Romance Review: 'Deirde and Desire' by M C Beaton (Marion Chesney)

This is the third of the six book series of Regency romances by the author of the Agatha Raisin murder mysteries. They are, of course, no more than fluff, mildly entertaining yarns of misunderstandings and infatuations and cross-purposes and secret elopements, leading to the inevitable happy ever after at the end, but enjoyable enough to while away a few hours.

The plot is much as before: the Squire is impoverished again, despite having married off his two eldest daughters to wealthy husbands, so he decides to set up a marriage for the third daughter, Deirdre, with Lord Harry Desire, a young man who stands to inherit a fortune, but only if he marries. Unfortunately for this beautiful plan, Deirdre is in love with the ne’er-do-well from a neighbouring estate, and so the merry-go-round begins. The trouble with books like this is that they stand or fall on the strength of the characters, since the plot is essentially a formula. Deirdre, sadly, is almost as silly as her older sisters were in the two previous books. It’s a pity the author can’t find a way to reconcile naivety and immaturity with just a modicum of common sense, because it seems so implausible that any reasonably intelligent young man would want to marry anyone who does quite so many silly things. Luckily, Our Hero is not just intelligent, but perceptive enough to detect the many good qualities of the heroine, buried as they are beneath so much seeming stupidity.

Once the plot gets properly underway, things build nicely to the usual unravelling of all the misunderstandings. There are a few genuinely amusing moments, a certain amount of farce and a rather likeable hero, even if the heroine never really seems to deserve him. As with the previous books, it’s the man who has to show initiative and common sense, while the woman runs around being childish, and this pattern is becoming repetitive. The conclusion was enjoyable enough to merit three stars but I’m not sure I’ll continue with the series after this.

Mystery Review: 'The Quiche of Death' by M C Beaton

I’ve read some of the author’s Regency romances, but this is a very different animal, a cosy murder mystery in the style of Agatha Christie, the first in a long series featuring grumpy middle-aged Agatha Raisin, a London PR executive taking early retirement in the picturesque Cotswolds and finding it deadly dull, until a murder crops up. This is very much a formula book, where the key is not so much the crime itself, but the nature of the detective (or amateur sleuth, in this case) and colourful setting. This one does well on both counts. Agatha herself may not be the most accomplished social animal (translation: she falls out with pretty much everyone), but she’s still someone we can sympathise with and root for when her quiche poisons the local bigwig. And having lived in a small village myself, the descriptions of rural life and attitudes struck a chord with me. The first half of the book I found very readable, as Agatha tries, and mostly fails, to fit in with village traditions, and the author describes these twee Cotswold villages very well. Non-Brits might find it hard to believe just how stuffy these small English villages can be, but I found Agatha’s experience totally plausible.

Many of the characters were no more than caricatures, and the irritating Ray was quite implausible, but there were one or two with some depth - Agatha herself, and the vicar’s wife, Mrs Bloxby, in particular. I liked the young policeman, Bill Wong, as well. As for the murder - the most likely suspect and motive were obvious, so it became a question of working out how it was done, and frankly, anyone could have come up with half a dozen different ways of achieving it. Not the most challenging exercise for the little grey cells, but neither the police nor Agatha could manage it, it seems. And then at the end the book descended into farce. Nevertheless, this was an enjoyable light read. Three stars.

Romance Review: 'The Taming of Annabelle' by M C Beaton (Marion Chesney)

The second in a series of sub-Georgette Heyer Regency romances about the six daughters of a country vicar. This one is actually much better plotted than the first, depending far less on increasingly unlikely events and a very stupid heroine. Not that the heroine here is a paragon of thoughtful intelligence; she's actually pretty silly, and selfish and small-minded to boot, not to mention immature, and frankly it's hard to see what the hero sees in her, apart from the big blue eyes and blonde hair.

So the plot, such as it is, consists of the heroine marrying her sister's fiance's best friend because she's in love with said fiance and wants to get her hands on him, somehow, and spite her sister at the same time. The best friend then sets out to gently and indirectly win her affections with a great deal of subterfuge. And of course things go wrong along the way, problems which would be resolved in a moment if the hapless pair would simply talk to each other. But this is all part of the game with a book like this. The romance genre would practically disappear overnight if ever it became compulsory for hero and heroine to explain things to each other.

I enjoyed this one a lot better than the first in the series. I actually felt sorry for the heroine at some points, and wished she would just burst into tears and show the hero how much he was upsetting her. She wasn't a particularly likeable character, but she had to grow up very quickly. The hero was fairly charmless, as well, behaved quite stupidly at times and neither of them had any outstanding qualities, apart from being very beautiful, of course, but I felt they deserved each other. Big downside of this book is the author's habit of dumping her research into it wholesale. I can see the point of details about costumes and furnishings and the like, but entire paragraphs about the historical or social background, devoid of plot relevance? Not interesting, and a big irritant. So I didn’t have to wrestle with my conscience over whether to give such a piece of fluff more than three stars.

Romance Review: 'Minerva' by M C Beaton (Marion Chesney)

This is the first in a series of six Regency romances about the various daughters of a country vicar, similar in style to Georgette Heyer. It's years since I read anything like this, but at one stage I worked my way through pretty much everything Heyer wrote, so when the whole set were on Amazon's Daily Deal, it seemed worth a shot.

This one focuses on the eldest daughter, but there's enough interaction with the second in line, Annabelle, to set the stage for book 2 of the series. All these romances follow a set formula, with no real surprises, the plot (such as it is) is all about keeping the hero and heroine apart by misunderstanding, misadventure or circumstance until the very last page or two. This one is fairly contrived, and some of the early interactions border on farce.

Of the main characters, Sylvester (the hero) has a certain charm, and all the best lines, while Minerva is fairly silly, makes some unbelievably stupid decisions and doesn't really deserve her happy ending. Of the rest, the Marquess and the vicar have some interesting aspects, but almost everybody else is just silly. One would think there would be one or two people of intelligence or just common sense inhabiting Regency London, but apparently not.

For anyone looking for a Heyer substitute, this isn't really it. The author has obviously done her research and splatters about Regency slang and costume details with a heavy hand, but the writing has little of Heyer's intelligence or charm. There are a few laugh out loud moments, however, and things come together quite nicely at the end. Three stars.