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attytheresa's review against another edition
3.0
Cristabel Swann is a gently born lady fallen on hard times after the death of her parents, father a vicar of course and no money to be had to support her. The story opens with Cristabel working as music teacher (piano and harp) in a girls school for the upper classes. Of course, all who work there are treated abysmally, and when Christabel receives legal notice of the death of her only remaining relation, Uncle Charles Swann* , Lord Harwood, she burns her bridges at the school and heads to London hoping to find some pittance or provision to allow her a living without teaching at the school. What she discovers instead is a bankrupt estate, a bellowing partially blind Naval Captain recovering from war wounds residing in the house which he had won at a card game shortly before Lord Harwood stuck his spoon in the wall. After some yelling and chaos, the Captain remembers another property in the Kensington section of London that was included int he settlement of Harwood's debt of honor to the Captain, and after vaguely remembering it was a boarding house, sent our naive but spunky Cristabel off to be the landlady of the boarding house with a loan of 100 pounds to get her started.
Of course, a proper boarding house is not what Cristabel finds, although it takes her some time to tumble to the truth because she's too busy living in fantasy land and being distracted by a handsome ne'er-do-well of a military man seemingly recovering from a war injury - or is he? May misunderstandings and deceptions are at play, and even some mistaken identity issues - sort of - revolving around our Naval Captain. When she does tumble to the truth, the spunky Cristabel with a strong backbone takes charge, chaos ensues, and we start rapidly to a satisfying conclusion and a happily ever after for Cristabel.
Metzger is one of my favorite regency romance writers because there is so much humor built into her stories -- through manyy of the characters, their actions and the pets. And there are plenty of amusing side characters -- Fanny the maid whose enormous extended family seems to have a knack for dying in unusual but hilarious circumstances, Boy who hates bathing and collects strays, and even those strays, like the dog Meadowlark who is anything but as sweet as that name suggests. Metzger is reminiscent of Heyer -- but not as sophisticated. But I find them incredibly funny.
I give this a 3.5 - not the best of Metzger's work and took longer for the really humorous silly nonsense to captivate me, but still an excellent distraction. Total unabashedly entertaining fluff and nonsense.
*Oh the irony! Charles Swann is a significant character in Proust...
Of course, a proper boarding house is not what Cristabel finds, although it takes her some time to tumble to the truth because she's too busy living in fantasy land and being distracted by a handsome ne'er-do-well of a military man seemingly recovering from a war injury - or is he? May misunderstandings and deceptions are at play, and even some mistaken identity issues - sort of - revolving around our Naval Captain. When she does tumble to the truth, the spunky Cristabel with a strong backbone takes charge, chaos ensues, and we start rapidly to a satisfying conclusion and a happily ever after for Cristabel.
Metzger is one of my favorite regency romance writers because there is so much humor built into her stories -- through manyy of the characters, their actions and the pets. And there are plenty of amusing side characters -- Fanny the maid whose enormous extended family seems to have a knack for dying in unusual but hilarious circumstances, Boy who hates bathing and collects strays, and even those strays, like the dog Meadowlark who is anything but as sweet as that name suggests. Metzger is reminiscent of Heyer -- but not as sophisticated. But I find them incredibly funny.
I give this a 3.5 - not the best of Metzger's work and took longer for the really humorous silly nonsense to captivate me, but still an excellent distraction. Total unabashedly entertaining fluff and nonsense.
*Oh the irony! Charles Swann is a significant character in Proust...
ctsquirrel's review against another edition
4.0
4/5
Nice mistaken/hidden identity romantic comedy. Not a ton of contact between the MCs until the last 25% or so, but it was still cute.
Content Warning: there is on page suicide by a secondary character, but it's brief and happens on the very last page of the first chapter.
Nice mistaken/hidden identity romantic comedy. Not a ton of contact between the MCs until the last 25% or so, but it was still cute.
Content Warning: there is on page suicide by a secondary character, but it's brief and happens on the very last page of the first chapter.
attytheresa's review against another edition
3.0
Cristabel Swann is a gently born lady fallen on hard times after the death of her parents, father a vicar of course and no money to be had to support her. The story opens with Cristabel working as music teacher (piano and harp) in a girls school for the upper classes. Of course, all who work there are treated abysmally, and when Christabel receives legal notice of the death of her only remaining relation, Uncle Charles Swann* , Lord Harwood, she burns her bridges at the school and heads to London hoping to find some pittance or provision to allow her a living without teaching at the school. What she discovers instead is a bankrupt estate, a bellowing partially blind Naval Captain recovering from war wounds residing in the house which he had won at a card game shortly before Lord Harwood stuck his spoon in the wall. After some yelling and chaos, the Captain remembers another property in the Kensington section of London that was included int he settlement of Harwood's debt of honor to the Captain, and after vaguely remembering it was a boarding house, sent our naive but spunky Cristabel off to be the landlady of the boarding house with a loan of 100 pounds to get her started.
