Review: What might have been...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 11, 2014
I gave this book three stars because, while the story is interesting and the plot fresh, the author apparently never attended English class. She consistently misuses whom for who or that, and exhibits in general a misunderstanding of the use of pronouns and adverbs as well as some verbs. She confuses many synonyms such as using taught (the past tense of to teach) instead of taut (meaning pulled tight). This is nothing that a good copy editor could not fix.Then there is the matter of knowledge of the manners and mores of the era. She allows her heroine to remain alone in a room with an eligible man and the girl's sister to leave them that way. She has the heroine yelling at the hero and grabbing him, when anyone who has read one or two Regency novels knows that a lady - particularly one of the first stare - would never do either!  Ms. Jefferson would do well to read all of Georgette Heyer's Regency novels to get a better sense of how society worked then as well as how ladies and gentlemen spoke with each other, with their peers of the same gender, and how the genders interacted.The lack of cogent editing makes reading this novel heavy going. The hero could have been given a little more thought, but in all, I did enjoy the story which is why I gave it three stars instead of two. It is a pity Ms. Jefferson doesn't have a better command of the English language or the ability to differentiate between modern English and that of the era in which she has set her story. This might have been a much more pleasant light read.