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Pamela Sherwood

Auteur de Waltz with a Stranger

7 oeuvres 68 utilisateurs 12 critiques

Séries

Œuvres de Pamela Sherwood

Waltz with a Stranger (2012) 32 exemplaires
A Song at Twilight (2013) 22 exemplaires
The Advent of Lady Madeline (2015) 6 exemplaires
The Heiress Brides: Two Novellas (2016) 2 exemplaires
A Lyons in Winter: A Box Set (2019) 1 exemplaire

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Critiques

This is very well researched and written, but just not my cup of tea. The story revolves more around the mystery than anything else, and it drags on a bit to long, in my opinion. The heroine’s scar is a negligible source of angst, which was what I was looking for in picking this book up. I should have known better given my intense dislike of love triangles, though that did get wrapped up neatly and easily in the end - no one gets hurt, but then there is no angst either. This just isn’t what I was looking for, personally, though it is quite well done. (2.5 stars)… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
Rhiannon.Mistwalker | 3 autres critiques | Aug 19, 2022 |
"What light through yonder window breaks?"
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.

An opportunity to become reacquainted with Sherwood's larger than life 'Lyon's Pride' family was to good too miss. These 'holiday themed' novellas featuring Harold Lyons, the Duke of Whitborough, Helene de Sevigny-Lyons, his Duchess and and their various offsprings, are filled with the towering personalities. A chance to reread some of their stories and explore new (to me) novellas--a pleasure!
Madeline Lyon's tale is charming, as is Lord Gervase and Margaret Bellemy's (née Carlisle) untimely romance.
All that frisson, jealousies and untamed energy displayed within the family is both riveting and exhausting. What light can indeed break upon the causes for such a dysfunctional family?
And yet light does cast its penetrating beam on many inhabiting the pages of this Box Set.
I was awed by Sherwood's use of Shakespearian themes, reworked into the various Lyon episodes. The avid quoting of the various lines from the Bard shows Sherwood's deep love and grasp of his works and her related understanding of the process of acting.
My favorite contribution this time around, which I hadn't read, is "Ephiphany". A secondary tale to that of the family. Featuring Lady Bellamy's maid Tilda James, and Lord Gervase's valet Simon Farnsworth, it's a gem.
Using Christmas and winter as an organizing focus for this set of stories, the collection brings together various members of this distinctive, oft times tragic, and always contentious titled (and so very entitled) Victorian family.

A NetGalley ARC
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
eyes.2c | Mar 1, 2019 |
This is not so much a romance novel as it is an epic saga, encompassing a whole host of characters beyond the two teased in the back blurb. There are several plotlines, including a murder mystery, but all in all it is a gentle yet intriguing read.

America heiress Aurelia Newbold wasn't hiding, exactly, when she slipped into Lady Talbot's conservatory that evening. She just wasn't comfortable with a room full of people who were staring at her, and her formally identical twin sister, for reasons she couldn't control.

James Trelawnley definitely *was* hiding. Orphaned at a young age, raised on a Cornish estate, he's no fan of big London soirees, but he makes an exception for his aunt and his beloved cousin. He spies a beautiful girl who's way out of his league, has a nasty run-in with a different cousin, and decides he's had enough. He goes down to the conservatory for a breath of air, but instead meets the woman who's about to change his life forever.

The two misfits share a waltz and part company. For Aurelia, meeting James gives her conviction, for the first time since her disfiguring accident, that life might just be worth living after all, and not just in the shadow of her beautiful twin sister, Amy. She makes the decision to go abroad, attending a European spa to strengthen her health and her self-confidence. A year later, she's back in London, ready to find James Trelawnley again...only to discover that he's now the Earl of Trevenan - and betrothed to Amy.

So, the basic premise of the story was better than the back blurb promised - it's one thing to find out the man she's fallen in love with is engaged to someone else, but to her twin sister?! Yowzers! This could have very easily descended into some cliched nonsense about evil twins and petty rivals, but what makes this book so wonderful is the fact that it didn't.

There is no obvious villain here (well, anymore - James's odious cousin Gerald kicks the bucket about 20 pages in, from which James unexpectedly inherits his title and crumbling estate) so conflict springs up more naturally, in other circumstances: James's desperate need for Amy's dowry, for repairs on his estate; Amy's testy relationship with Thomas, James's best friend; the reappearance of Aurelia's former beau, who jilted her after her accident, and his sudden, desperate desire to court her again; the owner of a shipping company showing up, wanting to buy back shares in his company that odious cousin Gerald apparently hoovered up in shady circumstances.

After their engagement is announced in London, the Newbold family accompanies James to his estate in Cornwall, where he is met with accusations of having something to do with his odious cousin's "accidental" death. The mystery of what really happened that night takes over the large middle section of the book, and leaves the romance as a distant D-plot. Strands of all of these various plots weave together into a deliciously tangled knot, just like an old-school saga. The only thing that's missing is multi-generational storytelling.

The hero and heroine don't kiss until page 376, which makes for an awfully slow-moving romance; however, the emotional payoff is worth it IMO. It helped that I found the other plotlines engaging enough to not necessarily begrudge the romance taking a backseat. It was the elephant in the room the entire time, however, because it was all going to come to a head at some point: how can the hero marry the twin sister of the woman he actually loves? How could any of them live with that reality?

I really enjoyed this book. The author is quite knowledgeable about the time period and the settings (ah, Cornwall!). I enjoyed the large cast of characters and found their disparate storylines equally engaging, which kept the book moving at a decent pace. It is circumstance (and honor) that keeps our erstwhile hero and heroine apart for most of the book. The lack of an obvious villain is what makes all of the voluminous plotlines necessary: to explain *why* our hero and heroine can't just drop everything and be together. That's incredibly refreshing, especially after a bunch of mediocre books telling the same old one-dimensional stories with the same cookie-cutter characters.

I'm looking forward to reading more books by this author. It appears a vast majority of them take place within this same universe, and with some of the side characters who debuted here. I look forward to meeting them again, and exploring more of their world.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
eurohackie | 3 autres critiques | Nov 22, 2018 |
A charming prequel

Lady Madeline, eldest daughter of Harold Lyons, the Duke of Whitborough, has until now not been interested in any suitors, that is until she meets at Hugo Lowell, Viscount Saxby at her family's house party.
Hugo has been contemplating marriage and has attended the house party at the behest of his sister to keep an eye on their younger brother. He is enroute to spend Christmas with a family whose daughter seems to be a promising bride.
That was before he met Madeline.
This pleasing novella bodes well for the series.

A NetGalley ARC
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
eyes.2c | 2 autres critiques | Oct 18, 2016 |

Listes

Statistiques

Œuvres
7
Membres
68
Popularité
#253,411
Évaluation
½ 3.4
Critiques
12
ISBN
16

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