So Enchanting by Connie Brockway
Jun. 29th, 2009 01:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreThe back cover copy of this book is atrocious. Ignore it. When this book came out in February, I saw it, realized it was Connie Brockway writing a historical, made a tiny squeaking sound in the bookstore and brought it home. Then I read the back cover copy and saw talk of magic and Scotland and the hero ruining the heroine’s life six years earlier, and set it aside for if/when I got desperate. And then reports started trickling in that no, it isn’t really like that, but is actually a rather charming romantic comedy, and so I dug it out.
When she was 16, a conartist tricked Francesca into marrying him, and then made her participate in his schemes to make people believe that he was a medium. After false mediums ruined his father, Grayson Sheffield made exposing fake mediums a dedicated hobby, and he exposes Fanny’s husband as a fraud, which results in the husband dying as he flees. Fanny isn’t exactly sorry to see him go (who would be?) but at a loss as to what she’ll do with her life until a neighbor of her family’s asks her to be his younger daughter’s governess in Scotland.
Six years later, Fanny’s employer has long since died, leaving Fanny to raise his daughter, Amelie, with the condition that the village they live in will receive a fortune as long as Amelie, who had been accused of witchcraft as a child, lives there until she turns 21. By the coincidence of Romancelandia, Grayson’s…Uncle? Brother? Cousin? I forgot which…is Amelie’s legal guardian, and when he receives a letter that someone is trying to kill Amelie, he asks Grayson to investigate, with his (the guardian’s) son, Hayden, in tow. Grayson and Fanny recognize each other immediately, of course, and sparks-and barbs-fly.
There were a lot of places to go wrong with this one, and Brockway manages to avoid them all. The book is purely fun. Pretty much all the cards are on the table with Grayson and Fanny from the start, and Fanny knows what she’s guilty of, and (unless most heroines who have made mistakes) refuses to take any more blame than she has to. And I love how she’s very practical and blunt and smart. And Grayson admits to himself that he was mistaken about her, even as he tries not to. He does have jerky moments, but both Brockway and Fanny roll their eyes at him through them. It’s like he wants to be an alpha jerk lead, but is too nice to pull it off. And I love how both just immediately assume that Hayden-who wants to rescue fair maidens-and Amelie-who’s been closeted away in a tiny village her entire life, and never met a young man of her social status before-will fall in love, and the grown ups just have to wait for it to run its course.
I am also in love with how Fanny, who has an “affinity” with animals doesn’t surround herself with animals and call them her special friends and whatnot, but actually shoos them away and wants nothing to do with them, and then her hormones start affecting her and she’s all “he’s such a jerk and so anno-WHY MUST ALL THE ANIMALS AROUND HERE COPULATE JUST BECAUSE I THINK HE’S HOT?”
And did I mention the supporting character who joined the army and went to India purely because it would give him opportunities to expand his stamp collection? I wish, though, that the villagers hadn’t largely been treated as comic relief, as they were an important part of the plot. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I’ve read enough comments from authors over the years about expectations regarding class in historicals that I’m not sure Brockway had much choice.
When she was 16, a conartist tricked Francesca into marrying him, and then made her participate in his schemes to make people believe that he was a medium. After false mediums ruined his father, Grayson Sheffield made exposing fake mediums a dedicated hobby, and he exposes Fanny’s husband as a fraud, which results in the husband dying as he flees. Fanny isn’t exactly sorry to see him go (who would be?) but at a loss as to what she’ll do with her life until a neighbor of her family’s asks her to be his younger daughter’s governess in Scotland.
Six years later, Fanny’s employer has long since died, leaving Fanny to raise his daughter, Amelie, with the condition that the village they live in will receive a fortune as long as Amelie, who had been accused of witchcraft as a child, lives there until she turns 21. By the coincidence of Romancelandia, Grayson’s…Uncle? Brother? Cousin? I forgot which…is Amelie’s legal guardian, and when he receives a letter that someone is trying to kill Amelie, he asks Grayson to investigate, with his (the guardian’s) son, Hayden, in tow. Grayson and Fanny recognize each other immediately, of course, and sparks-and barbs-fly.
There were a lot of places to go wrong with this one, and Brockway manages to avoid them all. The book is purely fun. Pretty much all the cards are on the table with Grayson and Fanny from the start, and Fanny knows what she’s guilty of, and (unless most heroines who have made mistakes) refuses to take any more blame than she has to. And I love how she’s very practical and blunt and smart. And Grayson admits to himself that he was mistaken about her, even as he tries not to. He does have jerky moments, but both Brockway and Fanny roll their eyes at him through them. It’s like he wants to be an alpha jerk lead, but is too nice to pull it off. And I love how both just immediately assume that Hayden-who wants to rescue fair maidens-and Amelie-who’s been closeted away in a tiny village her entire life, and never met a young man of her social status before-will fall in love, and the grown ups just have to wait for it to run its course.
I am also in love with how Fanny, who has an “affinity” with animals doesn’t surround herself with animals and call them her special friends and whatnot, but actually shoos them away and wants nothing to do with them, and then her hormones start affecting her and she’s all “he’s such a jerk and so anno-WHY MUST ALL THE ANIMALS AROUND HERE COPULATE JUST BECAUSE I THINK HE’S HOT?”
And did I mention the supporting character who joined the army and went to India purely because it would give him opportunities to expand his stamp collection? I wish, though, that the villagers hadn’t largely been treated as comic relief, as they were an important part of the plot. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I’ve read enough comments from authors over the years about expectations regarding class in historicals that I’m not sure Brockway had much choice.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 04:25 pm (UTC)