorporate a little.  Using a phrase such as 'are you well' instead of 'are you alright' befits the era nicely.  And please, no ex- anything, unless one is using it in a Latin phrase.  It is much too modern.I am giving this author five stars, despite some issues.  She has enormous potential.  My suggestion would that she find a UK proofreader and spend a considerable amount of research time at the REPUBLIC OF PEMBERLY website (the search engine is a beast but well worth the time).And that she never give up writing Regencies.