Review: Chock Full of Historical Inaccuracies
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 03 9, 2014
The premise of this story is absolutely unique and intriguing; however, the execution leaves a lot to be desired.  Abby and Reginald (Rocky) were in love and engaged at the ages of 17 and 22 respectively.  Rocky was the heir to a Dukedom, Abby the third daughter of a Baron--in no way an eligible parti for a Duke.  Rocky is forced to break the engagement; a few years later he married a more "appropriate" woman.  In the meantime, Abby served as governess to her sister's daughter; she never married.  Thirty years later, immediately upon his wife's death, Rocky returns to reclaim Abby...the woman he has always loved and never forgotten.  For her part, when Rocky ended their engagement, Abby was a broken woman.  Even now, thirty years later, she still feels the pain of the loss as if it were just yesterday.  The story moved at a quick pace to it's conclusion, including HEA and epilogue (I love epilogues!)One issue I had with the story is, IMO, Abby took Rocky back way too quickly.  I mean the second time the two meet, she accepts a marriage proposal!  Furthermore, when Rocky first proposes they be together, Abby believes he is asking her to be his mistress, and she agrees!  I found it unacceptable that she would be willing to debase herself to that degree, especially considering Rocky was single and available to marry her.  In my mind, if he had had the nerve to ask her to be his mistress, she should have kicked him to the curb, not agree to the arrangement!  Personally, I would have liked it if Rocky had actually had to fight to get Abby back.  IMO, it was just way too easy for him.The main problem I had with the story; however, is the fact that I did not believe the entire premise of the story--that Rocky had been forced against his will to leave Abby.  And, since I had problems believing that, the entire story just seemed contrived.  We are told that at the time of their engagement, Rocky is 22, his father, the previous Duke, died when Rocky was 6 years of age.  It is Rocky's mother who threatened to disinherit him, should he fail to comply with her demand that he set aside the engagement.  First of all, as the eldest son (indeed the only son) as soon as Rocky's father died, he would have inherited the Dukedom, thus his mother would not have the power to disinherit him.  Furthermore, at the age of 22 Rocky is of legal age, so even IF his mother had been his legal guardian and had any authority over him, that would have ceased by this time (and more than likely a male would have been appointed as Rocky's guardian, not his mother.)  Then there is the fact that during that time period, a man could not break an engagement, (only a woman could) not without causing an enormous scandal and impugning his own honor...though I guess we could assume that in this instance, Abby was willing to release Rocky from the engagement, although that is not what we are told.Then there is the issue with the timeline.  When the engagement is broken off, Abby decides to go live with her sister and serve as governess to her niece.  Thirty years later, said niece is only twenty years old, when she could not have been any younger than 30, not if she was alive when Rocky and Abby broke up.  But, honestly, there are so many glaring mistakes in the book that the niece's mistaken age is just par for the course.  For example early in the story, we are told the niece's fiancé left when she was 16 and has been missing for four years (which is why I assumed she was twenty.)  Then later in the story, we are told the fiancé has been missing for 10 years, and then again, just a few lines down on the same page, we are told it's been 8 years!!!!!  How can there be so many blatant mistakes in one story?  Then there is also the minor issue of inaccurate forms of address (which typically is a pet peeve of mine, but in this instance got overshadowed by the more overt mistakes.)  As the daughter of a baron, Abby would be titled Honorable Miss, NOT Lady.  The same is true for her niece, who is also the daughter of a baron.Ms. Eaton has such a wonderful talent for storytelling, but fails to take the time to review her book for blatant mistakes, doesn't bother to make sure that the facts of her story coincides with its timeline, and neglects to research the time period in which she sets her story.  The end result is that the entire story comes across as though it has been carelessly thrown together, without much thought or consideration.  It wasn't until I finished this book, that I realized that I've read another book by this author..."The Winter Wish."  That was another lovely story that suffered from a deluge of historical inaccuracies.  If historical romances aren't really your thing, or if you don't care about historical inaccuracies in the books you read, then you may very well enjoy this story.  Based on the number of 4 and 5 star reviews, I see a  lot of people enjoyed it quite well.  If however, you are a historical romance purist, or if you're like me--I'm not a purist, but I do like the period in which the story is set to be as historically accurate as possible, although I am willing to allow the author some creative wiggle room--then avoid this book like the plague.  If Amazon allowed I would rate this book 2 1/2 stars.  BTW this is not a clean romance.  Happy reading!