|
A Princess for the Gentleman |
Review by |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Unlikely Match series, book 3 Amazon Kindle: 2020 |
May 2024 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
A Princess for the Gentleman is a nicely done romance, of a fairly standard genre type — except for one major factor, accompanied by a couple of significant but relatively minor factors. That first one, sensitively developed by Mindy Burbidge Strunk, really makes all the difference. The novel's setting is in rural Regency England, chiefly in an older mansion and at the nearby village. Our leading lady, however, is a true outsider. She is a Russian princess, fleeing Odessa from a pending arranged marriage with a truly loathsome man from her own social class. In England we also began meeting the other characters. Dugray Dawson is the new owner of a rundown mansion and grounds. The place has great potential but needs time, work, and money, so making the home liveable and the estate profitable are challenges which Dawson isn't certain he can meet. Meanwhile Princess Zia Petrovich and her maid are traveling by carriage from London, trying to reach her uncle, who is English. Zia's mother was English, so she speaks perfect English. Because Zia is afraid she's at risk from various causes, at a roadside inn she exchanges clothing with her maid — not worrying too much about any resulting risk to her friend the maid. When disaster follows, Princess Zia finds herself entirely dependent on the hospitality of a stranger, Mr. Dawson, who sees no reason to believe who Zia says she is, nor indeed anything else she tells him. For the time being they seem stuck with each other's presence; but of course their attitudes and circumstances are subject to change. On to what I'm calling interesting and unusual if relatively minor factors. First is that Dawson, although a country gentleman, lives not comfortably in a stately mansion in attractive grounds, but in a quite doubtful and unsettled situation. Second, for necessary reasons of plot, is an actual description of Gretna Green on the Scottish border, while in most novels it is beyond the horizon and merely mentioned. These factors are good. Princess Zia's exotic character and personality build the story of A Princess for the Gentleman into a definitely unusual romance and hence a fascinating novel.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
© 2024 Robert Wilfred Franson |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||