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Minerva Spencer’s A Figure of Love is described as an historical romance where a widowed sculptor falls in love with the man who’s employed her to design his garden, which sounded interesting. I like the setup where two people who are strangers to each other have to work on some sort of major project. However, like the previous novel in the Academy of Love series, this book suffers from a surfeit of melodrama. But I’ll get to that.
The story begins when Gareth Lockheart, an immensely wealthy industrialist, decides to make his country estate fit for a king, which means beautifully designed gardens with sculptures and fountains and so on. He hires an architect who immediately outsources the outdoor work to a French sculptor/landscape gardener, Mrs. Serena Lombard, who’s also the widow of a duke’s youngest son. Because of the amount of work, Gareth asks Serena and her ten-year-old son to move into his house, and he soon becomes fascinated with her. This is a rarity for him, since Gareth feels uncomfortable around people and doesn’t like being touched, preferring to escape into a world of mathematics. Likewise, Serena isn’t looking for a relationship, but before long she can’t stop thinking about how handsome her employer is.
So at first this was a story about two people who like each other, get along well together, and have great sex. There were a few details of sculpture and landscape gardening along the way, but that was just the means to bring Gareth and Serena together. I never felt that her profession permeated and influenced the story like the sculpting in Lorraine Heath’s Always to Remember. Serena’s son is one of those children who bonds swiftly and easily with his future step-parent, so everything in the garden is lovely.
Which is why, I suppose, the soap opera had to begin. There’s a Big Mis where Gareth sees a villain force a kiss on Serena (does Gareth talk to her about it? What do you think?), followed by blackmail, a rape attempt, not one but two kidnappings, Dark Secrets involving rape and child molestation, a villain hoist on his own petard, and way too much time devoted to Gareth’s best friend who’s clearly being set up as the hero of some future book. In fact, the entire epilogue is the friend chatting to some half-drunk earl he just met, to the point where I wondered if he and the earl would get it on. I actually perked up here since that would have been the one unpredictable moment in the story. Sad spoiler alert: it didn’t happen.
As for the characters, I liked Serena until she gave into the blackmail (just as the heroine of the previous book did, so it was repetitive as well as annoying). Gareth, unfortunately, feels like a collection of traits rather than a three-dimensional person. He’s into mathematics at the start, but never does anything significant with that and soon abandons it as he becomes a Real Boy. And I’m beyond tired of the caricature of a scientist as someone with no social skills. The two of them are very compatible in bed, and rut with great enthusiasm and no concern for pregnancy between the kidnapping episodes, so readers who like detailed sex scenes might enjoy these parts of the story at least.
But there was one incident which I’ll spoil because it made me a bit uneasy. About halfway through the story, Serena’s son goes to Gareth’s study and invites him to come fishing. Gareth can’t fish, but he goes along, and Serena later finds them both stripped down to their drawers, frolicking in the lake.
The scene is set up to be titillating, with Serena getting a good view of Gareth (no shrinkage here!). But she doesn’t really know him, he’s her employer, and he and her son are swimming together all but naked without her knowledge. I’m not a parent and perhaps this sort of thing was acceptable in the past, but I didn’t feel comfortable about it. Maybe this is just me, though, and other readers won’t mind it?
Ultimately, I won’t be trying any of the other books in this series. Twice bitten and all that. I’m sure readers who enjoy the author’s storytelling style and who know what they’re in for will like A Figure of Love but I can’t recommend it to anyone else.
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Grade: C-
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 27/03/21
Publication Date: 03/2020
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
I'm Marian, originally from Sri Lanka but grew up in the United Arab Emirates, studied in Georgia and Texas, ended up in Toronto. When I'm not at my job as a medical laboratory technologist, I read, write, do calligraphy, and grow vegetables in the back yard.
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The SM LV novels just seem so…repetitive. And the excerpt is super wtf-worthy, even more so than the last MS I read.
No idea why this posted twice, oof.
Yep, that sounds exactly like the other SMLV and MS romances I’ve read before – conflict free get together, then sudden drama/big Mis. And yeahh that excerpt/plot does not sound good.
And personally, I wouldn’t go swimming with someone else’s child (whether or not that’s done near-naked) without letting the child’s parent know. What if the child can’t swim? Even if they can, what if something happens to them?
I think that would have been seen differently even 20 years ago, let alone 100+.
Sorry, which part would have been seen differently – taking a child swimming without the parent’s knowledge, or stripping down to one’s underpants with the child (or both)?
Regardless, it’s difficult for me as a modern reader to enjoy this scene for the sexiness that the author was going for. It’s like hitting one’s child – that would have been more than acceptable a hundred years ago too, and yet I haven’t read of many romance heroes doing it.
