Scan barcode
A review by chiaroscuro
Beauty Like the Night by Liz Carlyle
3.0
I'm reading Liz Carlyle's books in publication order, which makes this the third of hers I've read. Unfortunately I have not stumbled upon a hat trick.
For all their formative years, Cam and Helene were inseparable. He was going to marry her. Then something happened and eleven years went by without any contact between them, and now Helene de Severs is arriving at the country house of Camden Rutledge, Earl of Treyhern for the position of governess to his daughter, who is mute. Because this is a passionate kind of romance, from the first moment they immediately want each other again. The emotional plot comes about from two stubborn people who have to negotiate a way to where they both want to be. I guess some readers might think this is pointless because Cam and Helene clearly want the same thing — to be together but I liked the (it seemed to me) very natural arguments and bumpy road. Though it didn't need to be so long.
The other plot is the mystery/murder stuff, which I think worked less well here than in, say, [b:A Woman Scorned|36648444|Woman Scorned|Shannon Heuston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1511454736l/36648444._SY75_.jpg|58420011].
Also, there were a few times in this book that my damnable liberal feminist eyebrows raised. I wasn't screaming in rage, mind you, but whenBentley sloppily forced himself on Helene for the second time I thought some lines had been crossed.
I think I do believe that Cam and Helene are soul mates, as Helene boldly claims. I can see that Cam is not normally a passionate man but Helene forces that reaction in him; I'm convinced that Helene does and has always loved Cam, even if I don't completely understand why. I'm beginning to see Liz Carlyle novels as featuring leads who have a place in the world defined separately from their romantic situation, and then the romance is the coming together of these independent and different characters learning compromise and acceptance. In spite of this generalisation, the characters in these first three books (this one, [b:My False Heart|490477|My False Heart (Lorimer Family & Clan Cameron, #1)|Liz Carlyle|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1463504223l/490477._SY75_.jpg|478706], [b:A Woman Scorned|36648444|Woman Scorned|Shannon Heuston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1511454736l/36648444._SY75_.jpg|58420011]) are all very different. Helene's the most relaxed heroine so far, and Cam has the burden of his whole problematic family which neither Elliot ([b:My False Heart|490477|My False Heart (Lorimer Family & Clan Cameron, #1)|Liz Carlyle|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1463504223l/490477._SY75_.jpg|478706]) nor Cole ([b:A Woman Scorned|36648444|Woman Scorned|Shannon Heuston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1511454736l/36648444._SY75_.jpg|58420011]) had weighing on their minds. However I do have to say that there are many similarities in plot and form: all three novels, thus far, have featured one of the leading character's homes in the country wherein which the other character arrives; then the two leads for the most part stay there, with little interference from the outside world (including the intangible force of Society) until the grave threat simmers over. It's a very stable format to build a saga because it establishes the family home and grounds the leads — whom I think will act sort of as lodestars in future novels — in their own space, as opposed to a communal space like a village or London. So now that I've completed the introductory triumvirate, I hope the next books will venture out to more exciting and adventurous formats.
Also if I hear of one more 'agonising' loss of virginity I swear to God I will lose my shit.
Anyway lest you think I hated this, it does feature the most precious child in all existence (who tragically does not get her own book! But maybe that's for the best) and a fascinating contradiction of a woman who is to be the heroine of book 2. I still think Carlyle can turn a good sentence, and this quote resounded worryingly strongly with me:
For all their formative years, Cam and Helene were inseparable. He was going to marry her. Then something happened and eleven years went by without any contact between them, and now Helene de Severs is arriving at the country house of Camden Rutledge, Earl of Treyhern for the position of governess to his daughter, who is mute. Because this is a passionate kind of romance, from the first moment they immediately want each other again. The emotional plot comes about from two stubborn people who have to negotiate a way to where they both want to be. I guess some readers might think this is pointless because Cam and Helene clearly want the same thing — to be together but I liked the (it seemed to me) very natural arguments and bumpy road. Though it didn't need to be so long.
The other plot is the mystery/murder stuff, which I think worked less well here than in, say, [b:A Woman Scorned|36648444|Woman Scorned|Shannon Heuston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1511454736l/36648444._SY75_.jpg|58420011].
Also, there were a few times in this book that my damnable liberal feminist eyebrows raised. I wasn't screaming in rage, mind you, but when
I think I do believe that Cam and Helene are soul mates, as Helene boldly claims. I can see that Cam is not normally a passionate man but Helene forces that reaction in him; I'm convinced that Helene does and has always loved Cam, even if I don't completely understand why. I'm beginning to see Liz Carlyle novels as featuring leads who have a place in the world defined separately from their romantic situation, and then the romance is the coming together of these independent and different characters learning compromise and acceptance. In spite of this generalisation, the characters in these first three books (this one, [b:My False Heart|490477|My False Heart (Lorimer Family & Clan Cameron, #1)|Liz Carlyle|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1463504223l/490477._SY75_.jpg|478706], [b:A Woman Scorned|36648444|Woman Scorned|Shannon Heuston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1511454736l/36648444._SY75_.jpg|58420011]) are all very different. Helene's the most relaxed heroine so far, and Cam has the burden of his whole problematic family which neither Elliot ([b:My False Heart|490477|My False Heart (Lorimer Family & Clan Cameron, #1)|Liz Carlyle|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1463504223l/490477._SY75_.jpg|478706]) nor Cole ([b:A Woman Scorned|36648444|Woman Scorned|Shannon Heuston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1511454736l/36648444._SY75_.jpg|58420011]) had weighing on their minds. However I do have to say that there are many similarities in plot and form: all three novels, thus far, have featured one of the leading character's homes in the country wherein which the other character arrives; then the two leads for the most part stay there, with little interference from the outside world (including the intangible force of Society) until the grave threat simmers over. It's a very stable format to build a saga because it establishes the family home and grounds the leads — whom I think will act sort of as lodestars in future novels — in their own space, as opposed to a communal space like a village or London. So now that I've completed the introductory triumvirate, I hope the next books will venture out to more exciting and adventurous formats.
Also if I hear of one more 'agonising' loss of virginity I swear to God I will lose my shit.
Anyway lest you think I hated this, it does feature the most precious child in all existence (who tragically does not get her own book! But maybe that's for the best) and a fascinating contradiction of a woman who is to be the heroine of book 2. I still think Carlyle can turn a good sentence, and this quote resounded worryingly strongly with me:
In truth, it had begun to seem to Cam as if he had spent entirely too much of his existence watching life through a pane of glass; coolly observing, but never touching. And for the first time in his life he felt a mild resentment that his life should he so.It seems to me a wonderful thing that Carlyle's romances are tied up with ideas of empowerment, of being active in your own life, of wanting something enough to allow yourself to have it.