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A review by meekkee
A Man Above Reproach by Evelyn Pryce
1.0
There's not a lot I can say about this book that's truly positive. To be honest, it didn't really stand out from the vast stable of star-crossed romance novels. The only reason I finished it was because I was in the middle of it. The only reason I reached the middle of it was because I kept waiting for something to leap out from the pages and rivet me to the book.
But nothing, and by then it was too late to turn back.
I think the problem with this book is that it gets too caught up in typical romance novel conventions -- the hero is a long-suffering marriage mart catch who scorns all the insipid women thrown at him by eager matchmaking mamas. Boring, and over time, rather offensive. I appreciate that at the end of the novel, he realizes he might have undervalued one of the society girls he'd always dismissed, but it's too little, too late. He falls in love with Josephine because she is different, but as it turns out not so much, and bulls his way into her life until he basically manages it for her.
Not too modern, this.
Josephine herself was rather disappointing. For someone reputed to be witty and sharp, a lot of her dialogue with Lennox fell flat and ran rather typical. She offers a token resistance to him for a while and eventually capitulates, both decisions for no particular reason. Her background and how she ended up in the Sleeping Dove is also difficult to believe, and whatever happened to Scotland?
All in all, it's a book that takes inspiration from romance novels that have gone before, but offers nothing of its own to the genre.
But nothing, and by then it was too late to turn back.
I think the problem with this book is that it gets too caught up in typical romance novel conventions -- the hero is a long-suffering marriage mart catch who scorns all the insipid women thrown at him by eager matchmaking mamas. Boring, and over time, rather offensive. I appreciate that at the end of the novel, he realizes he might have undervalued one of the society girls he'd always dismissed, but it's too little, too late. He falls in love with Josephine because she is different, but as it turns out not so much, and bulls his way into her life until he basically manages it for her.
Not too modern, this.
Josephine herself was rather disappointing. For someone reputed to be witty and sharp, a lot of her dialogue with Lennox fell flat and ran rather typical. She offers a token resistance to him for a while and eventually capitulates, both decisions for no particular reason. Her background and how she ended up in the Sleeping Dove is also difficult to believe, and whatever happened to Scotland?
All in all, it's a book that takes inspiration from romance novels that have gone before, but offers nothing of its own to the genre.