Lord Wraybourne's Betrothed and The Stanforth Secrets by Jo Beverley

Though I didn’t realize it until I started The Stanforth Secrets, these books are connected. Though written a year later and released by a different publisher (though I suppose one of these could be a rerelease) The Stanforth Secrets is technically a prequel to Lord Wraybourne’s Betrothed, though it really only has a supporting character, Randal, in common, and neither book gives any indication to any events or characters in the other, barring a brief nod to Randal’s plotline in Lord Wraybourne’s Betrothed at the very end of The Stanforth Secrets.

Jo Beverley’s historical romance novels tend to be set apart by usually having nice people in what should be a straightforward romance caught up in an unusual plot. Her regencies, on the other hand (and keeping in mind that I’ve read fewer of them) seem to have nice people in a straightforward romance that’s set apart by a less-than-typical execution.

In Lord Wraybourne’s Bride, everyone thinks Wraybourne chose Jane Sandiford, a young woman raised in the country by near-puritanical parents and who has never interested with many people outside of her family, as his bride because he needs her money. In truth, he wanted someone honest and who didn’t play games. Before he can marry her, though, he has to get her used to more people, and so he and his sister, Sophie, use a house party to introduce her to society. I’m a bit put off with how Wraybourne wanted to mold Jane into a certain type of lady, but relieved that he never seems particularly bothered when she ends up crafting herself into something else that she determines. Jane is also one of the few romance novel heroines I’ve encountered who actually gets to notice that other men are sexually attractive after falling in love with the hero.*

In The Stanforth Secrets, Chloe has just finished her period of mourning for her husband, Stephen, and is only staying at his family home until his cousin, Justin returns to claim it. Several years before, Justin and Stephen broke Chloe free of her control freak parents and encouraged her to join them in various escapades, and when Stephen proposed, Chloe jumped at the chance of permanent freedom, only for her and Justin to soon realize (just before he ran away to war) that the wrong cousin asked first. Now, they’re older, wiser, and much more respectable. There’s also a plot where a spy sent secrets about Napoleon to Stephen inside a wax fruit, and no one can find it, but that’s kind of there so they’ll have something to do while they work out their feelings. Unfortunately, they work things out with a little too much plot to go, resulting in Beverley creating a Big Misunderstanding that causes Justin to engage in some idiocy that he never quite recovers from. Beverley also attempts the address some of the class issues in most romance novels. The results are mixed and I’m not quite sure she succeeded, but I do admire the attempt.

*Without amnesia, rape, accidental or forced bigamy, or being sold to Sexy Fetishized Non-White Non-European Male Who Will Teach Her Tricks Before She Is Reunited With The Noble White Englishman, at least. (Once you’ve encountered Bertrice Small, your brain will never escape.)

On Bertrice Small. Flee ye now to maintain a semblance of sanity.

Does anyone remember a while back when i mentioned what can only be called an illness that compels me to pick up Bertrice Small books when I'm at a booksale so I can skim them and see what horrors they contain?  This booksale had about half a dozen, so by now, my brain is attempting to ooze out my ears in self-defence.

One of them, Deceived, is probably the least problematic, infuriating, scarring and offensive one I've encountered.  Admittedly, that pretty much just means that I don't want to murder the heroine-making her tolerable*, not likable, I can't really imagine liking Small's leads on any level, ever-and that she isn't passed around between every type of "romantic" figure ever for the time period, sold into slavery, forced into bigamy or an accidental bigamist, or openly hateful towards other women.

What is the plot of Bertrice Small's most tolerable book?  The heroine is engaged to an Earl.  Or a Duke.  Or something.  She's a fiesty tomboy and doesn't want to, but her twin sister wants to be a Countess.  Or a Duchess.  Or whatever.  So they lie about who he's engaged to.  He warries the twin then spies on the heroine bathing in what she thinks is privacy and thinks about what a conniving wanton she is to deliberately tempt him so.  Later, he asks his wife why she doesn't like sex with him, and she tells him about how she was regularly molested as a child, and can't bear to be touched by any men, even to give him an heir.  His response a bit of "oh, bummer" before he gags her, rapes her, and tells her he'll do the same every night until she's pregnant.  (Note:  We're supposed to sympthize with him because she won't get pregnant, and hate her for hating sex and not wanting sex with him specifically.)  Immediately after his wife dies in childbirth, he tells the heroine that he knew she was the one he was supposed to marry all along, and that she has to marry him now.  She sensibly goes "Oh bleep no!" and runs, but he chases her down, throws her on a bed, rips off her clothes and locks the door.  And then she remembers that she's loved him all along, so that the actual sex is consentual.  Or something.

Remember where I said that this is the most tolerable of her books that I've come across?  Keep in mind, there's another book that has a Harem Horse Orgy**.

One the subject of actually good romance novels, though, I've realized that the reason I only seem to want to read them (or mostly so, at least) the last few weeks is that I've been travelling so much lately***.  I like going places, but I hate actually travelling, and the schedule disruption makes me cranky, which makes me fall back on my highschool standby.

*The only other tolerable one was thirteen.  And married to a guy in his thirties.  And I think fourteen by the end.  And aside from maids, the only other woman was the evil villainess who wanted to destroy the heroine.  Her plotline revolved around enjoying gang rape, being turned over to a castle full of men by her lover, and then getting revenge on her lovers filng for her rape by having the fling raped by every man in the castle.  Yes.  I know. 


**I accidentally grabbed it and re-experienced the horror.  DO NOT ASK!  THE TRAUMA!!

***And going to Dallas/Fort Worth again next weekend with my family to go to a baseball game on Friday and take the kids to the Fort Worth Zoo on Saturday.  And then a couple weeks after that, my parents are leaving town for two and a half weeks, so i'll be staying at their place with the cats.

(no subject)

I'm currently rewatching the Kate Beckinsale version of Emma with calixa, and I'd forgotten that Olivia Williams played Jane Fairfax in this version. Which has me now imagining Selene and Adelle DeWitt teaming up for...something. I get to the Selene and DeWitt part and lose all sense of everything else.

Now to go indulge in more love than I should have for a spoiled little snob. She's just so nice and well intentioned at it, even at her most horrid.