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Silly me, I have so many projects that I start, and then forget that I'm doing them. As part of my 2018 All About Romance project, I read a delightful book by Anne Gracie called The Perfect Rake. I loved it, but I didn't read the rest of the books in the series...I don't know why, but now I have. I will congratulate myself, because the rest of the books in the series were pretty good…mostly.
Since I already reviewed The Perfect Rake, I will start with The Perfect Waltz written in 2005. This story continues the saga of the Merridew sisters. Let me refresh your memories about this series. This was the series with the sisters who had an abusive grandfather. Each sister had been abused, but in different ways, hence we can have different problems for each one to overcome.
Continuing on with the Perfect aka Merridew Sister series we have The Perfect Waltz. The Perfect Waltz brings together our heroine Hope Merridew and our hero Sebastian Reyne.
Sebastian is on the lookout for a wife, a proper wife who will help his young sisters, who he rescued, overcome their traumatic experiences. By the way, their troubles are very traumatic. Funny how most Romanceland heroes think humorless women are the answer to all their prays. You would think a woman with no social sensitivities would be the last one they would turn to. But, then that's not how romance books work is it? Anyway, Sebastian has picked the prim Lady Elinore as the woman he will marry, and the woman who will help him with his sisters. It's too bad his attention keeps wandering to the seemingly frivolous woman, Hope Merridew. Like most heroes, he has jumped to the wrong conclusion about Ms. Merridew. He doesn’t understand why she can’t be more like the righteous Lady Elinore, instead of the laughing woman with the bright eyes.
Hope is a delightful heroine, except she doesn't know how pretty she is. I'm not sure if it's just been my luck, but alllll the books I've read lately have had gorgeous women who don't know they are gorgeous. It's rather irritating. How does one not know when one is pretty? I am about to digress. As a student of history, I have always found it interesting to observe how what is considered "beauty" changes through the centuries. Who establishes the rules of what is attractive? For instance, the beauty of plucking ones, head and eyebrows in the Middle Ages; the white lead paint in Tudor times; the beauty patches of the 16th century. And... it’s not just European, don't forget the blackening of teeth in Japan; inlaid jade in teeth and elongated heads in Mayan culture. We, of this century can ask what were they thinking, but I don't think we have tooooo much room to talk. I am old enough to remember some pretty interesting looks which were supposed to be attractive. Let's see...what was with the bangs standing straight up; the white lipstick; the plucked eyebrows covered with a thin pencil line; the spit curls...I could go on and on. So, what's my point? I don't know if I have one. But I have always wondered about what we think is attractive, or pretty. What is considered a mark of beauty, or a fashion trend one-year, can be ridiculed the next. It's all very fascinating to me. I'm done now, I have no point to make...it started with women not knowing when they are pretty. I’m of the opinion that women who are beautiful/gorgeous/pretty know that they are. Let’s just name a few who pop into my head: Elizabeth Taylor, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, Hedy Lamarr, Marlene Dietrich, Ingrid Bergman, Gene Tierney, Sophia Loren, Halle Berry, and Loretta Young. I find it hard to believe that these women didn’t know they were pretty. I’m not saying that their beauty didn’t cause them problems, I’m just saying that they knew they were pretty/gorgeous.
Anyway, Sebastian is courting Lady Elinore, and at the same time lusting after Hope. Of course, he fights his attraction to Hope, but he can't help comparing the uptight Elinore with the joyful Hope. Lucky for Sebastian, his best friend Giles is there to distract and irritate Lady Elinore. The secondary romance between Giles and Elinore is wonderful, and almost steals the show.
There are some wonderful moments in this book. There is humor and poignancy throughout, neither one overpowering the other. It's a nice balance. One of the things I liked about this book was that there wasn't any really evil person. Everyone seemed to be caring about the people surrounding them. Even the rakish Giles, had his sentimental side.
Overall, this book is filled with characters who are fully developed, even the secondary ones. This was a lovely book, and a nice companion piece to The Perfect Rake. So far, this series is lovely.
Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Warm
A-
Now on to The Perfect Stranger, the third in the Merridew Sister series. While I liked this story, I was not as impressed with this one as I was with the first two in the series.
On to the third book, The Perfect Stranger published in 2006, and we have a road trip. This one begins with Faith Merridew running away from a group of men who are going to rape her. She’s almost on her last legs, when she stumbles across a stranger camping out on a beach. The stranger saves her, he's a real hero. Nicholas Blacklock is his name. Of course, like all standard heroes, Nicholas has a secret, which Ms. Gracie saves for the end.
