The Dark Earl
Virginia HenleyHistorical romance
Available from Berkley Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-451-23464-3
September 2011
| As a child, Lady Harriet Hamilton fell in love with Shugborough Hall and its heir, Thomas Anson. She likened the young man to a centaur when he rode off on his black stallion to avoid the auctioning off of his family's treasures to pay his father's gambling debts. When they met again years later, Lady Harry still has a crush on the young lord...or was it his stately home that she craved? She was proud of him for wanting to restore to its former grandeur by buying back all that was auctioned off so many years before. Through the season, the wealthy lords vying for her attentions come and go, but Thomas is still the one who invades her dreams.
The Dark Earl is a Victorian novel set among the highest families of the British nobility. Plenty of name dropping and arrogance follow the unlikely courtship of "Harry" and Thomas. I don't care much for novels like this one where the main female character has a male name as her nickname because it makes it hard to read and sometimes I forgot who was who. The book itself starts off pretty slowly. Lady Harry's arrogance and game playing with the highly placed, eligible members of the nobility is rather selfish and shallow. Once you get part way into the story, it does improve somewhat. While there are some conflicts and misunderstandings, things seem to go along too smoothly for the couple and there isn't much of a story. I'm not even sure what the overall plot is supposed to be. For a woman who believes she loves her man, Harry is much too easily swayed by others who just want to cause trouble. These occurrences of weakness and mistrust are at odds with the modern woman she appears to be the rest of the time, knowledgeable in politics and active in women's rights. All in all, it was a pleasant book but I wouldn't care to read it again.
Overall rating:
Reviewer: Kathy F. |
