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Bellaire and Chalmers #3
A Law Unto Himself
She'd been left waiting at the altar... — And when her English godparents offered Francesca an escape from the suffocating pity of the Italian aristocracy of which she was part, she accepted gratefully. Their tranquil Cotswolds home would let her put her life in order. — Then she met their reclusive neighbor, novelist Oliver Newton, a man with a reputation for breaking female hearts. Her attraction to him was sudden, overwhelming and dangerous. For all the great poise that her upbringing had taught her quickly started to dissolve when she looked into his silvery eyes.
187 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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62 people want to read
About the author
Frances Roding
7 books15 followersAKA Caroline Courtney, Annie Groves, Penny Halsall, Lydia Hitchcock, Penny Jordan, and Melinda Wright.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 3, 2017
Re - A Law Unto Himself - FR/PJ continues her Bellair/Chalmers miniseries and manages to write an Elizabethan HP/Spy romance/thriller all at the same time. I sorta think PJ came up with the whole FR pseudonym cause she REALLY wanted to do a big long 700 page epic full of men in codpieces and ladies with ruffs traveling in multiple European countries and foiling a Machiavellian plot to dethrone Queen Elizabeth the First while being a spy for Walsingham up against France and the de Medicis AND also be able to include Italian fashion in the mix, with home decoration and cooking too.
But her editors were like ?!?WHAT?!?, Elizabethan's don't sell - not since we gave Jean Plaidy the boot 30 years ago. So PJ said fine! I will sneak one in anyways! And just to sweeten the pot, this big epic romance will be a smash hit and spawn an awesome Hollywood Blockbuster and it will be written by a MAN! So there.
And then PJ wrote A Law Unto Himself using a gender neutral name like Frances and yes, the book sold. Cause not only do we get an HP outing, we get the Elizabethans vs the di Medicis vs the entire country of France and Italian fashion and natural, wholesome cooking and home decorating with rag rolling! AND we get a little catch up with all the other characters in this series TOO, (they're lurved up and happy, in case you were wondering.) This book is so epic we don't even need the full ™ PJ Sponging Treatment to prove the romance. The H's blockbuster book does it for you as the whole rollicking magnum opus is actually a mirror for the real romance between the H and h. This is fantastic!
The h in this one is an Italian Aristo Contessa, she was raised Medieval Style. Cause although she has an English Rose mum, her dad is next in line for the Ancient Italian Ducal title from the h's domineering and tyrannical Grandfather. Who gives Lorenzo di Medici a good run for his money, and thus the h was bullied into looking at her betrothal to another Ancient House's Scion from the age of three as a career path and not a lifestyle option.
Except the h got dumped right before the altar when the Ancient House's Scion eloped with a stripper instead. The h is devastated, cause Hey, it HURTS when your career goes Kaput. She also needs to regroup and find another career path, so her Italian Godparents send her to their dear friends in England, Bea and Elliot from Some Sort of Spell.
So the h, after trading her Vuitton luggage stamped with her would be married initials for maiden initial stamped Gucci, switching her Diorissimo perfume for Chamade, dumping her conservative Prada for Valentino's more trendy couture line, (and buying blue and yellow toning English fur-lined Wellingtons, cause Ferragamo court shoes don't hold up to English rain,) the h makes herself at home at Bea and Elliot's English country home - which is waaay more cozy and friendly than a 200 room Italian Piazza, always packed to the rafters with family and staff, marble floors and priceless antiques.
Bea has a neighbor, and he is a sexy but cynically misogynistic writer of Medieval thrillers and he hates the ladies, unless they are being used as lurve club holders. He needs an Italian researcher for his next big novel and hey, whaddaya know? Our jilted, but now determined to forge a new life free of tyrannical Ducal Grandpa influence happens to have a degree in Medieval History - both English and Italian. This is FABULOUS, cause they can help each other out!
Except the H doesn't like the h, she is too pretty and too much a reminder of the Dark Tragedy that was his ex-wife. It seems our poor misogynistic H was married at 21, to a no-good, affair having tartlett who only married the H cause her millionaire boss refused to divorce his wife and she needed a baby daddy for her little seekrit bun she was baking.
