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Suffolk #2
Lady Polly
Lady Polly had rejected Henry five years ago, obeying her father's wishes. Meeting him now on a deserted terrace, he stole a kiss, and as unexpected passion flared between them, Polly knew this time she would follow her heart.
288 pages, Paperback
First published September 3, 1999
9 people are currently reading
153 people want to read
About the author
Nicola Cornick
224 books1,172 followersInternational bestselling author Nicola Cornick writes dual-time historical mysteries that draw on her love for genealogy and local history. She studied History at London and Oxford and worked in academia for a number of years before becoming a full time author. Nicola acts as a guide and researcher at the stunning 17th century hunting lodge, Ashdown House and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Friends of Lydiard Park in Swindon. She gives talks and tours on a variety of historical topics.
Nicola lives near Oxford and loves reading, writing, history, music, wildlife, travel and walking her dog. She also loves hearing from her readers and chatting to them. She can also be found on Facebook, Twitter @NicolaCornick and Instagram.
Nicola lives near Oxford and loves reading, writing, history, music, wildlife, travel and walking her dog. She also loves hearing from her readers and chatting to them. She can also be found on Facebook, Twitter @NicolaCornick and Instagram.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
July 20, 2014
La protagonista de esta novela es Polly, una joven encantadora, pero su historia se me hizo muy densa. Además, ¿dónde está la historia de amor en esta novela? Porque no es que no hubiera sexo, es que por no haber no había historia de amor. Es casi un milagro que Polly acabe casada al final de la novela... ¬¬
November 5, 2020
Fue entretenido.
September 5, 2011
This one was a bit slow and really inconsistent even with itself. Go figure. I really love Cornick's later work, so I'll keep reading.
October 28, 2014
Note: I don't care what the lists say, but I would read 'Miss Verey's Proposal' before I read this one! Not sure why it was written out of sequence. I do like to read them in chronological order of the time not the publishing date!
What would we do without Harlequin Historicals? Authors of this genre have to start somewhere. This must be where Nicola started. The first one, the 'Virtuous Cyprian', was among her first books. This book is a 'Lady Polly' better than it. Everything was going along just fine until Lady Polly got out of character and acted like she didn't have a brain in her head. I am now reading 'Miss Verey's Proposal' so I am going to have to reread this one to figure out how the characters fit in this story. Most of the characters appear in all of the books.
What would we do without Harlequin Historicals? Authors of this genre have to start somewhere. This must be where Nicola started. The first one, the 'Virtuous Cyprian', was among her first books. This book is a 'Lady Polly' better than it. Everything was going along just fine until Lady Polly got out of character and acted like she didn't have a brain in her head. I am now reading 'Miss Verey's Proposal' so I am going to have to reread this one to figure out how the characters fit in this story. Most of the characters appear in all of the books.
October 25, 2024
Después de pasar por unas semanas muy ajetreadas, que entre otras cosas implicó revisar todo lo que tenía almacenado en el desván, quería empezar otra vez el ritmo de lectura con un libro que no fuera muy complicado, y eso me llevó a esta novela, guardada en una vieja caja con otras de la misma editorial.
No recuerdo muy bien cuándo la leí, pero ya hace unos cuantos años, y seguramente en verano, ya que antes del libro electronico llevaba estos libros para leer en la playa. En cualquier caso mi memoria no me permitía rememorar su lectura, y eso que Nicola Cornick es una autora de novela romántica corta, tipo Harlequín, que me gustaba bastante.
Hay novelas que son muy de su época que envejecen bien y otras que no lo hacen tanto. Toda una dama pertenece a la última categoría.
La historia es la de Lady Polly -¿alguien se puede tomar en serio a una protagonista con nombre de ave emplumada? - quien con dieciocho años se enamoró perdidamente de lord Henry Marchnight, hijo de un duque sin posibilidades de alcanzar el título. Pero por desgracia terceras personas se interpusieron en su camino, y cuando Henry le pide a Polly que huyan juntos, esta se niega por temor a qué pasará con sus padres -su padre es un conde-. Resultado: Henry se enfada con ella, y la abandona y Polly se queda para vestir santos porque después de cinco años y de decenas de propuestas de matrimonio aún no se ha casado.
Durante estos años se han visto alguna que otra vez pero se han relacionado. Hasta ahora. Y parece que Polly aún lo ama, y que él aún la ama. Pero terceras personas están dispuestas a impedir su amos de nuevo.
Esta novela es la típica novela romántica de regencia donde la protagonista es una inútil de la alta sociedad cuyo único interés es cabalgar, compaginar sus vestidos con sus zapatos o con su sombrero... y que tiene una madre que es como un dolor de muelas. También tiene un hermano mayor que ha heredado el título de conde, y un hermano pequeño que es un tarambaina, o sea, otro inútil sin oficio ni beneficio.
Cuando contamos con estas protagonistas ya sabes que el héroe, lord Henry, la salvará de todo, porque ella es una dama que no sabe enfrentarse a los peligros del mundo real. También sabes que habrá escena donde él la bese apasionadamente sin que ella lo consienta, al menos al principio; que él mostrará su esculpido cuerpo... Todos los elementos típicos los vas a encontrar aquí.
Y aquí viene el problema de este tipo de novelas. Si no las leído ninguna, y no estás es una esquina del espectro feminista pues, no te molestará mucho. Típica historia de héroe gallardo salvando a la dama en apuros. Pero si ya tienes algunas en tu cuenta de lecturas la novedad se desvanece y siempre terminas buscando algo más que lo típico. Buscas relaciones más elaboradas, personajes no tan planos y esterotipados, una narrativa más compleja... Buscas todo lo que no tiene este libro.