I think it really depends on your view of parenting. I was raised with the it takes a village to raise a child mentality and have always been more comfortable with my kids interacting with strangers. But I’ve known many modern parents whose fear level of strangers is vastly higher than mine–we once had a neighbor who wouldn’t let the kids walk a block to each other’s homes because they might encounter “mad molesters.” (I live in a very low crime place.)
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m pretty sure that, twenty years ago, if my parents had discovered my father’s employer swimming nearly-naked with my little brother, they would not immediately have thought of pedophilia. But they would not have felt this was perfectly fine either. To me, there’s just something… off… about taking someone else’s child to indulge in a potentially risky activity (no flotation devices, no lifeguards) without the parent’s knowledge.
But as you said, everyone has a different view of parenting. So if other readers don’t mind this, then I’m sure they’ll enjoy the book more.
I think 50 years ago if my parents found an adult swimming nearly naked with one of my brothers my Mom would have thought something was weird for sure.
A hundred or a couple of hundred years ago people didn’t view undress in the same way. As this is a noble person it may be somewhat different, but the average person didn’t have the same sense of privacy/modesty as we do today, especially around kids. Kids saw and heard a lot and our idea of “childhood” is really a 19th century idea that didn’t exist before then.
I would think unless someone had a bad experience previously, they would not react in any way as a modern parent would to the situation.
I’ve yet to read any Minerva Spencer or SM LaViolette because the reviews here at AAR suggest her writing is a bit all over the map. She’s published 19 titles since July 2018!
(Perhaps this person has been writing all her adult life and just saved it all up to publish in her retirement years?)
Spencer pens historical romance for Zebra/Kensington (the first 7/2018) while LaViolette writes “steamy” HR and HR erotica (the first 12/2019). (SM Goodwin, another self-published pen name, published an historical mystery in 11/2020.) But you have to give her credit for being a saavy marketer – her self-published covers all more prominently display the name being promoted by Zebra/Kensington.
I skipped over the middle and end of the review for now as I have it borrowed to read. I jumped over this one and read the next one in the series. It has some of the same problems that seem to plague her writing: a sharp turn into drama-ville.
I will say this about the next book “A Portrait of Love”- the drama is more organic to the plot as it doesn’t jump out of left field. I also liked the hero’s turn from nice guy to embittered guy to pretty nice again. It made it much more believable to me.The heroine’s art is also a pretty big part of the book so it’s not just thrown in. Her various paintings and approaches are discussed throughout the story.
The bad part is that to keep the “mystery” and drama going throughout the last part of the book requires intelligent people to keep doing and saying dumb things so there can be “big secrets” and misunderstandings. Happily the main couple do talk and after one or so misunderstandings earlier on, actually trust each other so it’s quite different from some previous books.
I do think her work has gotten better as it goes along (unless A Portrait of Love is a fluke). I enjoy a lot of LaViolette’s style so I keep reading hoping I will catch the novel where it all finally comes together.
I am sure I will post more when I make it through The Figure Of Love.
Thanks, Marian, for the thoroughly entertaining review!
“In fact, the entire epilogue is the friend chatting to some half-drunk earl he just met, to the point where I wondered if he and the earl would get it on.”
Aw, man. I’d be disappointed they didn’t smash too!
“He’s into mathematics at the start, but never does anything significant with that and soon abandons it as he becomes a Real Boy. And I’m beyond tired of the caricature of a scientist as someone with no social skills.”
I find that cliché annoying too, but for a different reason. If a character is set-up as being a sexually disinterested mathematical genius (or scientist or whatever), how come authors almost never follow-through with the idea that the character might exist on the asexual spectrum? I think it would be fascinating to follow an asexual or demisexual scientist character who cares for someone based on mutual scientific prowess and then has to work through the story to navigate a healthy balance among physical, emotional, and intellectual intimacy. To me, that would create far more interesting and organic drama than piling on kidnappings, blackmail, and rape attempts.
That’s an interesting question. Especially since this is far from the first “doesn’t like to be touched” hero I’ve read, and in every such case, the heroes were more than up for sex with the heroines. But I wonder if authors who are not on the asexual spectrum would feel uncomfortable about writing such a character?
It’s got to be a challenge to write, in romance, a character who, by the end of the book, doesn’t want to be touched.
“But I wonder if authors who are not on the asexual spectrum would feel uncomfortable about writing such a character?”