The H thought the bun was the result of his own kneading and so while the wife wasn't much of one, the little girl he fathered was wonderful and he stuck around for her sake. Then the tartlett's millionaire doughboy got a divorce, and he wanted his tart and her mini-tart too - cause the H wasn't the one who provided the yeast for that rising. They divorce, the H did not fight for mini bun custody and then the whole bakery got killed in a road accident 18 months later. This devastated our sexy cynical H, and he has hated all beautiful women since. He only flirts with happily married ladies, unless of course he needs a quick pump and dump.
Unfortunately the H's American Publishers want his next big blockbuster book NOW and he needs a researcher desperately, so the h gets the job. The work itself is great and the h is having a blast, but there is TENSIONS, cause their bodies are definitely attracted.
There is a lot of thinking about TENSIONS and we get a lot of the H's Elizabethan spy story with his widowed and childless H being sent to France to best Catherine di Medici, Queen of France, in an attempt to usurp QE1 and the H is using the seduction a younger daughter of the di Medicis to do it. And they have lots of TENSIONS too.
Then the H gets sick and Bea and Elliot have to go to America for an emergency Theatrical Opening Night for one of Bea's actor siblings. The h is forced to stay overnight with the H to keep an eye on him, and ™ Sponging almost happens. Then there is more H writing of the book and the lurve club mojo FINALLY strikes the real H and h.
Tho the H is cranky cause his plans to kill his book h off by having her betray his English H and then die during a failed attempt to terminate the book H's child are not flowing like he wants them too. His real life h keeps interfering by not acting like the tarty Jezebel of Florence he KNOWS her to be. But the lurve clubbing was the best ever! So the h is happy cause she is in love.
But just as in Art, real life seldom lets true love find a smooth route to happiness. In a purely Medieval Machiavellian move, the h's stool pigeon uncle to her tyrannical Ducal Grandpa shows up at the H's home and tells him the h knew all along that she would be marrying another career option, just as soon as a suitable one was found. The H feels vindicated, his Dark Suspicions were Entirely Correct - and he boots the h out in record time. Then he leaves the country.
The h is heartbroken and then she finds out what her boot-licking uncle did. She is now furious and she goes back to Italy. She tells the Ducal Tyrant to do some anatomically difficult things and moves out of the family Piazza. The Ducal Tyrant disowns her, but her mum and dad still love her.
The h gets another research job and is miserable, but she is trying to have a life. Then the H shows up and begs for forgiveness. Elliot cued him in on being Majorly WRONG, and the H realizes he wouldn't recognize a Machiavellian plot if it bopped him on the head - and here the H read The Prince: By Nicolo Machiavelli & Illustrated like twenty times!
The h forgives the H cause she lurves him. They get married and the H has to talk the h into letting the Ducal Tyrant attend the wedding and sponsor the wedding breakfast. Which the h wasn't too keen to do, cause she had a lot of Italian di Medici genes of her own and she wasn't the type to forgive or forget - but the H applied generous lashings of the lurve club mojo and she let the Ducal Grandpa attend - only cause he was really, really old tho. We leave the H and h lurvin it up and the h's wedding present being a revised copy of the H's epic, his book h lives and gets an HEA with the English Spy H, cause the H couldn't get his own HEA and not give his book alter-ego one too.
This one was sorta fun and a pretty good read. But it lost a big star for me cause PJ/FR DID NOT GIVE US THE ENDING TO THE H's BOOK! She tells us the H's character's get an HEA but we don't get the details! I was like WHAT!?! I want to know what happens!
So I lost some love at the end for this one. Cause I always read the ending first, just to make sure the journey is going to lead to a place I want to be and I did not get my allegorical H novel epic HEA in a satisfactorily detailed manner. That is bad enough when it happens in regular HPlandia, but I really hate it when the book the H is writing as an artistic mirror for the real romance fails in the HEA details as well.
This one was good on the initial plot and bad on the payoff, so it only ranks as a bit mediocre on the HPlandia venture scale.
But her editors were like ?!?WHAT?!?, Elizabethan's don't sell - not since we gave Jean Plaidy the boot 30 years ago. So PJ said fine! I will sneak one in anyways! And just to sweeten the pot, this big epic romance will be a smash hit and spawn an awesome Hollywood Blockbuster and it will be written by a MAN! So there.
