Book Review

Seven Minutes in Heaven by Eloisa James

Seven Minutes in Heaven is written with Eloisa James’ customary wit and charm. It’s an enchanting book with one major caveat – the main conflict could have been resolved in Chapter One if people just spoke clearly. I’m not a fan of stories that revolve around a misunderstanding. Still, I enjoyed it because the writing is so good and the characters so delightful.

Edward Reeve, AKA Ward, is in desperate need of a governess who can work wonders. He has become the guardian of his two half-siblings, Lizzie and Otis, who were, for complicated reasons, raised with a traveling theater troupe. When they are orphaned, Ward takes them in. He wishes to protect them against scorn from the society world they will eventually inhabit by teaching them socially impeccable manners – hence the need for a very good governess.

Eugenia Snowe, a widow, is not and has never been a governess. She is, in fact, a Lady. However, she runs a registry of governesses, and because Ward cannot imagine that a woman of high rank would run a business, he assumes that she is a former governess herself. Ward sets out to seduce Eugenia on two fronts. He wishes to convince her to teach the children proper deportment, and he wishes to convince her to have fun sexy time with him. She agrees to both. As is inevitably the case, fun sex turns into romantic love.

This book is so fun that it took me a week to consider that every single character is dealing with grief. Eugenia was happily married for seven years and deeply grieves her husband. The kids transcend the perils of plot-moppetry because they are fully realized characters with their own emotional lives. They each have their own way of mourning their parents and facing a completely new way of life. Ward mourns for his own childhood and the scorn he faced for being illegitimate.

The issue of grief is important because without it Ward would be insufferable. He is controlling and snobby. This would be unforgivable as a character trait except that his motives are pure, and it’s important to note he is unfailingly kind and patient to the his half-siblings. He’s desperate to protect them both from derision as they grow up. He’s stupid about it, but he means well.

Alas, that still leaves the fact that Ward is often stupid. He somehow believes that Lizzie and Otis must grow up held to rigid standards of constant perfection, even in private, even in the most emotional moments, and that this approach will be better than having to face down some mean people as adults. He’s quick to make assumptions, and his assumptions are almost always wrong. He believes idiotic things about women, class, and behavior. He also misinterprets most things that are said to him, especially when they are about Eugenia. The entire plot hinges on him believing that she is a former governess and not a woman of high birth despite the many times he is informed, albeit obliquely, that she’s a woman of high birth. He doesn’t get the hints because he’s too wrapped up in the assumption that everyone looks down on him, and the assumption that ladies of noble birth do not do certain things like run businesses.

As frustrating as this was, I loved the writing and her characters, who are always interesting. I loved the kids, especially Lizzie who channels Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice so hard that I expected her to say, “I myself am strange and unusual” at any moment. Sometimes characters did things that bugged me, but they were at least consistent with their personalities. For example, Ward doesn’t screw up out of the blue. He screws up for plausible reasons related to his life experiences.

The book is also very funny. It’s full of banter, and you all know how very much I love banter. The scene with the French letters, a scene I will not even attempt to describe, is laugh-out-loud funny and sexy at the same time. Eugenia is a completely delightful and relatable character with enough common sense to realize that the Big Misunderstanding that Ward has developed is not actually the major issue between them.

I’m willing to forgive a great deal in a man who just wants to protect a couple of orphans from his own miserable childhood. And I hold on to the hope that Eugenia will kick enough sense into Ward over time that they will be happy together. Ward is consistently kind to the children, and despite his strict standards he’s flexible about veils and unorthodox pets. There’s hope for him and Eugenia. That said, I have to admit that I was really rooting for Eugenia in this story, as well as the kids, who I fervently hope will have their own books eventually. Lizzie in particular clearly has a grand career ahead of her.

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Seven Minutes in Heaven by Eloisa James

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  1. Amelia says:

    I desperately hope that Lizzie gets her own book. She was by far my favorite part.

  2. LizM says:

    What is with the cover of this book? She’s so photo-shopped she looks like a ghost. You can do better, Avon. It’s Eloisa James for crap’s sakes!

  3. Kristen says:

    The kids were both great characters, especially Lizzie, and I really appreciated how fleshed out they were.

  4. Linda says:

    I was really bothered that the Duchess of Gilner was brought back from the dead as a plot device. I felt deeply disappointed as a reader who has read the whole Desperate Duchesses series. It’s not that Duchess Gilner suddenly appears; her death is actually a significant point in a previous book. It jarred me out of the story. I felt like Eloisa James was arrogant about it and her reader’s intelligence.

  5. kk says:

    I spent feeling frustrated about the Duchess of Gilner bit too! I thought I’d misinterpreted something. This is very frustrating, and seems like something that could have been easily avoided.

  6. kk says:

    I spent feeling frustrated about the Duchess of Gilner bit too! I thought I’d misinterpreted something. This is very frustrating, and seems like something that could have been easily avoided.

  7. kk says:

    Maybe not ‘easily’ avoided. That was unnecessarily flippant. It’s just that ‘A Duke of Her Own’ was my favourite in the series, and I got so confused!

  8. Chelsea says:

    Eloisa has said that she actually forgot the Duchess of Gilner was supposed to be dead–and that she was extremely embarrassed when a reviewer pointed it out, but it was too late to fix!

  9. Linda says:

    She doesn’t say that at the end of the book, and that’s pretty bad between her, her editors and beta readers. It really made me lose respect for her an author which makes me sad because Desperate Duchesses is one of my absolute favorite series.

  10. Disappointed says:

    I just finished reading this, and James seems to have forgotten about a lot of characters, bringing back a previously dead character, and that whole conversation about Teddy or whatever his name is saying that he’s not really related to his cousin except through marriage? I’m pretty sure that Jemma’s progeny would be cousins with any of her brother’s kids, including Ward/Teddy. Also, Ward/Teddy was a complete asshole.

    I guess I have enjoyed Eloisa James’ novels in the past as frothy, but witty romance novels with a bit of brain power. I suppose I will look elsewhere in the future.

  11. Myrtle says:

    I read the first six pages and said to myself….” Self, this book is not for you.” I don’t like that period of time and I don’t like the way that they spoke. ” This book was recommended by another author…..Book for sale.

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