Tuesday 14 February 2017

A Discovered Diamond Review of THE GYBFORD AFFAIR by Jen Black

A Regency Romance for St Valentine's Day!

AMAZON UK £ 2.12
AMAZON US $ 2.62
AMAZON CA $ n/a

Regency Romance
18th Century
England

This Regency Romance is set in the north of England, in County Durham but as it also takes place among polite society, location actually makes little difference - this little community offers as much intrigue as London or Longbourne. And it owes something to Jane Austen in presenting us with a charming uniformed young man and a rather reserved, upright Marquess. So you can see the plot unfolding well ahead of you, but that really is of no consequence. As ever, it is the journey that matters, not the obvious destination.

Frances, Lady Rathmere, is a delightful heroine with enough common sense and strength to satisfy the modern reader and yet enough delicacy and sensibility to be acceptable to the time in which the novel is set. A widow when we meet her, she enjoys more freedoms in society and is yet aware of the very strict boundaries of those freedoms. That doesn't mean to say she always remains within them...

Jack, our Marquess hero, is strong enough to be the perfect foil to Frances and yet he is damaged and broken when he bursts into the story, grief-stricken by the death of his wife of only ten months. He has fled London for the peace of a run-down family estate adjoining Gybford, and hence he and Frances meet.

There were a few typos in the version I read, but that apart, this novel is the kind you want to curl up with on a winter evening under a blanket. It is a classic Regency Romance, one of the better written of the genre that I have come across, with characters that are distinct and memorable. They do exactly what you expect of them and in this genre that is what you want. It owes more than a passing nod to Pride and Prejudice and that is no bad thing. If you love Lizzie Bennett and Mr Darcy you will adore Frances and her Jack.


 © Nicky Galliers
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