And then PJ wrote A Law Unto Himself using a gender neutral name like Frances and yes, the book sold. Cause not only do we get an HP outing, we get the Elizabethans vs the di Medicis vs the entire country of France and Italian fashion and natural, wholesome cooking and home decorating with rag rolling! AND we get a little catch up with all the other characters in this series TOO, (they're lurved up and happy, in case you were wondering.) This book is so epic we don't even need the full ™ PJ Sponging Treatment to prove the romance. The H's blockbuster book does it for you as the whole rollicking magnum opus is actually a mirror for the real romance between the H and h. This is fantastic!
The h in this one is an Italian Aristo Contessa, she was raised Medieval Style. Cause although she has an English Rose mum, her dad is next in line for the Ancient Italian Ducal title from the h's domineering and tyrannical Grandfather. Who gives Lorenzo di Medici a good run for his money, and thus the h was bullied into looking at her betrothal to another Ancient House's Scion from the age of three as a career path and not a lifestyle option.
Except the h got dumped right before the altar when the Ancient House's Scion eloped with a stripper instead. The h is devastated, cause Hey, it HURTS when your career goes Kaput. She also needs to regroup and find another career path, so her Italian Godparents send her to their dear friends in England, Bea and Elliot from Some Sort of Spell.
So the h, after trading her Vuitton luggage stamped with her would be married initials for maiden initial stamped Gucci, switching her Diorissimo perfume for Chamade, dumping her conservative Prada for Valentino's more trendy couture line, (and buying blue and yellow toning English fur-lined Wellingtons, cause Ferragamo court shoes don't hold up to English rain,) the h makes herself at home at Bea and Elliot's English country home - which is waaay more cozy and friendly than a 200 room Italian Piazza, always packed to the rafters with family and staff, marble floors and priceless antiques.
Bea has a neighbor, and he is a sexy but cynically misogynistic writer of Medieval thrillers and he hates the ladies, unless they are being used as lurve club holders. He needs an Italian researcher for his next big novel and hey, whaddaya know? Our jilted, but now determined to forge a new life free of tyrannical Ducal Grandpa influence happens to have a degree in Medieval History - both English and Italian. This is FABULOUS, cause they can help each other out!
Except the H doesn't like the h, she is too pretty and too much a reminder of the Dark Tragedy that was his ex-wife. It seems our poor misogynistic H was married at 21, to a no-good, affair having tartlett who only married the H cause her millionaire boss refused to divorce his wife and she needed a baby daddy for her little seekrit bun she was baking.
The H thought the bun was the result of his own kneading and so while the wife wasn't much of one, the little girl he fathered was wonderful and he stuck around for her sake. Then the tartlett's millionaire doughboy got a divorce, and he wanted his tart and her mini-tart too - cause the H wasn't the one who provided the yeast for that rising. They divorce, the H did not fight for mini bun custody and then the whole bakery got killed in a road accident 18 months later. This devastated our sexy cynical H, and he has hated all beautiful women since. He only flirts with happily married ladies, unless of course he needs a quick pump and dump.
Unfortunately the H's American Publishers want his next big blockbuster book NOW and he needs a researcher desperately, so the h gets the job. The work itself is great and the h is having a blast, but there is TENSIONS, cause their bodies are definitely attracted.
There is a lot of thinking about TENSIONS and we get a lot of the H's Elizabethan spy story with his widowed and childless H being sent to France to best Catherine di Medici, Queen of France, in an attempt to usurp QE1 and the H is using the seduction a younger daughter of the di Medicis to do it. And they have lots of TENSIONS too.
Then the H gets sick and Bea and Elliot have to go to America for an emergency Theatrical Opening Night for one of Bea's actor siblings. The h is forced to stay overnight with the H to keep an eye on him, and ™ Sponging almost happens. Then there is more H writing of the book and the lurve club mojo FINALLY strikes the real H and h.
Tho the H is cranky cause his plans to kill his book h off by having her betray his English H and then die during a failed attempt to terminate the book H's child are not flowing like he wants them too. His real life h keeps interfering by not acting like the tarty Jezebel of Florence he KNOWS her to be. But the lurve clubbing was the best ever! So the h is happy cause she is in love.
But just as in Art, real life seldom lets true love find a smooth route to happiness. In a purely Medieval Machiavellian move, the h's stool pigeon uncle to her tyrannical Ducal Grandpa shows up at the H's home and tells him the h knew all along that she would be marrying another career option, just as soon as a suitable one was found. The H feels vindicated, his Dark Suspicions were Entirely Correct - and he boots the h out in record time. Then he leaves the country.
