The Kent Heiress

Heiress #3

by Roberta Gellis

Sabrina thought she loved Lord Elvan—until his blatant infidelities turned her heart to stone. Perce thought Sabrina was just his friend Philip’s little sister—until she fell in love with Elvan and he realized he wanted her for himself. It was too late for both when they met again at a ball in St. Petersburg and passion flared between them.

Annulment of her marriage was Sabrina’s one hope and her husband said he would consider it if she accompanied him on one more political mission. But in Portugal Elvan indulged himself in one affaire too many; the husband of this lady was insanely jealous. Not content with his revenge on Elvan and his wife, Dom Jose intended to kill Sabrina for not controlling her husband. When Perce returned to England and learned Sabrina had gone to Portugal with Elvan, he set out at once to protect her—and arrived just in time to become another target for Dom Jose.

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance, Historical, Historical Fiction, Regency, Fiction, Fantasy

478 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 15, 1982

About the author

Roberta Gellis has been one of the most successful writers of historical fiction of the last few decades, having published about 25 meticulously researched historical novels since 1964. She was married to her husband Charles for over 50 years and they lived together in Lafayette, Indiana with a lively Lakeland terrier called Taffy. She has one child called Mark.

Her page at the Internet Speculative Fiction DataBase

Reviews

[Misfit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't let the cover scare you, its a lot better than you'd think, although if I were planning on taking it on a plane or a bus I'd get one of those special covers so no one would think the worst :D

The Kent Heiress is actually the last in a trilogy Gellis wrote starting with The Terror of the French Revolution and ending in this one set during the Napoleonic wars, although this book does well enough as a stand-alone. Sabrina de Conyers is married to womanizing diplomat William, Lord Elvan and when the novel begins they are assigned to the Russian Court in Saint Petersburg as the conflicts between Russia and Napoleon are heating up. Disgusted with her husband's numerous affairs, Sabrina meets up with childhood friend Perce Moreton, who realized his feelings too late (she was already married to William) and still carries the torch and sparks begin to fly (well of course).

As Sabrina fights to remove herself from an unhappy marriage, Perce risks life and limb as a British envoy of sorts to the Russian army. Sabrina returns to her family in England and attempts to annul her marriage, but Elvan convinces her to help him "keep up a good front" and travel with him to his new post in Portugal, where his wandering eye eventually leads him into an affair with deadly consequences and leaves Sabrina in a perilous pickle that only Perce can extricate her from.....

I know it all sounds like your basic cut and paste romance novel, but when you're reading Gellis there's always quite a bit more to the package. She loads her books with tons of historical details and political intrigues that raise the bar for a more rewarding read -- although romance readers looking for a basic bodice ripper will likely be bored to death with the added history. All in a all very pleasant romp and I very much enjoyed the ups and downs of Sabrina and Perce -- but they are quite a lusty couple and a couple of their scenes were just a tad bit...well...ahem...too detailed for my tastes - I wouldn't recommend this for younger readers. I'm sorely torn between 3.5 and 4 stars, but it _is_ Gellis so I'm going for broke and giving her four. Now to backtrack and read the first two in the trilogy, The English Heiress (The Heiress Series: Book One) and The Cornish Heiress.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to rate this higher-I really liked Ms. Gellis’s writing, however, the plotting was just a little odd. The characters spend so much time apart and then the deus ex machina was just too extraordinary. I couldn’t really escape into it.

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

The heroine is the wife of an unfaithful English diplomat. While on the mission in Russia, she realizes he's not worth her effort even though she likes being a diplomatic wife. The hero is the friend of the hero in The Cornish Heiress. He's been sent to Russia because he's the heir to his father's title and can't join the army, but wants to help the fight with Napoleon, so he has come to hang out with the Russian army and see what he can learn from that angle and help out the diplomatic mission. This story goes from Russia to Prussia to Portugal and has lots of adventures. I liked it a lot.

[Paschalis]

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[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sabrina Lady Elvan is trapped in a loveless marriage to a philandering British diplomat. Married at sixteen and cheated on numerous times by the time she is nineteen, she tells herself that she no longer cares. So when her childhood friend Perce shows up at the court in St. Petersburg where her husband is assigned during the winter of 1806, she is ripe for falling in love again. Ostensibly a romance, this novel is chock a block with details of battle, from Austerlitz through the East Prussian campaign and also with the arcana of being a diplomatic wife in Russia, Prussia and Portugal from 1806 to 1808. While I enjoyed the history, the romance part seemed almost artificially pasted on and the final third of the book could have been a stand alone novella, it was so at odds with the Napoleonic sections. I kept expecting the French to appear over the hill!