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A review by jackiehorne
An Unlikely Countess by Jo Beverley
3.0
After hearing Jo Beverley speak at the RWA conference (about what romance writers, particularly American ones, get wrong when they write about the English past), it was fun to get hold of her latest and give it a read. Beverley writes intelligently about intelligent characters, something that is all too rare in the field, and her research and historical grounding shine through in this addition to her oeuvre.
But this isn't one of her best books. It begins slowly, with the h/h meeting in the first chapter but then not seeing each other again until almost a third of the book is over. Once they do get together, there is little, emotionally, keeping them apart, which was an interesting change from most historical romances. Here, the h/h like each other from the start, and there is little of the typical romance fighting/antagonism between them. A friendly, enjoyable relationship, although the lack of sexual tension between the two (and lack of sexual consummation throughout the book!) made the relationship less compelling that it might have been, as did the too-sudden turnaround at the novel's end by the hero's sister-in-law. An interesting exploration of class differences, but not the most engaging narrative.
But this isn't one of her best books. It begins slowly, with the h/h meeting in the first chapter but then not seeing each other again until almost a third of the book is over. Once they do get together, there is little, emotionally, keeping them apart, which was an interesting change from most historical romances. Here, the h/h like each other from the start, and there is little of the typical romance fighting/antagonism between them. A friendly, enjoyable relationship, although the lack of sexual tension between the two (and lack of sexual consummation throughout the book!) made the relationship less compelling that it might have been, as did the too-sudden turnaround at the novel's end by the hero's sister-in-law. An interesting exploration of class differences, but not the most engaging narrative.