The h is heartbroken and then she finds out what her boot-licking uncle did. She is now furious and she goes back to Italy. She tells the Ducal Tyrant to do some anatomically difficult things and moves out of the family Piazza. The Ducal Tyrant disowns her, but her mum and dad still love her.
The h gets another research job and is miserable, but she is trying to have a life. Then the H shows up and begs for forgiveness. Elliot cued him in on being Majorly WRONG, and the H realizes he wouldn't recognize a Machiavellian plot if it bopped him on the head - and here the H read The Prince: By Nicolo Machiavelli & Illustrated like twenty times!
The h forgives the H cause she lurves him. They get married and the H has to talk the h into letting the Ducal Tyrant attend the wedding and sponsor the wedding breakfast. Which the h wasn't too keen to do, cause she had a lot of Italian di Medici genes of her own and she wasn't the type to forgive or forget - but the H applied generous lashings of the lurve club mojo and she let the Ducal Grandpa attend - only cause he was really, really old tho. We leave the H and h lurvin it up and the h's wedding present being a revised copy of the H's epic, his book h lives and gets an HEA with the English Spy H, cause the H couldn't get his own HEA and not give his book alter-ego one too.
This one was sorta fun and a pretty good read. But it lost a big star for me cause PJ/FR DID NOT GIVE US THE ENDING TO THE H's BOOK! She tells us the H's character's get an HEA but we don't get the details! I was like WHAT!?! I want to know what happens!
So I lost some love at the end for this one. Cause I always read the ending first, just to make sure the journey is going to lead to a place I want to be and I did not get my allegorical H novel epic HEA in a satisfactorily detailed manner. That is bad enough when it happens in regular HPlandia, but I really hate it when the book the H is writing as an artistic mirror for the real romance fails in the HEA details as well.
This one was good on the initial plot and bad on the payoff, so it only ranks as a bit mediocre on the HPlandia venture scale.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 10, 2016
Two and half stars.
This is the third of the four book series that started with Some Sort of Spell. The H/h from that story are back as hosts for an Anglo-Italian heroine who has been jilted at the altar prior to her arranged marriage. She comes to the Cotswolds to lick her wounds and to decide if she wants to use her university degree to be a researcher.
Enter our best-selling writer hero who is in the middle of writing a novel about an English spy who has an affair with one of the Borgias. He hates women because his ex-wife lied about the paternity of their daughter, whom he truly loved, and then left him only to have the bio dad, mom, and daughter die in a car crash. He is especially on edge the day he meets the h because that was the little girl's tenth birthday (had she lived). Rocky first meeting aside, they decide to work together. The h will research medieval Italy while the H frantically writes and ignores his growing feelings for the h (and the character he is modeling after her).
It's always interesting when an author includes a writer as a character. It's tempting to think we're seeing their stand-in. The novel the H is writing is very meta, so maybe. . . I'm sure Penny Jordan worked this hard - look how many books she wrote! The romance in this is good enough - but nothing exciting or original. The hero is really grumpy, but the heroine doesn't seem to mind. The joys of this story really come from the context of the romance - the setting, what they're doing, what the secondary characters have to say, etc . . .
This is the third of the four book series that started with Some Sort of Spell. The H/h from that story are back as hosts for an Anglo-Italian heroine who has been jilted at the altar prior to her arranged marriage. She comes to the Cotswolds to lick her wounds and to decide if she wants to use her university degree to be a researcher.
Enter our best-selling writer hero who is in the middle of writing a novel about an English spy who has an affair with one of the Borgias. He hates women because his ex-wife lied about the paternity of their daughter, whom he truly loved, and then left him only to have the bio dad, mom, and daughter die in a car crash. He is especially on edge the day he meets the h because that was the little girl's tenth birthday (had she lived). Rocky first meeting aside, they decide to work together. The h will research medieval Italy while the H frantically writes and ignores his growing feelings for the h (and the character he is modeling after her).
It's always interesting when an author includes a writer as a character. It's tempting to think we're seeing their stand-in. The novel the H is writing is very meta, so maybe. . . I'm sure Penny Jordan worked this hard - look how many books she wrote! The romance in this is good enough - but nothing exciting or original. The hero is really grumpy, but the heroine doesn't seem to mind. The joys of this story really come from the context of the romance - the setting, what they're doing, what the secondary characters have to say, etc . . .