Of course, a proper boarding house is not what Cristabel finds, although it takes her some time to tumble to the truth because she's too busy living in fantasy land and being distracted by a handsome ne'er-do-well of a military man seemingly recovering from a war injury - or is he? May misunderstandings and deceptions are at play, and even some mistaken identity issues - sort of - revolving around our Naval Captain. When she does tumble to the truth, the spunky Cristabel with a strong backbone takes charge, chaos ensues, and we start rapidly to a satisfying conclusion and a happily ever after for Cristabel.
Metzger is one of my favorite regency romance writers because there is so much humor built into her stories -- through manyy of the characters, their actions and the pets. And there are plenty of amusing side characters -- Fanny the maid whose enormous extended family seems to have a knack for dying in unusual but hilarious circumstances, Boy who hates bathing and collects strays, and even those strays, like the dog Meadowlark who is anything but as sweet as that name suggests. Metzger is reminiscent of Heyer -- but not as sophisticated. But I find them incredibly funny.
I give this a 3.5 - not the best of Metzger's work and took longer for the really humorous silly nonsense to captivate me, but still an excellent distraction. Total unabashedly entertaining fluff and nonsense.
*Oh the irony! Charles Swann is a significant character in Proust...
Of course, a proper boarding house is not what Cristabel finds, although it takes her some time to tumble to the truth because she's too busy living in fantasy land and being distracted by a handsome ne'er-do-well of a military man seemingly recovering from a war injury - or is he? May misunderstandings and deceptions are at play, and even some mistaken identity issues - sort of - revolving around our Naval Captain. When she does tumble to the truth, the spunky Cristabel with a strong backbone takes charge, chaos ensues, and we start rapidly to a satisfying conclusion and a happily ever after for Cristabel.
Metzger is one of my favorite regency romance writers because there is so much humor built into her stories -- through manyy of the characters, their actions and the pets. And there are plenty of amusing side characters -- Fanny the maid whose enormous extended family seems to have a knack for dying in unusual but hilarious circumstances, Boy who hates bathing and collects strays, and even those strays, like the dog Meadowlark who is anything but as sweet as that name suggests. Metzger is reminiscent of Heyer -- but not as sophisticated. But I find them incredibly funny.
I give this a 3.5 - not the best of Metzger's work and took longer for the really humorous silly nonsense to captivate me, but still an excellent distraction. Total unabashedly entertaining fluff and nonsense.
*Oh the irony! Charles Swann is a significant character in Proust...
avoraciousreader68's review
5.0
Cristabel Swann is a well-bred, but penniless orphan teaching music at Miss Meadows school for young ladies when she receives a letter informing her that her uncle and only remaining relative has died leaving behind an estate. When the black-hearted bitch, I mean, Headmistress says that Cristabel can’t possibly be spared to go to London, she resigns her position, packs up her meager possessions and takes off into the great unknown. Except, when she arrives at her uncle’s town home, she finds a strange man in residence and her life takes a completely different turn than the one she expected.
Smooth-flowing, great plot, well-rounded characters and often funny. I had a wonderful time reading about Cristabel and her new job. The lengths people went to keep her in the dark made for great entertainment. As for the Captain, I liked him very much. I especially enjoyed the way he ran his new house like he was still the Captain of a ship. LOL
This was certainly not a boring book. I can’t wait to read more by Barbara Metzger.
*The publisher provided a copy of this book to me for review. Please see disclaimer page on my blog.
Smooth-flowing, great plot, well-rounded characters and often funny. I had a wonderful time reading about Cristabel and her new job. The lengths people went to keep her in the dark made for great entertainment. As for the Captain, I liked him very much. I especially enjoyed the way he ran his new house like he was still the Captain of a ship. LOL
This was certainly not a boring book. I can’t wait to read more by Barbara Metzger.
*The publisher provided a copy of this book to me for review. Please see disclaimer page on my blog.
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