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A review by chels_ebooks
Lessons in French by Laura Kinsale
Laura Kinsale calls Midsummer Moon and Lessons in French "hedgehog humor" and that's how I'll always think of her more light-hearted Regency romances. They're just as grounded in the historical setting as her angst-driven books, but they have a sort of absurdist whimsy.
Midsummer Moon has the hedgehog, and Lessons in French has Hubert, the bull.
Callie is a 27 year old spinster who is deeply invested in animal husbandry. She calls herself boring and plain (because that's how other aristocrats see her), but Kinsale is able to convey her understated charm so clearly that I was half in love with her myself. She's had a run of rotten luck: she's been publicly jilted three times, so when her childhood sweetheart Trevelyan returns from France after being away from a decade, she's feeling very vulnerable about how he sees her.
Trevelyan isn't a rake, exactly, but he's the opposite of Callie in that he's someone that people immediately like. He's always been smitten with her: he and Callie were teenage sweethearts until Callie's father angrily scared him off, saying he's not good enough for his daughter. (Meaning, he's too French.)
For reasons that only Trevelyan knows, they can't marry each other even though Callie's father died years ago. But Trev wants to make Callie happy, so he devises a scheme to get Callie's prized bull (Hubert. Such a good boy!) returned to her keeping after he's gambled away by a careless relative. This does not go to plan, so now Callie and Trev have to go to absurd lengths to get Hubert back to his rightful owner.
Kinsale cannot write a conventional romance. (Compliment.) This is light-hearted and funny but I never had any idea where the plot was going, and the book commits to the rural setting and country affairs and Hubert the bull, instead of using them as set-dressing.
Midsummer Moon has the hedgehog, and Lessons in French has Hubert, the bull.
Callie is a 27 year old spinster who is deeply invested in animal husbandry. She calls herself boring and plain (because that's how other aristocrats see her), but Kinsale is able to convey her understated charm so clearly that I was half in love with her myself. She's had a run of rotten luck: she's been publicly jilted three times, so when her childhood sweetheart Trevelyan returns from France after being away from a decade, she's feeling very vulnerable about how he sees her.
Trevelyan isn't a rake, exactly, but he's the opposite of Callie in that he's someone that people immediately like. He's always been smitten with her: he and Callie were teenage sweethearts until Callie's father angrily scared him off, saying he's not good enough for his daughter. (Meaning, he's too French.)
For reasons that only Trevelyan knows, they can't marry each other even though Callie's father died years ago. But Trev wants to make Callie happy, so he devises a scheme to get Callie's prized bull (Hubert. Such a good boy!) returned to her keeping after he's gambled away by a careless relative. This does not go to plan, so now Callie and Trev have to go to absurd lengths to get Hubert back to his rightful owner.
Kinsale cannot write a conventional romance. (Compliment.) This is light-hearted and funny but I never had any idea where the plot was going, and the book commits to the rural setting and country affairs and Hubert the bull, instead of using them as set-dressing.