TEST
There’s something kind of creepy to me about a man who falls in love with a woman because he believes she’s helpless and in need of rescue. And, since this plot would likely induce the gag factor in most modern day readers, it’s fortunate that the heroine finds something kind of creepy about it, too.
In this latest outing in Stella Cameron’s Mayfair Square series, successful businessman Latimer More, aka the Most Daring Lover in England, is virtually stalking Miss Jenny McBride, an orphaned young Scottish woman working as an apprentice in a London millinery shop. And, though they’ve barely spoken two words, the formerly confirmed bachelor has decided that nothing will do but that the two marry immediately so that he can sweep her away from the squalor that is her life.
Unfortunately, for those of us who’d like to see Jenny righteously reject Latimer until he sees the error of his ways, our heroine does find herself in dire straits. Having loaned her rent money to a young mother with a baby in need of medical care, Jenny is about to fall into the power of her landlord, Mr. Morley Bucket, aka Despicable Villain With Nefarious Plans For Our Virtuous Heroine.
Of course, in no time at all Jenny is installed in the house in Mayfair Square, much to the disgust of its ghostly master, Sir Septimus Spivey, Cameron’s crotchety narrator for all the books in the series. Determined to rid the house of its oddball group of residents, Spivey is a virtual fount of plans and machinations – all of which are doomed to failure.
Predictably, Jenny first attempts to hide her situation from Latimer, but sooner than I’d like her problems are virtually turned over to the resourceful young man. Still, she does retain an agreeable, but not obnoxious, degree of feistiness that keeps her from being quite the victim Latimer seems to insist on seeing.
While I’ve read at least one of the previous books in the series, I’ve also read many others in the interim, so it was a problem for me that Cameron writes as if the plots and characters of those earlier stories are fresh in the reader’s mind. Still, the residents of 7 Mayfair Square are an approachable bunch, making it easy to soon feel comfortable in their company.
Regretfully, I can’t quite say the same about our hero and heroine. Despite the fact that he’s charming and, obviously, an accomplished lover, Latimer is far too controlling. Jenny, on the other hand, doesn’t really like being dependent on Latimer to solve her problems, but solve them he does. And there’s another problem with Jenny. If ye dinna like t’read the Scots accent, ye willna like Jenny.
On the positive side, though, Stella Cameron can be quite funny. And if I wasn’t completely enthralled with Latimer and Jenny, it was nice to visit again with Spivey, the house’s eclectic group of mismatched residents, and their newly acquired spouses. And, let me also say, Stella Cameron does have a way with a love scene.
There’s probably enough in The Orphan to satisfy Cameron’s fans, but Latimer’s creep quotient and Jenny’s demi-faux-feistiness is unlikely to yield her new ones.
Grade: C
Book Type: European Historical Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 23/02/02
Publication Date: 2002
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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.