Mrs McVinnie's London Season - Carla Kelly

MISCHIEF IN THE MARRIAGE MART

Jeannie McVinnie was young and lovely-but she was also a widow with no intention of marrying again. And if she ever did, it certainly would not be to the high-handed, hot-tempered Captain William Summers.

The swashbuckling Summers was a naval hero who found himself at sea in the London social swim and demanded that Jeannie help his pretty niece take the plunge into the London Marriage Mart. With her innocent charge in tow, Jeannie sailed into action--trying to steer a safe course in a whirlpool of romantic intrigue… and trying to keep herself from being swept away in a wild storm of love...

Although I came late to appreciate Carla Kelly, I did love the latest books I read by her. I was naturally eager to read this Mrs. McVinnie but I'm afraid I had a hard time with the heroine.

Jeannie McVinnie receives a letter inviting her to move to London and play nanny to the niece and nephew of captain Summers. Although she knows that the letter is not in reality for her but for her father in law's sister (who has died) she sees it as a way to stop being a burden to her father in law and she thinks she can play nanny as well as the original Jeannie McVinnie.

Of course, things don’t exactly go smoothly and as soon as Jeannie arrives, she is confused with a seamstress and when the truth is revealed not only she has reached the conclusion that she doesn't want to stay but also the captain is furious at the deception.

Jeannie eventually decides to stay, the captain is in obvious need of a hand to help him (and control his temper), his niece and sister in law are frivolous and snobs, his nephew is craving attention and a young illegitimate child that lives in the house doesn't even speak.

Although a Scottish countrywoman Jeannie eventually manages to teach everyone a lesson about what's important in life. She manages to be a success with Beau Brummell despite a trick Larinda and her friends were planning, she transforms Edward into a healthy young boy, takes him about in London, and with her Clare finally starts to speak. In addition, in the middle of it all she and the captain do fall in love.

I think my main problem with this book was that I found the heroine too perfect for my tastes; she never had a bad word about anyone, never a less than pleasant retort (except for the captain) despite Larinda being very deserving of one. It was too much perfection, I love flawed characters and despite her early deception Jeannie McVinnie is a candidate for sainthood except when she is with the captain or with Brummell.

One thing that Kelly usually does well is to show the hardships of daily life. In fact I think she even favors that over any accuracy matters. Her characters are usually found bending much of the rules of polite society ( Summers and Jennie spend much time together alone in the middle of the night...), unfortunately my lack of interest in Jennie stopped me from enjoying her attempts to make everything right for everyone and I wasn't even very moved when her past problems were revealed.

Grade: 3.5/5

Miss Whittier Makes a List - Carla Kelly

Miss Hannah Whittier was a most proper young lady, but now she found herself in a most improper position. Not only was she the sole female on a British man-of-war, but he ship's commander, Captain Sir Daniel Spark, seemed to feel she owed him far more than gratitude for fishing her out of the sea.

This overbearingly arrogant officer was all that Hannah found infuriating in a man--and it should have been easy to repulse his advances… if only he were not so handsome… if only he did not know how to be so charming… if only she did not find that the salt air worked a sea change on her senses… as powerful currents swept her far from familiar shores into unknown waters where the compass of conscience could not guide her on a course that was headed for the shores of scandal and rocks of ruin…

Hannah Whittier, a young Quaker girl, is traveling to Charleston to be married. To her dismay, her ship is first attacked by the British, whose Captain forces a young American boy to join his crew, and later by the French who kill almost all the passengers and destroy the vessel. The young woman manages to escape and is saved by the same British crew lead by Captain Sir Daniel Spark.

What went wrong for me in Miss Whittier Makes a List? The two main characters, Hannah and Daniel. I normally don't mind very young heroines but here it was almost a torture to follow this girl's adventures. She is naive beyond belief and sometimes plain silly. I couldn't relate to her in any possible way and if some of her attitudes were supposed to be funny or refreshing, that didn't work for me at all.