I think discomfort might be part of it. But for a non-asexual writer, the concept may be just way too alien to imagine effectively. Someone loving someone without a traditional element of lust? For a lot of people, that simply doesn’t compute. Whereas most asexuals understand immediately the strict division they feel between emotional/romantic attraction and the lack of accompanying sexual attraction. That’s why you’ll hear about such divisions as “heteroromantic asexual,” “homoromantic asexual,” “biromantic asexual,” and “aromantic asexual.” What can sound like an alphabet soup to an “allosexual” (anyone who isn’t on the asexual spectrum), makes perfect sense to someone who is asexual. As does the concept of “queerplatonic-” someone you love more than a best friend but not in the same way as a traditional lover.
So for an allosexual romance author to effectively capture some of these nuances would probably be incredibly difficult. Not impossible, of course. A great writer can pull off most anything. But I think asexual spectrum romances are definitely a niche that would benefit from more #ownvoices.
And, of course, the real difficulty would be to gain an audience. As Dabney says below, “It’s got to be a challenge to write, in romance, a character who, by the end of the book, doesn’t want to be touched.” There would definitely be happy asexuals who would read it, but they are a minority within a minority. I don’t say this as a criticism but as an important statistical consideration when it comes to viable sales. Also, I think it would be difficult- again, not impossible- to interest the average heterosexual female romance reader in a non-inspirational story where the big moment before the HEA consists of the characters warmly holding hands on the sofa.
Whoops! That one sentence came out wrong. It should say, “There would definitely be asexuals who would be happy to read it, but they are a minority within a minority.” Wasn’t trying to imply happy asexuals are a minority. :)
This is all very well put. Thank you. Like other sexual orientations, asexuality isn’t a monolithic concept, and will play out differently for everyone, as you described. I not surprisingly have a child that identifies as asexual. (I do seem to trot out children for every situation, don’t I? I’m not making them up, really.) Asexuality has been more difficult for me to wrap my head around than transgender. In my child’s case,the act of sex itself is distasteful, but romance and caring isn’t. They do despair of ever finding someone who would be happy in a romantic asexual relationship.
You’re welcome!
If it makes you and your child feel any better, I have definitely read of accounts where romantic asexuals find each other and make it work. That doesn’t mean it’s always going to be easy- true of any relationship- but there are possibilities out there.
Just the other day, I was reading an article about two homoromantic asexual men who found each other through some online dating app and have been together ever since. I was happy for them, but a lot of the people in the comment section ranged from utterly confused to downright hostile. The idea of loving someone without engaging in traditional acts of physical intimacy (i.e. having sex) really is beyond a lot of people’s comprehension. Which is totally understandable, but hardly worthy of vitriol. Yes, I know I have my own issues in certain areas, but one thing I would never get enraged about is consenting adults in a mutually beneficial, healthy, happy relationship. Life is short! You do you! But apparently, the idea of two men in love with each other without boinking constituted a moral panic for some. Rather ironic when you consider maybe 10-15 years ago, a lot of those same people would probably be pushing for the couple to be “just friends.” But I digress…
This may be veering slightly off-topic, but if you or your child is interested in any asexual story recs, speculative fiction author Claudie Arseneault keeps an aromantic and asexual fiction character database here: The AroAce Database. It used to be just for SF and fantasy books, but I notice she has been adding some contemporary romance recs recently. Also, she is the editor of Common Bonds: A Speculative Aromantic Anthology, in which one of my stories under a different pen name almost made the final cut (last round, dang it!).
This seems like a forums thing per our new approach.
Sure thing. Problem is, how do I start an account? The Agora keeps asking me for my username and password but provides no place to create one (unless I’m looking in the wrong place…?)
You use the login you have for the site.
I’ve tried for half and hour to get a reset password link to work, but every time it says the link is invalid. It lets me comment on a forum if I follow someone’s “recent comment” link on the left side of the Home page, but not from the main forum page, which requires a password. I’m really sorry to be a bother.
I will send you a new password. The reason we gave up the forums before is that they kept crashing the site with spam.
I’ve had a hard time figuring out how to balance security and the forums. We get thousands of attacks a day. It’s tought.
Actually,I can’t reply in the forums anymore,either without the password.
Carrie, I’m glad it’s not just me. I thought it was something on my end, but there seems to be a problem with the site. I hope it can get fixed though because I think the forums would be a great place to continue our tangent-esque discussion (if you wish).
I just went through the process. If you go to Register, when you get the link to set a new password, it should work.
However, if that doesn’t work, anyone can email me and I will send them a new password.
For me, the writers’ skill might actually work against them in this regard, because if I’m attracted to one or more of the heroes, and if there’s any chemistry, I like to read about them having sex. So yeah, if the climax is the characters waking up in the same bed and sharing breakfast, I might still like the story for what it was, but it’s probably not going to be as satisfying for me as a romance where the characters enjoy sex.
Yikes that’s a lot of stuff going on in one book. It makes my head spin to think about reading it!