May 24, 2011
3.75
It's part of a series which includes Some sort of spell - which was a 5 star read for me - so it was nice to re-visit Beatrice and Elliot through Francesca and Oliver. Some of the arranged-marriage dialog helped me realise why westerners have a problem with it. The way it is written, even I had huge issues with the way parents or grandparents sometimes run over the kids/g.kids to push them towards a partner =(
I think that if two people love each other then the parents should allow their kids to make the decision instead of pushing them around...
One of the dialog which pushed the book 0.75 points above 3:
"In my naivete, I assumed that my marriage would be like theirs [H's parents]. You see, those of us who have not witnessed at first hand the complications, the traumas, the pains of adult relationhip that goes wrong, are at a considerable disadvantage when we grow up. We expect our lives to mirror those of our parents. We expect to be married and content..."
It's part of a series which includes Some sort of spell - which was a 5 star read for me - so it was nice to re-visit Beatrice and Elliot through Francesca and Oliver. Some of the arranged-marriage dialog helped me realise why westerners have a problem with it. The way it is written, even I had huge issues with the way parents or grandparents sometimes run over the kids/g.kids to push them towards a partner =(
I think that if two people love each other then the parents should allow their kids to make the decision instead of pushing them around...
One of the dialog which pushed the book 0.75 points above 3:
"In my naivete, I assumed that my marriage would be like theirs [H's parents]. You see, those of us who have not witnessed at first hand the complications, the traumas, the pains of adult relationhip that goes wrong, are at a considerable disadvantage when we grow up. We expect our lives to mirror those of our parents. We expect to be married and content..."
July 11, 2019
She'd been left waiting at the altar... — And when her English godparents offered Francesca an escape from the suffocating pity of the Italian aristocracy of which she was part, she accepted gratefully. Their tranquil Cotswolds home would let her put her life in order. — Then she met their reclusive neighbor, novelist Oliver Newton, a man with a reputation for breaking female hearts. Her attraction to him was sudden, overwhelming and dangerous. For all the great poise that her upbringing had taught her quickly started to dissolve when she looked into his silvery eyes. (less)
August 9, 2023
Flowed reasonably well, just a few long meanders skipped. The H, Oliver, while nominally appealing was really too much of a misanthropic jerk for proper redemption. Francesca had class but terrible treacherous body syndrome. He was writing a novel with a C16th Walsingham spy travelling to Francesca's native Italy to infiltrate Medici machinations via a young girl under their control, Bellengaria. He modelled Bellengaria on his faithless, dead ex-wife who passed another man's child off on him then took her away when she went back to said man. Hence his hatred of women, marriage etc. Unfortunately as he fell for Francesca, who was researching for him, Bellengaria stopped doing what he wanted her to but became an object of his passionate desire and eventually love. I quite like these meta things. In this case, however, I draw the line at him confined to bed with a fluey virus and her entering his room and him dreaming that she's Bellengaria and them having a big old snog. In what parallel universe does anyone want to passionately snog someone with flu? I could cope with non mouth to mouth touching and even sex but tongues when he's ill? No one tastes nice at that point. So I guess she must really love him 😂
November 24, 2025
I don’t know what to say.
Why is this book called ‘A Law Unto Himself’ ?? How is it applicable to the hero?? All he did was write and walk up to the garden shed. In the whole book. That is all he did.
Guess I outgrew this author.
In my teens I used to find her purple passion so hot. (Funny!!)
The books start off promisingly. Then the hero and heroine meet.
Does it seem like she has those insidious dangerous things…. Feelings??! For a man?? Oh. My. God.
She feels lust? The shame and heart burning over it. Pages upon pages.
Never a light hearted moment of laughter or joy. They don’t speak (in most PJ stories) unless it’s the hero accusing her of being bad in some way. She’s a home breaker. Or she’s a slut. Or she’s messing with his concentration.
She is always at SOME FAULT.
This is abuse.
The heroine .. she might be in her 30s or 40s .. shakes and trembles and shivers and feels faint after the hero comes close to her to even stand.
Anyway ..
I read it.
I felt irritated with them both.
The hero’s house!! It seemed extremely uncomfortable to me.
So that’s my review.
Oh yes. There was a cat sitting next to him. When she went to his house the first time. But after that the cat was forgotten.
She did feed the cat but not the hero.
