Book Review
Aug. 26th, 2024 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe Belle of Belgrave Square
by Mimi Matthews
This swoony historical romance concerns Julia Wychwood, an avid reader cursed with crippling shyness and sickly, selfish parents who try to trap her into being their perpetual nursemaid. When she and the brooding, mysterious Captain Jasper Blunt, they are very much drawn to each other. When her parents' treatment of her goes too far, Julia impulsively asks Jasper to marry her. She and Jasper quickly retreat to his crumbling Yorkshire manor, where the mysteries of his past lurk. What starts out as a marriage of convenience soon becomes a deep love. But their happily ever after requires Jasper to reveal his secrets.
This romance was very, very good. I loved Julia and her character development from a shy and timid woman to someone who can stand up for herself and her own needs and desires. Jasper was a delightfully swoony hero - brooding, protective without being domineering, passionate, principled. Their relationship develops at a deliberate pace, and they always talk about what they are feeling and what is going on. When something could be solved by a conversation, they have that conversation. Matthews does a great job of weaving in elements of classic fairy tales: Beauty and the Beast, Bluebeard, and Hades and Persephone. It all works so very well.
by Mimi Matthews
This swoony historical romance concerns Julia Wychwood, an avid reader cursed with crippling shyness and sickly, selfish parents who try to trap her into being their perpetual nursemaid. When she and the brooding, mysterious Captain Jasper Blunt, they are very much drawn to each other. When her parents' treatment of her goes too far, Julia impulsively asks Jasper to marry her. She and Jasper quickly retreat to his crumbling Yorkshire manor, where the mysteries of his past lurk. What starts out as a marriage of convenience soon becomes a deep love. But their happily ever after requires Jasper to reveal his secrets.
This romance was very, very good. I loved Julia and her character development from a shy and timid woman to someone who can stand up for herself and her own needs and desires. Jasper was a delightfully swoony hero - brooding, protective without being domineering, passionate, principled. Their relationship develops at a deliberate pace, and they always talk about what they are feeling and what is going on. When something could be solved by a conversation, they have that conversation. Matthews does a great job of weaving in elements of classic fairy tales: Beauty and the Beast, Bluebeard, and Hades and Persephone. It all works so very well.
