What a delightful romp! This is a slightly different flavor of the regency romance novels Charles is so good at: it's a gothic novel which knows that it's a gothic novel, and so it's almost like a backstage story or something of the like. A big house full of scandalous people and the two vulnerable young people who are trapped there for weeks and discover that perhaps their outside perceptions are wrong. But it's not precisely a "everything that's assumed about the villains is actually wrong" story, more of a "look closely and perhaps it's society itself that's villainous" tale.
Our story begins when Amanda Frisby falls from her horse and badly breaks her leg while riding too close to the estate of the treacherous Philip Rookwood. This would be difficult for her and her brother Guy under the best of circumstances, but for reasons both within and without her control, Amanda's reputation is extremely fragile, and Rookwood Hall is about the worst place for her to be unaccompanied. So Guy goes to the house, learns that she cannot be moved for weeks without potentially endangering herself, and has to sit and watch as she nearly dies from fever. On top of all of this, Rookwood has numerous guests staying at his home, including a notorious lord, all of whom Amanda wrote a thinly veiled novel about anonymously. Things get increasingly complicated, especially Guy's emotions when he discovers that not only is Rockwood much less evil than he had always presumed, he's also captivating and not at all a threat to Amanda's virtue, but his own.
This book was just fun, and the romance between Guy and Rockwood is really satisfying. It feels both classic and fresh: Guy is a tentative virgin who's never even been kissed before, and Rockwood does introduce him to all sorts of things, but the dynamic doesn't feel rote or boring, because it's so specific to these two characters. The inevitable third act conflict and drama is a touch by the numbers, if only because the potential solution is fairly evident, but it's still really lovely to see them get there, and to watch Guy and Amanda and Philip all grow and figure out themselves. It was just a good read from start to finish.
Grade: A
Our story begins when Amanda Frisby falls from her horse and badly breaks her leg while riding too close to the estate of the treacherous Philip Rookwood. This would be difficult for her and her brother Guy under the best of circumstances, but for reasons both within and without her control, Amanda's reputation is extremely fragile, and Rookwood Hall is about the worst place for her to be unaccompanied. So Guy goes to the house, learns that she cannot be moved for weeks without potentially endangering herself, and has to sit and watch as she nearly dies from fever. On top of all of this, Rookwood has numerous guests staying at his home, including a notorious lord, all of whom Amanda wrote a thinly veiled novel about anonymously. Things get increasingly complicated, especially Guy's emotions when he discovers that not only is Rockwood much less evil than he had always presumed, he's also captivating and not at all a threat to Amanda's virtue, but his own.
This book was just fun, and the romance between Guy and Rockwood is really satisfying. It feels both classic and fresh: Guy is a tentative virgin who's never even been kissed before, and Rockwood does introduce him to all sorts of things, but the dynamic doesn't feel rote or boring, because it's so specific to these two characters. The inevitable third act conflict and drama is a touch by the numbers, if only because the potential solution is fairly evident, but it's still really lovely to see them get there, and to watch Guy and Amanda and Philip all grow and figure out themselves. It was just a good read from start to finish.
Grade: A
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