Through the story she was thinking of Italian spices and cannelloni so I was expecting finally she’ll cook something and hero will understand her maternal nurturing side. She even went to the shops to buy groceries I think. Then nothing. Why put that in if she’s not going to cook??
Ugggggh. Arrrrrgh.
All that trembling and shaking and feeling ashamed and not wanting to be close to the man unless there was commitment.
Nope.
Penny Jordan. Ma’am I’m finally done. (Until the next time).
Oh another thing. They both got totally soaked in the rain. Both observed the other person. There was zero concern for the other person?!!!!
You should change. Maybe have a hot drink.
Nope.
And the hero was out in the cold wet. Came into the house. Kept wearing his wet clothes and writing. Fell sick. How was he so stupid????!!! Why was he so dumb??
He got fever and kept saying - what’s wrong with me??? (Sir your author doesn’t know what to do with you)
Heroine did not show human concern leave alone lover like behaviour. She just let him fester in his cold damp clothes while she went off to get some warm dry clothes for herself.
They were both terribly cold blooded mean and nasty.
Not my kind of people at all.
I would ask even an enemy to change into warm dry clothes probably.
So there was no love to my eye.
They were just two characters put in the page and going through the motions of the story.
Apparently they were both scarred by cheaters.
Aldo what was it with the hero calling her by his character’s name in a fevered dream.. yuck. Keep your distance from your character’s authors. He kept interchanging her for Bellengaria (what a weird name).
I don’t know. Never going to reread this one.
Frankly I’m done with PJ’s abusive heroes.
Why is this book called ‘A Law Unto Himself’ ?? How is it applicable to the hero?? All he did was write and walk up to the garden shed. In the whole book. That is all he did.
Guess I outgrew this author.
In my teens I used to find her purple passion so hot. (Funny!!)
The books start off promisingly. Then the hero and heroine meet.
Does it seem like she has those insidious dangerous things…. Feelings??! For a man?? Oh. My. God.
She feels lust? The shame and heart burning over it. Pages upon pages.
Never a light hearted moment of laughter or joy. They don’t speak (in most PJ stories) unless it’s the hero accusing her of being bad in some way. She’s a home breaker. Or she’s a slut. Or she’s messing with his concentration.
She is always at SOME FAULT.
This is abuse.
The heroine .. she might be in her 30s or 40s .. shakes and trembles and shivers and feels faint after the hero comes close to her to even stand.
Anyway ..
I read it.
I felt irritated with them both.
The hero’s house!! It seemed extremely uncomfortable to me.
So that’s my review.
Oh yes. There was a cat sitting next to him. When she went to his house the first time. But after that the cat was forgotten.
She did feed the cat but not the hero.
Through the story she was thinking of Italian spices and cannelloni so I was expecting finally she’ll cook something and hero will understand her maternal nurturing side. She even went to the shops to buy groceries I think. Then nothing. Why put that in if she’s not going to cook??
Ugggggh. Arrrrrgh.
All that trembling and shaking and feeling ashamed and not wanting to be close to the man unless there was commitment.
Nope.
Penny Jordan. Ma’am I’m finally done. (Until the next time).
Oh another thing. They both got totally soaked in the rain. Both observed the other person. There was zero concern for the other person?!!!!
You should change. Maybe have a hot drink.
Nope.
And the hero was out in the cold wet. Came into the house. Kept wearing his wet clothes and writing. Fell sick. How was he so stupid????!!! Why was he so dumb??
He got fever and kept saying - what’s wrong with me??? (Sir your author doesn’t know what to do with you)
Heroine did not show human concern leave alone lover like behaviour. She just let him fester in his cold damp clothes while she went off to get some warm dry clothes for herself.
They were both terribly cold blooded mean and nasty.
Not my kind of people at all.
I would ask even an enemy to change into warm dry clothes probably.
So there was no love to my eye.
They were just two characters put in the page and going through the motions of the story.
Apparently they were both scarred by cheaters.
Aldo what was it with the hero calling her by his character’s name in a fevered dream.. yuck. Keep your distance from your character’s authors. He kept interchanging her for Bellengaria (what a weird name).
I don’t know. Never going to reread this one.
Frankly I’m done with PJ’s abusive heroes.