Then the story turns into a marriage of convenience road trip. After Nicholas saves Faith's life, he insists she tell him what all the hubbub was about. You know what I mean. What's a girl like you doing running away from a bunch of men? Why are they after you? And, what are you doing out here, in France? Contrary to a lot of romance stories where the heroine keeps her secrets, Faith actually tells Nicholas how she found herself in the position she’s in. She needs to get back to her family in England. Nicholas has a plan.
Nicholas suggests they marry, he will help her cross France and see her safely back to England. Then he will return to his secret mission knowing that she will be in the bosom of her loving family. She takes him up on it, and they marry. This book takes a different path from a lot of other romance books, this marriage of convenience is actually consummated. I almost thought I was reading a Mary Balogh book, I had to check to make sure it was Anne Gracie.
As they journey through France, Nicholas and Faith get to know each other. She wants to prove she can do the camping stuff; he wants her not to fall in love with him. Nicholas tries to maintain a distance, but we all know that isn't going to work. By the way, no one in this book ever takes a potty break.
There are some lovely secondary characters who add a lot to make this story work. There is a goofy paranormal thing thrown into the story at the end. I don't mind small paranormal plots being added to an historical romance, but they have to be believable. How can a paranormal be realistic you ask? Well, I don't know. But I know that when it comes to paranormal, I find the ones that are more realistic for me are the ones which can be quietly scary. Spoilers ahead: I love paranormal stories like The Uninvited or The Sixth Sense. But when an old gypsy woman pulls shrapnel out of someone’s head without a scalpel, I just roll my eyes. It's like watching one of those old movies where the guys pull a tumor out of someone’s stomach. Anyway, the paranormal scene in this book was a distraction to the overall delight of the rest of the story.
Overall, except for the silly paranormal scene, The Perfect Stranger enhances the Merridew Sister series.
Time/Place: Road trip through France
Sensuality: Warm
A-/B+
On to the last book in the series, and my least favorite of the stories in the Merridew series,
The Perfect Kiss (2007). Another series book which suffers from being the last one. Authors seem to run out of steam when they get to the last one. I think they are trying too hard to finish their old series so they can start a new one. But that's just my theory.This book contains one of my least favorite themes: an aristocratic woman who dyes her hair and disguises herself as a servant. I'm not too fond of characters disguising themselves. On top of the disguise theme, I never understood how the disguise plan worked. Grace Merridew’s plan didn’t make any sense. I know that will come as a surprise to you. Let’s look at her plan, shall we?
Grace and Melly's plan. Grace's best friend, Melly is being forced into a marriage with Dominic Wolfe. A marriage she doesn't want. Melly doesn't want to marry Dominic because Melly wants to have 500 children and Dominic wants a "white marriage." Evidently a white marriage is a marriage which is never consummated. So, you see, it would be hard to have 500 children if one never had sex with one’s husband. Which is why Grace dresses up as Melly's maid, because being Melly's maid would allow Grace to...to... Ummmm, just what would pretending to be a servant/maid allow one to do??? Let's see...if you were a maid you could comb hair, get dresses out, clean chamber pots. How would that help? There must be some kind of convoluted reason for being disguised as a servant.
So, there's Grace and Melly's odd plan. Then there is Grace's lusting after her best friend’s fiancé, Dominic. Even going so far as to land on a number of whoo-who bases with said best friends’ fiancé. Oh sure, sure, Melly doesn't really have any feelings for Dominic, but still Melly is engaged to the guy. So, sucking the face of Dominic isn't really all that honorable. Then we have Dominic, who is answering the Timothy Toad twitch, whoo-who with someone who isn't his fiancée, and furthermore the person he is twiddling is a servant. I have a problem with men in power having relationships with people who are subservient to them, even if they are pretend domestics.
So, this book pressed a number of my hot buttons from the very beginning, and that made it hard for me to enjoy it. No matter how hard you try to push your personal biases to the background when reading, sometimes they just come flaming out. I was not fond of either Grace or Dominic. Grace's attempt at being a servant was ludicrous, she did things which no servant would ever do. The reason for being a servant made no sense. Then there were the distasteful actions of Grace and Dominic. Regardless of whether Melly and Dominic had any feelings for each other, the actions of Grace and Dominic were dishonorable. I'm not fond of seedy actions from my hero and heroine, the writing in The Perfect Kiss wasn’t developed enough to overcome my hot-buttons.
Bottom-line: loved the first three books in the Merridew sister series, and I do recommend the series. Just remember, in my opinion, the last book in the series - stinker.
Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Warm
D
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