Archive for June, 2012

Review: The Most Improper Miss Sophie Valentine by Jayne Fresine

Posted in Review on June 26th, 2012

The Most Improper Miss Sophie Valentine by Jayne Fresine
The Most Improper Miss Sophie Valentine by Jayne Fresine. Sourcebooks Casablanca (June 1, 2012). ISBN: 978-1402265976. Mass Market Paperback. (Amazon: $6.99 / Kindle $5.94).

It all started when Sophie Valentine, in a bid for independence, and sick of hearing how she and her Aunt Finn where a dreadful drag on her brother, Henry Valentine, and his wife, Lavinia’s, expenses, placed a simple and straightforward advertisement in the Farmer’s Gazette:

Wanted: one husband, not too particular. Small dowry, several books, sundry furnishings, and elderly aunt included. Idlers, timewasters, and gentlemen with other attachments need not apply. — Miss Sophie Valentine.

Actually, it started long before she wrote that advertisement. Sophie just didn’t fit in. She wanted more but no matter what she did, she was either causing problems or not acting properly. That’s why, while waiting for James Hartley to fetch her a cool drink, she’d jumped off the balcony. She still didn’t understand why she jumped — but it left her with a scarred face and banishment to the country estate of her brother.

It was there that Lazarus Kane came in reply to her advertisement. Lazarus is actually looking for a wife and he’s rented the small estate next door to the Valentines. He intends to marry Sophia and doesn’t care how long it takes to win her.

It’s the 1800s, and women don’t have a lot of freedom of any sort. Since her jump, Sophia has been made to feel as if she’s a simpleton. She fills her time by teaching at the local school. Her brother tolerates this aberration, but he and his wife are continually telling Sophia what to do and how to act, and that teaching is not a proper occupation for a lady. Sophia is smothering under tons of shouldn’t do that and must not do this and worst of all act like a lady.

The Most Improper Miss Sophia Valentine is a romance. However, it is also a peek into the life of a woman who doesn’t fit in her society. The time period is just when education for the lower classes was being considered a good thing for the country, though many of the landed gentry thought education would give them ideas above their station. Women didn’t have much scope for their talents or education in the upper classes except to be a proper accessory to their husbands — running the household, giving parties, and begin a gracious hostess to her husbands friends. Money went from son to son and women had to be cared for by their male relatives or, as Mrs. Bennet would say, “starve in the hedgerows.”

Fresina tells the story from the point of view of Sophia and Lazarus, depending on which view will give the reader the information that the reader should have. Fresina manages to give the reader a taste of the time period (with a few exceptions for plot) and the place of women at that time.

The Most Improper Miss Sophia Valentine is delightful as Sophia and Lazarus spar with each other, her brother tries to keep control of the situation, and all the neighbors maneuver to enjoy the show. For all her unconventionality, I found it difficult to believe that it took Sophia so long to trust herself.

On the other hand, Aunt Finn was hilarious. Finn never married and is considered the black sheep of the family. Sophia is often told she’ll turn out like her Aunt Finn. Finn may be a bit dotty, but she’s certainly a lot sharper than she lets on to her nephew, and she does trust Sophia to make her own choices.

This is a light story that will entertain you on a dreary day.

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Review: Nadia Knows Best by Jill Mansell

Posted in Review on June 13th, 2012

Cover of Nadia Knows Best by Jill Mansell
Nadia Knows Best by Jill Mansell. Sourcebooks Landmark (May 1, 2012) ISBN: 978-1402265167. Trade Paperback: $14.00 (Amazon: $11.08 / Kindle: $10.22).

When Nadia Kinsella’s car slid off the road in a snow storm, she ended up spending the night, talking about everything with Jay Tiernan, whose car had also run off the road. Somehow, Nadia assumed that Jay was gay and thus didn’t worry about impressions and relationship issues but just enjoyed the company — after all she had a boyfriend, Laurie Welsh, who worked as a fashion model.

Nadia lived with her father and two sisters in the home of her grandmother, Miriam Kinsella. Clare was slightly younger than Nadia and an artist. Tilly was 13 and still in school. Somehow everything worked out. Nadia was cautious, Clare a bit wild, and Tilly was quiet and studious. They even got along with Miriam’s loudmouthed parrot — Harpo. (I mean how can you resist a book where the loudmouth parrot is named after the silent Marx brother?)

Having read a previous book by Jill Mansell, I knew things were probably going to go wrong for our main character, Nadia — maybe even horribly wrong. But since these are considered chick lit romances, you can pretty well rest assured that the ending will be happy for our main character. Well, you’d be mostly right.

In point of fact things go horribly wrong for just about everyone — Miriam, Nadia, Clare, and even for their father, James. Mansell doesn’t necessarily follow the expectations of her readers — for the betterment of the book, if you ask me.

Nadia Knows Best as a title does imply that Nadia believes she knows what’s best for herself and others. Thinking you know what is in your own best interest, as well as that of those you love, is a sure fire way to find out just how little you know about your best interest, and that of your loved ones. While you may have the issues down solid — love, happiness, support — how those things are to be achieved is essentially a moving target with no single answer for anyone.

Nadia has her heart broken and her confidence shattered. But, she comes out swinging and when she runs into an opportunity to do the kind of work she’s always dreamed of doing, she takes a chance. Of course, that’s when everything goes pear-shaped and the family seems to be falling apart at the seams. Not because they don’t care for each other, but because they care too much.

In many books the family the characters are born into isn’t necessarily the family the stories are about. In Nadia Knows Best, a close loving family nearly loses each other because they care too much to put their feelings first. They fear that if they say what they want, that they’ll be influencing the other person and thus forcing them into something they don’t want to do.

As a reader, we’re glued to the pages, hoping that they’ll realize that talking things out with each other is how we not only communicate information, but how we feel, what we want out of live, and how we appreciate and love those around us. Mansell’s goal I’m sure was to tell as good story. That the story she told resonates with the reader would be an added benefit. The characters have real-life problems, maybe on a level that many of us don’t have, but none the less ones that real people deal with each day — dashed hopes, ex-spouses and all the baggage that entails: spite, love, loss, longing, caring, and hard choices. That’s what makes us human and what makes readers connect to a story.

Chick Lit is considered by many to be light and fluffy — but many of the authors write stories that have depth and deal with issues that readers deal with in their own lives. Enjoy Nadia Knows Best, it will entertain you and it just may get you to think outside the box.

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