Unfortunately, the hero was not much better. When he first meets the heroine, he appears as a ruthless and quite arrogant man, but right after he seems like a complete different person and shows a huge amount of patience with Hannah who is constantly in everyone's way. Suddenly to make up for all her faux-pas, there she is making extraordinary coffee for the captain, or giving him her support in a difficult moment…

I never believed not for a second that these two had feelings for each other. First him, a man well on his 30's suddenly claiming he is deeply in love with a 17 year old girl who he barely knows. And when he declares his love, it's her who shows some sense, but not for long. I just couldn't picture them together, there was no spark, no attraction whatsoever. I even started to think he was marrying her for her coffee…

After suspending my disbelief for so long I finally gave up, making of Miss Whittier Makes a List my first DNF of the year.

Grade: DNF

The Traitor's Daughter - Elizabeth Powell

Between Passion and Honor

Amanda Tremayne's father, a well-respected naval officer, was wrongly accused of treason and hastily executed for the crime. Before his death, he charged his only daughter with the daunting task of clearing his name and exposing the real traitor. Now, at the tender age of twenty, headstrong Amanda will stop at nothing to restore her father's honor.

With the aid of her faithful friend, Harry, she sets out to find proof of her father's innocence--but how can she know that as she searches for clues she will also stumble across the handsome and adventurous Captain Sir Jonathan Everly? And more important, how can she live with herself when she knows that the man she can't resist is one of the very men who sentenced her father to death?

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This was a new author for me, so I did not know what to expect. The book started promisingly enough with an Author’s note before chapter one, saying that the actual commander of a battle was Captain so and so (and not the hero) and that he (the actual commander of that battle) did not receive a baronetcy until a later day, compared to the date the author used for the hero. Seeing that the author had gone to the trouble to research some historical facts for her plot impressed me positively before I even started the book. But from then on, I am afraid it went steadily downhill.

The basic plot is that heroine’s father, a Captain in the navy, had been convicted and hung for treason, so the heroine is trying to clear his name, and at the same time the hero trying to unmask a traitor in the admiralty. Their efforts throw them together frequently and they decide to join forces, all the more so since it seems that the real villain who framed the heroine’s father, is the traitor the hero is after.

The naval themed plot was somewhat original for a Regency, and that was one of the books positive points. However the actual elements of the plot and how it all hanged together logically (or illogically) was an issue for me, as I infinitely prefer my plots to make [perfect] sense. There were many instances where I was not sure what was supposed to have happened or why or how. eg Why didn’t her father defend himself, when accused of treason, by laying out his suspicions and evidence gathered against the real traitor ? Other than the fact that if he had, he would not have hung for treason and the real traitor apprehended at the time and hence we would have no basis for the current plot, there is no other reason. Also there were complications, and twists and turns, which were neither sensible nor very realistic (even for a novel). And the heroine does oblige the reader with the standard TSTL moment towards the end where she voluntarily and blindly walks into a trap. You know the one: Where the heroine is told that she will be given vital information that will [enter heroine’s main goal here: eg save her brother’s honour, sister’s reputation, the family fortune etc etc], as long as she comes along now, alone, without telling anyone, and carrying with her the vital papers in her possession that the unknown collaborator just wants to look at. Why in such situations, everyone else can smell a rat but heroines never can?

The hero and heroine were likeable enough and I had no major objections against either of them. But I was not particularly invested in their relationship or emotions. And they did also have another classic moment in Regencies which I detest, the ‘misunderstood kiss’. [As readers know, misunderstandings abound in romance novels, and every little thing is exploited to its full potential to cause a problem between the hero and heroine.] The misunderstood kiss is where the h/h share a passionate kiss - and although it is patently obvious to everyone they both enjoyed it hugely, the heroine ends up thinking that the hero despises her (for her being too forward or some such nonsense) and the hero that the heroine is disgusted with him (because forgot his manners or has some defect that makes him repulsive. In this case, he had limp. Yes, I know it sounds irrelevant but that seems to be common ‘hero logic’). My patience was wearing thin by that time, so that scene did not help matters at all for me.

It is also worth mentioning that by the climax of the chase to catch the villain in the final chapters of the book the heroine managed in a couple of hours to be: nearly asphyxiated by the villain, actually shot, almost burned alive, and almost drowned! I think this was just a tiny bit too much… When I started the book I thought that it would be at least a 6/10 one. As I was progressing this was continually re-adjusted downwards till it reached a 4/10. All in all, the book had too many problems to be really enjoyable, and the romance was a bit bland. On the other hand I have read books worse than this. So I may give this author another chance in the future.

Grade 2/5