Who knew English could be so bothersome?
https://www.virginiaheathromance.com/
And, the curmudgeon continues her march to the sea.
I don’t remember ever reading a book by Virginia Heath, so I thought – hey, what have I got to lose. I
gave it a try, and my thoughts are torn when it comes to The Disgraceful Lord Gray. It began on a high note. Oh, don’t get me wrong, there wasn’t anything new in the plot-line. Good-guy spies (the King’s Elite) are out to capture the ringleader of a gang of bad smuggler/spies. There is a rake, aka non-rake Lord Graham Chadwick, aka Gray. Gray has a big funny exuberant dog by the name of Trefor. It’s always nice to have the requisite cute dog. Gray also has large thighs and we know what that means. Along for the ride is Gray’s stuffed-shirt superior, Lord Fennimore. Also making cameo appearances are the past and future heroes from the rest of the series. Gray and Lord Fennimore believe they have caught their man, Lord Gislingham. But they must prove he is the man they’re looking for, so they need to do some covert maneuvering. They have not taken into consideration Gislingham’s niece, our heroine, Thea Cranford. Thea Cranford is twenty-three years old and she’s bored, bored, bored. And, she doesn’t trust men. You see men seem to want her only for her fabulous wealth. She is of course gorgeous, but she can’t see it. She also seems to have a constant inner dialogue between her impetuous-Thea and her stick-in-the-mud-Thea. These inner beings constantly fight with each other. I found myself increasingly annoyed with Thea’s Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde narrative. Thea has a tendancy to imagine things that aren’t really happening. For instance, she is highly suspicious of Gray’s actions, and she should be. She just conjectures the wrong things when it comes to Gray. I wish the author had taken her conspiracy/suspicious attitude a little bit further. I would have welcomed her vivid imagination turning into something quite farcical, but Ms. Heath stopped short of running with that narrative. Too bad, it could have been a lot of fun.
There were a number of scenes I thought were well-written and pretty funny. Thea’s companion/friend Lady Harriet Ruddington was hysterical. She became a scene stealer for me. She has an eye for sensual men. She doesn’t hide her aggressiveness when it comes to seeking out handsome men, and partaking in the fulfillment they can give. She has done plenty of talking into Thea’s innocent ears. There is no question that Thea has been taught what’s what and what goes where – thanks to Harriet. There was also a chuckle-worthy scene between Thea and Trefor the dog. It seems that when one is trying to spy on someone, there should not be a dog around who wants to fetch things. I did enjoy a lot of the interaction by all of the characters – the banter and dialogue were witty and entertaining. Now for the issue, the distraction. The English language.
This is the first time I have noticed just how different UK English is from US English. Oh, sure I’ve seen the extra “U” in words, but that’s never bothered me. Here’s my story. I was reading along, minding my own business when a sentence jumped off the pages at me. Here it is: “He was sat staring cockily right back at her.” I stared at that sentence a long time. I read it over a few times, even read it out loud. I gave up and added the word “typo” to my notes. Then I continued. It wasn’t long before I ran across: “He’s currently sat on the drive.” I like to think I’m not tooooo stupid, I was starting to notice a pattern with the mixing of tenses. I conferred with by husband. He repeated these sentences over and over and over until he said that while the sentence structure appeared to be awkward, it could still be correct. I did not journey down the “whatever you say honey” path. I continued reading and found more of these disturbing “sat” sentences. I also ran into a “she had been stood there belligerently…” The next day I decided to continue my search with a brainy person who edits. When I read the first sentence to her, she immediately said “wrong.” Then I started to ponder. I had noticed the use of the letter “u” in my reading. You know what I mean: favour, labour, colour. Those “u” characters which aren’t needed. I thought, hey, some authors from the UK insert the u in words! Could Virginia Heath be from Great Britain? Could there be a chance that “sat” and “stood” were also some kind of grammar anomaly? Well, after a morning spent researching, the answer turned out to be yes. My sources tell me that this practice is called “non-standard grammar.” Technically, when writing, this is incorrect and as I suspected, it does have to do with the mixing of verb tenses. The pattern could be a regional accent, frequently used in the northern parts of the UK. Yorkshire seems to be one of the culprits. And, that, my little Petunia’s, is the shortened version of what I found. Where does that leave me with this story?
As I said earlier, I was torn. The players in this book were standard Regency characters. They had some humorous dialogue, some funny situations, and a number of scene-stealing moments. Once I moved past the “sat” and “stood” I was able to stay the course. Do I recommend this story? I guess it depends. Remember, I spent a half day trying to find the answers instead of reading. Here is my wishy-washy answer. If you are a stickler for correct grammar, you are probably going to be annoyed with this story. On the other hand, if you can ignore certain speech patterns then this is a pleasant, standard Regency read. At this point, I may even try another one of Ms. Heath books – just because I like to live on the edge.
Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Warm
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