Review: a little slow starting but it ended well
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 23, 2013
Perhaps I'm a little dense, but it took me a few kisses to discern the format of this story.  It seemed to start quite slowly. There is an economy of words I find pleasing in it, but I had trouble catching the sense of the characters.  And, since this is a sort of sampling of the progress of two lives, there are details you have to piece together.The author claims a love for regency details, and I sense that it is there somewhere.  Most interesting were the details of the Christmas traditions.  Characters were a little confusing.  For example, the father was first painted as a sublimely abstracted parent, who scarcely looks at his 'poppet, more attentive to his research.' In the later chapters he comes across as a much more engaged figure, and is more interesting.  Likewise the governess is glossed over, details of her person and background very sketchy.  Later she magically inherits wealth and property and goes off to live a more three-dimensional life.True to regency form, money and title drive everything.  I do like that no heirs had to die in order to elevate any second sons here.  I also liked that the heroine was generous enough to give up a comfortable marriage offer in favor of her friend.  So of course she had to be rewarded with the love of her heart as well in the end. The story was conventional.  The story telling, not so much.