I decided to read one of the older books from my TBR pile. I have a lot of Edith Layton books so that seemed like a good place to start.
A True Lady by Edith Layton
(1995, Georgian)
Grade: 3.5
Cristabel is the daughter of a pirate, but she yearns to be an English lady like her mother. When her father marries her to Viscount Magnus Snow, she eagerly leaves for England, but finds her marriage wasn’t valid. Never mind, she can live on her own… but Magnus has other ideas.
A unique story with an interesting setting. Cristabel is a fascinating heroine, and Magnus is a larger-than-life hero (without being a typical alpha male). The Georgian setting of 1720 is vivid and unusual. However, the story itself was a bit predictable (which is surprising considering the characters). I just didn’t find myself as enthralled as I might have been. Still, there were some nice touches. I especially appreciated that the secndary characters weren’t all perfect, or evil – they were a nice mix of good and bad. And the ending was happy but not tied up with a bow. (You rarely see that these days when everyone is being set up for their own books.) I just wish it had moved me a little more.
I chose this book in part for mercenary reasons – I wanted to use up some shipping credits at PBS and this one had a waiting list – but it was nice to read something different. Even though this book was predictable in some ways, in other ways it felt refreshing – it wasn’t the typical historical romance. I have a couple of Edith Layton Regencies that I’ve been meaning to read as well – I may have to pick those up sometime in the next few weeks.
Karen Wheless
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