C
Genre: Historical: European, Romance
This book drove me crackers but I still read the whole thing in a couple days. While it was as compelling as Matthews’ usual work, it brought me none of the joy. The reason for this is the role a character from a previous book played in this book. But first, let’s focus on this book on its own merits.
Ivo Beresford is a young man with his eye on the future. He wants to build a railway in his part of the world. He wants to strive for progress. Meg Burton-Smythe lives on an adjacent estate, but the owner of that estate (Meg’s father) is the sworn enemy of Ivo’s parents. The feud between the families has stood for decades. When Ivo meets Meg by chance (she’d fallen off her horse and injured her ankle) tentative sparks fly between the two, but what future do they have given their past?
Both Meg and Ivo are young. I don’t read many books with young protagonists so I can’t say whether their characteristics (immature, lacking self-reflection, a bit selfish) are caricatures but either way, I know I prefer my characters older, wiser and with more perspective. Meg especially is somewhat of a wet rag in this book. She is a nervous wreck mostly, but later in the book she has such a seachange in personality that it makes it difficult to believe that early Meg and later Meg are the same person.
The problem for me is that I’ve been a devoted reader of this series, and especially Gentleman Jim. If I had never read Gentleman Jim (the book in which we meet Ivo’s parents and Meg’s dad), I would probably be rooting for Ivo and Meg. But I have read Gentleman Jim and it is one of my favourite comfort reads.
In Gentleman Jim, Meg’s father, Fred Burton-Smythe, is a jealous, predatory monster. He tries to get Ivo’s father hung for theft. Fred attempts to sexually assault Ivo’s mother and tries to financially force her to marry him. He’s a thorough, wretched villain. Ivo’s parents’ happy ending is very much despite Fred’s best efforts.
For Ivo and Meg to have their HEA, there needs to be a partial redemption of Fred. Personally, this attempt stuck in my craw and I found it very difficult to see any good in Fred given his heinous past. I don’t like that Ivo’s parents (who I absolutely adore) have their HEA tainted by being forced to be civil to someone who was so abjectly cruel to them.
Can you tell how much this book got on my nerves? And yet I still read the book cover to cover. Matthews writes immersively and I needed to know how it all ended. If Meg had been less tremulous, if Ivo and Meg had both been a bit more mature, if Fred hadn’t been such a villain in Gentleman Jim, then this experience would be a rather different kettle of fish.
As it stands, I think this series is done for me. There will doubtlessly be mention of Fred in book 5 of this series and I don’t have the stomach for it. But that’s not to say that this book is bad, necessarily. The book is still compelling enough that I read it quickly. Those who are less black-and-white in their thinking about villains might be able to enjoy this book and the growth that it shows. For this grouchy reviewer? It did not work, but I can see how this could be a case of a mismatch between book and reader.
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Yeah, this one was not my favorite of Matthews’ books for precisely the reasons you outlined. I see what she was trying to do but the combination of needing to (at least partially) redeem Fred along with Ivo and Meg’s immaturity just didn’t work for me.
I’ve always really admired Matthews’ villains because they are often deeply creepy in very specific ways but also because they also embrace the idea that we are all the heroes of our own story/people have blind spots that can make them do terrible things to other people. However. Fred’s past actions are particularly egregious to the point that the redemption arc didn’t work for me.
Fred was a very bitter pill that I refused to swallow. I read as much as I could and then skipped to about 80%.
I can’t imagine that he will be much of a presence in the fifth book…..
I loved the romance of Gentleman Jim but the book was almost ruined by Fred. Sometimes a villain can just be so bad that I have to skip those scenes where they’re present. He’s definitely a villain I’ll always remember. I’ll have to skip this one because Fred is just too awful to be redeemed IMO.
@LJO
It’s more that Fred will be a fixture in their lives now, even though his role will be very minor. I think it’s that my tolerance for Fred is just so low that even a mention of his name is too much for me now.
Reading this review again, I’m just so sad that one of my favourite series is ruined for me.
I think I enjoyed this one more than Return to Satterthwaite Court, which was too long imho. But yeah … any attempt to paint Fred in a different light will prompt readers of the previous books to pull up his rap sheet, and it’s like, “Oh … a frame-up job when he’s a teenager, sexual assault, abuse of power as a legal guardian … etc. etc. on and on.” Just terrible crime after terrible crime. Kind of hard to redeem.
Of all of the villains to try to redeem! This one hasn’t been getting good reviews, I think you’re not the only oen who’s unable to stomach this narrative choice.
I hadn’t read the previous book but I could tell it must be more dynamic and interesting than this one which was too tame for me.