Long ago, the cover for Gabriella turned up in Cover Snark. Everyone was hoping that the book was about a cat, and I Googled and discovered that the book is actually about a Regency woman who wants to be a veterinarian (which was a profession back then – I checked). Undaunted by the Photoshop, I read the book and it’s pretty good, although it falls apart near the end.

Brie (short for Gabriella) and her family live in the country, where her father worked as a veterinarian. He dies while trying to rescue a lamb that was trapped on a ledge. What happened to the lamb? I dunno. Anyway, Brie’s mother decides that they will have to sell the practice, and she ships Brie off to London so that Brie can finally have a Season even though Brie wants to stay home and try to keep the practice going. Brie will be sponsored by her sister, Angela, who lives in London and is a social climber married to a rich, boring husband.

On the way to London, Brie stops at an inn where she sees an obviously abused horse. She stomps into the inn and chews out the owner, who turns out to be the Duke of Ravenham. He did not abuse the horse. He just rescued it moments ago. However, this big misunderstanding is allowed to hang over most of the book. There are people who enjoy the big misunderstanding trope but I am not one of them, so I found this to be incredibly irritating.

Note: Yes there is an abused horse in this book, and also someone kicks a kitten. HOWEVER these animals subsequently are rescued and pampered. They are fine.

Everyone finally gets to London, where Ravenham loses a wager and has to pay it off by promising to bring Brie out into society. It turns out to be very easy. All he has to do is teach her to dance and get the envious Angela to stop dressing her in ugly colors. Also, he has to explain to Brie that Sir Frederick, a guy who has been flirting with her, is a lying sack of shit.

Eventually Brie figures out that Ravenham isn’t an animal abuser and she falls in love with him, and Ravenham falls in love with Brie, and also Brie rescues an injured kitten and, later, saves Ravenham’s favorite dog from dying in puppy-birth. Up until this point, I found the book to be pleasant, though not earth-shattering. However, the puppy thing broke me, and things rapidly went downhill from that point on.

Everyone has a different threshold for how far their belief will stretch. Mine would have stretched as far as Ravenham admiring Brie for her skill with salves or stitches. However, the idea of a Regency gentleman, even a very enlightened one, considering a woman as marriage material after watching her help a dog give birth and then hearing her frankly conversing with his sister about childbirth in his presence – I don’t buy it. He might be enlightened enough to hire her as his veterinarian but I don’t believe he’d be enlightened enough to marry a woman who is willing to admit that she knows where a dog’s vagina is, let alone a woman who is willing to stick her hand into a dog’s vagina to turn a puppy, let alonea woman who will discuss such matters with his very sheltered sister.

From this point on, the plot, which was previously quite slow-moving, kicks into overdrive. Ravenham gets jealous because he thinks that Brie might have slept with Sir Frederick, which is ridiculous, and then he challenges Sir Frederick to a duel because he thinks Sir Frederick is lying, and then Angela kicks Gabriella out so Angela’s reputation won’t be ruined, and Ravenham gallops off to find Brie and bring her back to his sister’s ball, and I don’t understand why any of this is happening. Ravenham knows Sir Frederick is a lying sack of shit so why suddenly believe him? And then why suddenly not believe him? It’s exhausting.

Then there’s the ball and Brie and Ravenham get engaged and everyone is happy. I have questions. What happened to the kitten, last seen being patched up on Brie’s dressing room table? Is Brie’s room currently infested with fleas? Is she still going to be a vet? What happened to the whole issue of the family practice? Why are we happy that Angela is pregnant, given that Angela is a horrible person? Why is Brie happy to have her mother’s approval given that she only has it because she’s learned how to dress up and she’s marrying someone rich and presumably not taking over her father’s practice after all?

Until the ending, I rather enjoyed this book. Brie is a lovely character, if a little too perfect. Her only flaw is that she’s a terrible judge of people and without this flaw there would be no plot. Most of the plot consists of beautiful people in beautiful clothes going to beautiful places. In the right mood, I find that sort of plot to be like a nice cup of tea – maybe not something that rocks my world like a good hot cocoa would, but comforting and restorative.

Alas, things went so off the rails towards the end that I threw up my hands in despair. Literally. I was holding my phone in one hand (I read on my phone a lot) and waving my other hand about wildly as though trying to flag down a rescue ship. No ship arrived and I’m left to give this book a C- and slink off to bed, still wondering about the kitten.