It doesn’t bode well that I read What a Difference a Duke Makes a couple of weeks ago and when I sat down to review it all I could remember was that it was a Regency romance and had a duke in it. Luckily I was able to refresh my memory. This book is not particularly memorable, but it was enjoyable while I was reading it.
Mari (rhymes with starry, as she is constantly telling people) was a foundling raised in an orphanage and educated at a charity school. She got a decent, if not affectionate, education there and learned to behave in a respectable fashion. She has signed on with Mrs. Trilby’s Agency for Superior Governesses in hopes of being placed in a modest house. Alas, she is fifteen minutes late to her agency appointment because:
I’m dreadfully sorry, truly I am. There was a lame girl trying to cross a crowded avenue and I was afraid she’d be crushed. I sprang to her assistance, but while I was helping her several children made off with my trunk.
Mari as you can see, is a Good Person, and this book leans towards Cute. Because Mari was late she is fired from the agency. She overhears that a duke with unmanageable twin children needs a governess and rushes to his home, presents herself as being sent by the agency, and within minutes has the staff feeding her, the duke staring at her ass as respectfully as possible, and the children following her about like sheep.
The part of the book that involves being with the children works pretty well. When the kids try to scare Mari with a snake she pops it into a jar, puts muslin over the top, and informs the children that some snakes can go without pooping for a year (this is true – I checked). The children are thrilled with this information. They are also thrilled that although Mari is strict, she does not spend the days telling them that because they are bastards they will someday go to Hell, which is how the previous governess passed the time. Mari presents herself in a Mary Poppins fashion and no matter what is happening in the rest of the book, when the children appear on scene she snaps back into this persona. The many Mary Poppins references are fun but not overdone.
This brings us to the duke, Edgar Rochester, who did not know about the twins until very recently when their mother died. He has a complicated angsty past during which he ran away and spent seven years working in a foundry, in disguise, as one does when no therapists are available. Now he’s back in society being ducal and building a new kind of fire engine. He tells himself that because Mari is the governess he can’t sleep with her (good call). However, Mari flirts with him outrageously whenever the children aren’t around and Edgar is crazy about her.
By this point you have probably gathered that this is not a historically accurate novel. People simply do not behave as they would in real life, given their social stations. They also have anachronistic values. One running theme is that Edgar should spend more time with his children, which is more of a modern concept.
These aren’t necessarily flaws if you are willing to accept that this book is as much of a fantasy as it would be if dragons were eating the children at the park. If you go in expecting that all will be somewhat ridiculous but cute and pretty, then it’s a very fun book. Mari manages the children with skill and humor. The banter between her and the duke is quite funny. There are frolics in the park and trips to the beach. Side plots include Mari’s search for her birth mother and Edgar’s attempts to build a steam engine that will fight fires. There’s also a side plot about Edgar and his estranged mother, plus a side plot about Lady India, Edgar’s sister, who is an archaeologist and appears to be the heroine of the next book. Also, there’s a toyshop, and the clothes are fantastic. Don’t worry about the snake. They let it go after a day or so. It’s fine.
I enjoyed the frothy confection of this book once I relaxed and let the story happen. It’s skillfully written, with lovely and varied locations that we don’t often see in a historical. The characters are endearing. The sex is sexy. Ultimately, all the plot threads come together in a satisfying, if predictable, fashion. As it happens, I read it right when I needed it. It never made me stressed, the conflict was minimal, and everything was pretty.
I deeply value books like that. I just don’t remember much about them after the fact – they float away like soap bubbles. The low grade is because the story frequently doesn’t make sense and it’s wildy overstuffed with plotlines. Mari’s behavior depends on what page you are on. Edgar never comes fully into focus. In comparison to other romances, there’s not much substance here. That being said, if you are in the kind of mood in which lack of substance is a feature rather than a bug, I do recommend this book.
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Glad the lame girl could kickstart the heroine’s journey. Bleh. Am I being overly sensitive? Maybe. Don’t care. I’ll just be over here, hoping for more physically disabled heroines in romance.
…and in popular media in general.
I read that as an Oliver Twist situation. If you look at the way it was worded, it reads more as she went to help the lame woman, and then “her children” (or gang of cute and well-trained thieves) used the opportunity to take off with the heroine’s stuff. I think the book sounds pretty cute, but I think I can wait. I do like a Poppins analogue though.
I picked up an early copy at Emerald City Comicon. They brought Lenora Bell in for a panel and a signing, and I managed to escape over from my artist alley table to meet her. She is an utter delight.
While I didn’t read it right away, it turned out to be exactly what I needed when I finally sat down to do so. It’s very wiggle-your-toes happy sort of book, and I deeply appreciated the fact that Mari made her desires absolutely clear when it came to how the changing relationship with her boss is handled. There is never a sense of Edgar trying to abuse the power he has over Mari as her employer, and it was deeply, deeply appreciated.