June 4, 2017
This is a really interesting example from Penny Jordan’s writing career (Frances Roding was just one of the pen names she wrote under). The story is pretty standard M&B fare, but it’s what’s happening beyond the margins of the text that makes this book so interesting. The story is as follows: Francesca, an Italian noblewoman, with an English mother and Italian father, is dumped at the alter by her fiancé. She’s not too upset, because it was actually an arranged marriage which has been in place since she was three years old and she had no real love for the chap who ditched her. To recover her pride, she visits England with a couple who have popped up as the family of actors and starlets as the subject of previous Mills & Boon novels by Jordan/Roding. Whilst there, she meets and falls in love with Oliver (a writer of historical novels).
As I said, it’s pretty standard fare and not very interesting in itself in terms of storyline. However, what is interesting about this book is how Jordan permits her previous characters (ones who have been the central subjects in other romances) to have a clear and distinct voice beyond their own stories. Everyone reader of romantic novels knows that when the romance ends, the marriage happens, and then the reader doesn’t get to know anything else beyond that. However, this romance permits the reader to see characters they’ve met before beyond the marriage and into their married life. It’s fascinating and a really clever way for the author to develop her characters beyond the restrictive formula of these romances.
Further, the artistic process of writing historical novels (something Jordan also did under a different pen name) is elaborated in this novel. We get a window into the author’s world here and how she is constructing her texts. She uses some clever devices to indicate how characters have a terrible tendency to start acting for themselves, thwarting the author at every turn (this really does happen as any creative writer will know). She is also cleverly using the tropes of the artistic process to construct her story – this is very much a novel about baring the device.
Finally, in this one, the heroine also admits nearly as openly as is possible that she is merely performing a role in acting as the heroine in order to manipulate the hero. This doesn’t quite work for Francesca in the novel, although, of course, it’s a Mills & Boon so everything works out right in the end.
This one is definitely worth a look for students of the genre – there’s so much going on paratextually in this novel. I think if you were to read all of this series together concerning the family of actors and their peripheral friends’ romances, you might almost be able to come up with a larger story, which would be fascinating to study in its entirety. This novel more than any other demonstrates what a great author for Mills & Boon Jordan was, and how she worked within the confines of what is a very restrictive formula and still demonstrate the literary artistry of her work.
As I said, it’s pretty standard fare and not very interesting in itself in terms of storyline. However, what is interesting about this book is how Jordan permits her previous characters (ones who have been the central subjects in other romances) to have a clear and distinct voice beyond their own stories. Everyone reader of romantic novels knows that when the romance ends, the marriage happens, and then the reader doesn’t get to know anything else beyond that. However, this romance permits the reader to see characters they’ve met before beyond the marriage and into their married life. It’s fascinating and a really clever way for the author to develop her characters beyond the restrictive formula of these romances.
Further, the artistic process of writing historical novels (something Jordan also did under a different pen name) is elaborated in this novel. We get a window into the author’s world here and how she is constructing her texts. She uses some clever devices to indicate how characters have a terrible tendency to start acting for themselves, thwarting the author at every turn (this really does happen as any creative writer will know). She is also cleverly using the tropes of the artistic process to construct her story – this is very much a novel about baring the device.
Finally, in this one, the heroine also admits nearly as openly as is possible that she is merely performing a role in acting as the heroine in order to manipulate the hero. This doesn’t quite work for Francesca in the novel, although, of course, it’s a Mills & Boon so everything works out right in the end.
This one is definitely worth a look for students of the genre – there’s so much going on paratextually in this novel. I think if you were to read all of this series together concerning the family of actors and their peripheral friends’ romances, you might almost be able to come up with a larger story, which would be fascinating to study in its entirety. This novel more than any other demonstrates what a great author for Mills & Boon Jordan was, and how she worked within the confines of what is a very restrictive formula and still demonstrate the literary artistry of her work.
May 2, 2013
3.5 stars. I liked the other stories in this series a lot, this one wasn't quite as compelling. I just didn't find it as angsty as the others. A decent read though.
November 27, 2016
LOTS of description
Dry
Dry
March 6, 2021
First, I recommend reading Some Sort Of Spell before this book. The couple in Some Sort of Spell are revisited in this book as they are hosting the heroine. Sadly, I think I enjoyed reading about Bea and Elliot in this book more than I did the hero and heroine. Don’t get me wrong, this is a serviceable enough light romance to pass a couple of hours...it was just missing some of the angst and oomph I was hoping for. However, it has renewed my interest in watching the Borgia series.
January 23, 2013
3.5*
The ending was a little rushed.
The ending was a little rushed.
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