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A review by esadday
How to Wake a Sleeping Lady by Bree Wolf
4.0
Love will always find a way.
This was a good romance that gave hints to the next book. That’s not all the story was, but I appreciated meeting those characters before we read their story. I am eagerly waiting to see how the lady tames her beast.
This is a story of how bad things sometimes happen to good people, people who choose to focus on hope and joy rather than be bitter about the past. I could understand why Nessa and Grant did what they did, why they reacted and acted to events and even when they made bad choices, I loved them anyway. I also loved the secondary characters: Maynard and his fatherly advice, Milly and her insight and enthusiasm, Connie and her sisterly affection.
Even though I loved the story, part of my felt like it was a union between Regency romance and modern sensibilities. Milly ran about the house and loved to climb trees. Her parents loved her for it. Her mother even considered getting her breeches. The only person who bothered over Milly’s behavior was the Dowager Countess, and she always objected to things. I can’t really see the titled in the Regency era doing this, but I loved her parents for their affection. This incongruence pulled me a little out of the story.
My other reason for not giving the book 5 stars was the Dowager Countess. She was just an antagonist, always there to poo-pooh and object and be angry. Her vitriol seemed unreasonable and a little too 2-dimensional. I would have liked to a little bit of explanation: anger over the loss of her husband, some trauma from her past; like they did in Disney’s live adaptation of ‘Cinderella.’ But there was none. This 2-dimensional quality seemed unrealistic, and yes, I realize that’s a contradiction, since I’m reviewing a romance, but it was just a little too formulaic to deserve a 5.
This was a good romance that gave hints to the next book. That’s not all the story was, but I appreciated meeting those characters before we read their story. I am eagerly waiting to see how the lady tames her beast.
This is a story of how bad things sometimes happen to good people, people who choose to focus on hope and joy rather than be bitter about the past. I could understand why Nessa and Grant did what they did, why they reacted and acted to events and even when they made bad choices, I loved them anyway. I also loved the secondary characters: Maynard and his fatherly advice, Milly and her insight and enthusiasm, Connie and her sisterly affection.
Even though I loved the story, part of my felt like it was a union between Regency romance and modern sensibilities. Milly ran about the house and loved to climb trees. Her parents loved her for it. Her mother even considered getting her breeches. The only person who bothered over Milly’s behavior was the Dowager Countess, and she always objected to things. I can’t really see the titled in the Regency era doing this, but I loved her parents for their affection. This incongruence pulled me a little out of the story.
My other reason for not giving the book 5 stars was the Dowager Countess. She was just an antagonist, always there to poo-pooh and object and be angry. Her vitriol seemed unreasonable and a little too 2-dimensional. I would have liked to a little bit of explanation: anger over the loss of her husband, some trauma from her past; like they did in Disney’s live adaptation of ‘Cinderella.’ But there was none. This 2-dimensional quality seemed unrealistic, and yes, I realize that’s a contradiction, since I’m reviewing a romance, but it was just a little too formulaic to deserve a 5.