To me, one of the big highlights of this book was the crash course we get on how firefighting developed and how we take for-granted these days that if our house catches on fire that someone will come help. Here’s an excerpt from http://www.firefighterfoundation.org.uk/history/:
After The Great Fire, the first fire insurance company called the, “The Fire Office”, was established in 1667 by Nicholas Barbon. His Fire Brigade employed small teams of Thames watermen as firefighters. Other similar companies soon followed his lead and this was how property was protected until the early 1800s. Policy holders were given a badge, or fire mark, to affix to their building. If a fire started, the Fire Brigade was called. They looked for the fire mark and, provided it was the right one, the fire would be dealt with. Often the buildings were left to burn until the right fire company attended. The Hand in Hand Fire Insurance Company was later to supersede ‘The Fire Office’ Company. Eventually, many of these insurance companies were to merge.
That’s pretty horrifying and something I hadn’t known before reading this book.
I like this “soap bubble” analogy. Been there, read plenty of those.
Edgar Rochester? So Mary Poppins wandered into Jane Eyre? That could be entertaining, actually. Id love to see Julie Andrews burst into a cheerful song while Orson Welles is busy Gothic-ing it up.
I believe the idea behind the “lame” girl is that she is part of the gang of theive, and that whole paragraph is an effort to cram as many Dickens references in the first page as possible. We have the gang from Oliver Twist, the country person goes to the big city like Pip in Great Expectations, and the Tiny Tim imagery, also references to an orphanage.
“The many Mary Poppins references are fun but not overdone.” But not by name, right? That would be a real anachronism.
I really enjoy Lenora Bell, the charm, humor and the lack of evidence overly angst. Sometimes I just want that charm bubble to lose myself in.
@Darlynne – no they don’t reference her by name.
I’d rather read a book where dragons were eating children in the park.
I don’t need complete historical accuracy – but I don’t get why people don’t just write a contemporary when they obviously want to write contemporary characters and relationships and attitudes.
That was my first thought, too, that the “lame” girl and others were con artists and Mari fell for it.
And if that’s her line of dialogue, it reads awfully stiff and fake.
I’m getting a Sound of Music vibe from this book, similar to another book I attempted to read recently. What is it with all these authors trying to rewrite old movies and classic novels? It’s like Hollywood with all their idiotic reboots. How about something with a wee bit of originality for a change?
And how about giving up trying to write historicals if you’re too lazy to get it halfway correct. Write a contemporary nanny, instead. I’m sure readers would appreciate it.
Wow! I feel like some of the commentary is a bit harsh. I don’t see people picking on Tessa Dare (whom I also enjoy) for the same thing. Nor do I find people complaining about the “forced marriage” trope in contemporary fiction because, really, that seems like a historical thing. If you don’t like a more “contemporary” voice in historicals, don’t read them. There are a wide range of authors to find your jam.
“If you don’t like a more “contemporary” voice in historicals, don’t read them.”
That comment made me laugh out loud, it was so incongruous. I’ve “picked on” Dare before for her wallpaper historicals. But hey, I know most readers don’t care. Just don’t come crying when the next “historical” has young Abe Lincoln ditching his summer job at Cinnabun so he can hang with his bros at the mall.
I think, I will pass on this one.
2017-2018 has been harsh. Thanks for the review. This book sounds like what I need, a palate cleanser. I had seen the name of the author but never researched her work. I actually want to read this book now. Sexy times. Underdog wins. Yes please!
I totally would read an actual Mary Poppins Jane Eyre mash up!!!!
Someone needs to write that now!!!!
Bell’s books tend to be something like this down the line for me; very MOR and fluffy, though sometimes the fluff lands.
“he ran away and spent seven years working in a foundry, in disguise, as one does when no therapists are available.”
I don’t want to read the book. Do want to read more of your reviews.
I was a little worried when I saw the C+ rating, because I personally loved reading this book, but this review is spot on. I felt like this one walked the fine line between enjoyable fluff and obnoxiously twee, but I never found myself rolling my eyes at the characters. The ending was rushed, but everything was wrapped up in a nice pretty bow (sevretlynlove it when books do that) and I can’t wait for Lady India’s story!
What a difference a comma makes!
I read it as “while I was helping her, COMMA, several children” etcetera. But reading it as “while I was helping, COMMA, her several [= many] children” etcetera–as several commentors did–makes the episode into something much more fun. I would definitely read a book with a gang of child-thieves led by a disabled female Fagin.
Ah geez. I don’t mind intertextual references, but I feel like Charlotte Bronte and P.L. Travers deserve partial writing credit for this book. While there were playful references to Jane Eyre and Mary Poppins, I felt like there were bits where there were plot points taken straight out of the books which weren’t interesting re-interpretations, just shallow copies.