The Chick: Letitia Boyce
Left the comfort of her family to set up a seminary to teach young girls all they need to know.
She is also the secret author of the most read about work and needs to get 'real' experience for the next installment and so 'the Lady of Quality' takes the opportunity to become a mistress.
The Dude: Lord Seton Rayne
Rake who is a captain in the army and keeps having to save Letitia from awkward situations.
The Plot in 10(ish):
Letitia: My students are heading into that group of Calvary men watch out!
Seton: How dare you get in front of my marching men and cause havoc! I must kiss you to punish you
Letitia: Stay away from me, I dont need your protection! *goes alone into library with man*... um help?
Letitia: * in potting shed* let me past gardener... help?
*Student caught in potting shed*
*Another student runs off to meet beau* Letitia: ...help?
Seton: *sighs*
Seton: Will you be my mistress? I will be your protector and you will learn all that you need to know about what happens in the bedroom for your next book
*Bow chicka wow wow*
Letitia: *alone in attic with down-and-out cousin* I will not give you my money and be your wife... help?
Seton: We shall tell everyone that you are infact the author everyone is talking about and you shall marry me.
The End
The Book:
Letitia has started a Seminary to educate young girls all about culture, horse riding and accounts. All things that a future wifes of the ton should know. She takes out her students on a ride to visit Hampton Court, unknown to her due to her poor eyesight they ride straight in the practise of the 10th Light Dragoons. Whose captain is none other than Lord Rayne. Letitia escapes the commotion to visit her friends mother but gets lost in Hampton Court. Seton follows her to reprimand that she watch where she is going next time and ends up punishing her by kissing her.
They meet each other again at a diner party in which William Turner and Miss Austen attends. Letitia gets to meet someone she looks up to but she will not tell her that she is the secret talked about author and about the book she is currently writing because she thinks she will not approve. Seton and Letitia finally get formally introduced and share a plate of food, although Letitia does not wish to as it will show that they are friends, which they are not.
The students display their talents in a evening of entertainment at the house of one of the students. Letitia goes into the library alone with the father of one of her students and is put in a awkward position by his too closeness, only to be rescued by Seton.
This book is FLAT.
I really did not find Letitia an enjoyable character. We are told that she is bookish and interested in the arts and that men are not interested in her, yet when she walks to places or in dinner parties the men and women apparently cant stop looking at her. That certainly implies that she is nothing special to me. We are told that she is a learned person who is interested in the arts, yet all we get is that she goes to places to visit, but never talks about them to show her passion. She supposedly opened the seminary to teach young women things that other schools do not teach, which I applaud, yet we see no teaching by her. The only other tutors teaching, are mostly men!
She is a famous author who has written romance novels, which have taken the Ton by storm and are apparently racy but we are never told what makes them racy, it does hint about some sex scenes in them so it makes me wonder how they are apparently fine for young girls to read at that time and also how she has managed to write those parts if she has no knowledge of what happens in the first place? First rule of writing, is write about what you know!
Then there is the reference of Jane Austen attending the small dinner party which she just so happens to attend and they become such good friends and exchange addresses (puurrlleease!). There is also a nod to Pride and Prejudice when during a dinner party she over hears Seton talking to his brother about her. It is then brought up once and then completely forgotten about.
The other thing that narked me off about this book is her incapability to be a good role model to her students. Two of the students get into trouble due to her inattention yet the parents do not blame her for the loss of virtue of their daughter and are quite happy to send her back. WHAT??? She becomes a mistress to a rake and the future applicants are rolling in. WHAT???
Seton asked her to become his mistress and she excepts pretty much straight away, with hardly any debate over what it would do to her reputation. They both seem to think that it will improve her social standing and she sees the fact that she will improve her knowledge of the area without marriage as a sound argument. He will become her protector and they will parade the relationship in front of everyone and if she does become pregnant they will have to marry, which she doesn’t have an issue with or says anything about it, although before she did not want to marry anyone. Now I'm not a historian, so correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the most important commodity a young woman had was her virtue? That's why if a young girl was caught in any scandal with a man they were made to marry to protect her reputation. Mistresses where usually of the lower class, so they were improving their social standing or they were widows which was deemed acceptable. Not a virgin from a well respected family.
And then it is the complete approval and acceptance of the fact that she will be his mistress by his and her family. I was shocked when her uncle shakes hands with him upon being told and says “well done, m'boy. Lettie needs a man of your ilk. Lettie, m'dear, you'll do well enough with Rayne. He's had plenty of practice. We'll talk tomorrow, eh?” WHAT??? and when she stays with his family in London they are just as laid back, not even a little bit reserved about the whole thing. And to top it all off when he stays the night at her house, under the same roof as impressionable young girls. He is still there in the morning and is given breakfast in bed by the servants. They don’t even try to hide it. Does this not teach the girls that it is fine to become a mistress and have a sexual relationship with a man who is not your husband and not incur any consequences. I'm starting to sound like Little John now but... WHAT???
Seton is only really there to rescue Letitia from the positions she finds herself in. She is never given chance to prove that she is independent and show how to take care of herself.
I feel like this is five stories crammed into one and a bit all over the place. You never really got an impression about chemistry between them and how either characters were feeling. The only hint of a development of feelings is when she writes her story. The only enjoyable part about the characters was the sparing between the two which was quick witted, but they were few and far between. The writing was not awful but it was not great either. It just felt like an instantly forgettable book, so much so that after finishing it and starting to write this review I could not remember the story and had to look back through the book!
C-
No comments:
Post a Comment