Daphne's Diary

by Patricia Oliver

With a secret kept locked away in her diary, Daphne is more than content to spend her days in her grandfather's London residence. She has her favorite books to read and a lovely garden to enjoy. If she could only convince her grandfather that she had no interest in men or marriage, everything, she tells herself, would be perfect. Unfortunately, her grandfather isn't the only one who would like to see Daphne develop a taste for men. The dashing rake Lord Alexander Heathercott has selected the dazzling young creature for his next conquest. But when his usual overtures fall flat, he cannot help succumbing to the charms of the woman behind the bewitching face-and when all her attempts to resist him fail, she must face her past and consider what her life would be like with him in it.

224 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2002

About the author

Patricia Oliver is a pen name of Patricia De La Fuente. Between 1993 and 2002 she wrote for the Signet Regency Romance imprint and for Jove under her other pseudonym Olivia Fontayne.

Reviews

[Lyuda · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I didn't see it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe the book is written by Patricia Oliver. She is one of my top ten traditional regency writers. I recently lamented the fact that she, along with few other traditional regency writers such as Diana Brown, Sheila Bishop and Dinah Dean, is not widely known as their work is trapped in a long-time-ago issued paperbacks with unbelievably small print and sometime inflated "collector's" prices. Although this book is linked to Patricia Oliver's Seven Corinthians series, which I liked a lot, I think I would be OK if this particular story is kept in a paperback...

In the prologue, our heroine was traumatized when she witnessed her brother-in-law's indiscretion with a woman who was not his wife. The trauma was so deep that even after TEN YEARS she is still affected by it and see all men as monsters simply aiming to destroy her. That is until the hero came along and put a dent to it. If the heroine appeared to be little over the top with her fear (she was never accosted, nothing bad happened to her to prompt such a strong reaction) , the hero appeared to be very superficial. The only reason he's intrigued by the heroine is because she's beautiful and he's determined to conquer only the most beautiful women. With both pretty unsympathetic characters in tow, the plot was lackluster as well. I ended up finishing the book only to find out what happened to the secondary characters - the characters I liked from the Seven Corinthians series.

[Catsalive · Rating 1 out of 5]

So disappointing! Some of my favourite Regency reads have been by this author but this one is truly awful. What a fuss about nothing! The big secret was ridiculous & Oliver seems to have forgotten all the Regency conventions in this book. Probably a good thing this was her last one.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is pretty typical romance, you want to slap the heroine silly in the beginning of the novel, till she finally gets her head together. This heroine doesn't drag out her "missishness" too long.

I feel this is part of a series. Some of the characters and situations referred to in this book ring a bell in my memory. Don't know the names of other books, but feel this is a series.

[Alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.65