- Heroine: Lady Calpurnia Hartwell
- Hero: Gabriel St. John, Marquess of Ralston
- Setting: England, 1823 (Georgian)
- Series: Love by Numbers, #1.0
- First Published: 2010
- Narrator: Carolyn Morris
- Rating: —
A few things before I forget
It’s funny that there’s mention of courtesy titles in this book when in A Rogue by Any Other Name there’s Michael’s conspicuous absence of one as a young man.
She obviously hadn’t learned the rules about dowagers yet. She still hadn’t by the next series.
Callie couldn’t properly sponsor Juliana because a sponsor is someone who vouches for the young lady to her acquaintances, as an unmarried lady with a living mother and still in her brother’s household Calpurnia can’t go around introducing her to people, securing invitations and taking her to events – she can’t do any of those things for herself either. She also is not a proper chaperone, she’s too young, though that’s only my opinion.
She also should not be visiting Ralston House – which is synonymous to visiting the marquess, since Juliana is not properly out and so can’t be considered the hostess. Even then, when visiting Juliana, I’d assume she’d need a proper chaperone, not only a maid.
I’m sure there were other things I’ve already forgotten.
Oh, right. When she mentions the characters she fantasies, she says Odysseus travelled the seas for twenty years. I’m fairly sure he didn’t, he fought in Troy for ten and took another ten to come back. Also, I see the lack of mentions to the women who kept him during that time (I’m obviously not judging characters in either story, it’s just interesting since I don’t usually see the Odyssey framed as romantic). ETA: My brother informs me that 6 out of those 10 years where in Circe’s Island. Oops?
And really Calpurnia, Hamlet? Hamlet is a whiny asshole, where’s the attraction in that? I could understand attraction to Othello easier than to Hamlet, and it’s very clear why that one is problematic. Obviously the best (least bad, Shakespeare is NOT a romance standard) heroes are in the comedies – not least because tragedies demand bad endings – and the histories would probably be weird but really, honey.
Ah, yes. When he kisses her hand in the alcove during the ball? She should be wearing long gloves, to her elbow. He wouldn’t have access to her wrist. Day gloves are short, evening gloves are long.
This position (in the fencing club) cannot be comfortable for him. He has to reach inside her pants while she’s wearing a fencing jacket, and he’s mostly facing her so he has only a little range to be able to use his fingers on her.
The change of POV between paragraphs is still absolutely annoying. I know it’s 3rd person and they’re both in the same scene but it drives me nuts when they describe the action through one character’s perception and insert the other’s thoughts out of nowhere. I keep finding myself trying to understand why the characters seem to be attracted to themselves.
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