oyceter. Kinsale, Laura - Lessons in French

Lady Callista Taillefaire is a perpetual wallflower who has been jilted by three fiances, and she's quite content to stay a wallflower and concentrate on her cattle. But then, her childhood friend and not-quite-sweetheart Trevelyan d'Augustin returns, and he still has the habit of dragging her into every adventure he has. Soon, they are concealing cattle, attempting to evade various authorities, and getting into numerous scrapes.

This is so adorable! I didn't used to appreciate romantic comedies as much as I do now, given my predilection for Teh Angst, but a good romantic comedy is very much appreciated these days. Callie is a Kinsale heroine a la Olympia from Seize the Fire or Merlin from Midsummer Moon; that is to say, she's shy, retiring, and extremely cute in a non-treacly way. And while Trev has his angst, he is nowhere near as broody or as controlling as Sheridan or Ransom, and I love him to pieces.

Amazingly, given that this is a Kinsale, the plot does not contain penguins, desert islands, Hawaiian ninja (thank goodness), assassins, shipwrecks, or amnesia. It does have an agricultural show though!

There are several points in the plot that I thought were glossed over—(spoilers) I wanted a better explanation for the blackmail than "Trev's mom did it and since it was for the better, no one was hurt;" I felt Kinsale made Mrs. Foster as unsympathetic as possible so she could figure out a way to get Trev a pardon; Trev's mother was healed too easily; and I wasn't entirely satisfied with the treatment of Major Sturgeon. I also felt there was a little too much "I will not get involved with Callie for her own good" from Trev. Even though he had a good reason for it, after a while, I just wanted to whack him over the head and at least tell her his reasons and let her decide rather than run hot and cold all the time.

However, the book worked for me because of the absolutely charming interaction between Callie and Trev; I laughed aloud at quite a lot of the dialogue. I also adored Trev's relationship with his mother and Callie's relationship with his mother; the mother is awesome and I loved her. I do wish we could have seen a little more of Callie's relationship with her sister, as there seemed to be a good deal of rapport between them.

In conclusion: so cute! And I enjoyed the epilogue's version of the requisite baby scene, (not-really-spoilery spoiler) though it would have worked better had there not been Callie and Trev's actual baby as well.

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Posted by

gwyneira

OMG new Kinsale! For some reason I thought it wasn't out until next month, and now I'm sad I don't have a copy to take with me on my trip Friday.

(On the other hand, since I'm going to NYC, I would imagine I can probably find it there somewhere. You know, if I happen to go into any bookstores or anything.)

crossedwires

In the US, Amazon is saying it isn't out until next week and BN is saying February. I haven't been in any brick and mortar stores to look for it, though.