A veces no suelo coincidir con las valoraciones de Goodreads pero en este caso la valoración es válida. Pero también hay que considerar que es un libro escrito hace más de veinticino años y la novela romántica ha cambiado mucho en su manera de representar a la mujer. En su momento, era una historia válida, ahora es muy rancia.
¿Recomendable? Solo, solo si te gustan este tipo de novelas o si quieres saber cómo eran las novelas románticas de los años 90 del siglo pasado.
No recuerdo muy bien cuándo la leí, pero ya hace unos cuantos años, y seguramente en verano, ya que antes del libro electronico llevaba estos libros para leer en la playa. En cualquier caso mi memoria no me permitía rememorar su lectura, y eso que Nicola Cornick es una autora de novela romántica corta, tipo Harlequín, que me gustaba bastante.
Hay novelas que son muy de su época que envejecen bien y otras que no lo hacen tanto. Toda una dama pertenece a la última categoría.
La historia es la de Lady Polly -¿alguien se puede tomar en serio a una protagonista con nombre de ave emplumada? - quien con dieciocho años se enamoró perdidamente de lord Henry Marchnight, hijo de un duque sin posibilidades de alcanzar el título. Pero por desgracia terceras personas se interpusieron en su camino, y cuando Henry le pide a Polly que huyan juntos, esta se niega por temor a qué pasará con sus padres -su padre es un conde-. Resultado: Henry se enfada con ella, y la abandona y Polly se queda para vestir santos porque después de cinco años y de decenas de propuestas de matrimonio aún no se ha casado.
Durante estos años se han visto alguna que otra vez pero se han relacionado. Hasta ahora. Y parece que Polly aún lo ama, y que él aún la ama. Pero terceras personas están dispuestas a impedir su amos de nuevo.
Esta novela es la típica novela romántica de regencia donde la protagonista es una inútil de la alta sociedad cuyo único interés es cabalgar, compaginar sus vestidos con sus zapatos o con su sombrero... y que tiene una madre que es como un dolor de muelas. También tiene un hermano mayor que ha heredado el título de conde, y un hermano pequeño que es un tarambaina, o sea, otro inútil sin oficio ni beneficio.
Cuando contamos con estas protagonistas ya sabes que el héroe, lord Henry, la salvará de todo, porque ella es una dama que no sabe enfrentarse a los peligros del mundo real. También sabes que habrá escena donde él la bese apasionadamente sin que ella lo consienta, al menos al principio; que él mostrará su esculpido cuerpo... Todos los elementos típicos los vas a encontrar aquí.
Y aquí viene el problema de este tipo de novelas. Si no las leído ninguna, y no estás es una esquina del espectro feminista pues, no te molestará mucho. Típica historia de héroe gallardo salvando a la dama en apuros. Pero si ya tienes algunas en tu cuenta de lecturas la novedad se desvanece y siempre terminas buscando algo más que lo típico. Buscas relaciones más elaboradas, personajes no tan planos y esterotipados, una narrativa más compleja... Buscas todo lo que no tiene este libro.
A veces no suelo coincidir con las valoraciones de Goodreads pero en este caso la valoración es válida. Pero también hay que considerar que es un libro escrito hace más de veinticino años y la novela romántica ha cambiado mucho en su manera de representar a la mujer. En su momento, era una historia válida, ahora es muy rancia.
¿Recomendable? Solo, solo si te gustan este tipo de novelas o si quieres saber cómo eran las novelas románticas de los años 90 del siglo pasado.
September 18, 2024
September Readathon
This suffered several issues but I'll say the main two were structure and Polly herself.
My other issue was I didn't realize this is a #2 in a series, making many of the already established characters unknown to me, and the book felt way too crowded. Romance does this though, and it's a known thing for known reasons -- so you, like I did, don't scan the cover, see that it's book x of y, and put it down again instead of buying it. The books in a series of this type are written as connecting but not dependent on another, making the singular book you happen to find still "work" even if you don't know anything else or seek out another title in the series. It mostly held that this one "worked," in that sense, as its failings were internal.
Wait, I've thought of a fourth issue. My annoyance that I kept reading thinking "okay, good, HERE'S where Polly will finally find her wits and we'll pivot and things will really get going...." Because the promise of that lurked, but it was never realized. That's almost worse than an entirely awful book.
The writing is decent, the characterizations decent, and a decent plot is in there somewhere. But it's all bogged down by a contradictory and looping story and an inflexible, bit of a ninny, heroine.
Several times in the book, our hero Henry explicitly said to Polly, here's what I can and can't reveal, why I'm telling you more than I should, and to please trust me. Several times in the book, Polly was described as especially intuitive to Henry, and to events surrounding him, more so than nearly anyone else. Several times in the book Polly would listen to Henry's explanations and entreats, sit a moment, and then say hmm no I don't think I will--you're still obviously an unreliable hellrake!
Maybe you could push that twice, even thrice, because everyone likes things in threes. But not every single interaction or observation that leads Polly back to "I thought I could love him, and he could love me, but I'm wrong and he's inconstant and we'll be forever apart :("
I wanted Polly to develop, to mature into her keen observations and listen to Henry and start to see the bigger picture and intrigue unspooling right under her nose. I wanted her to start helping Henry, in whatever ways she could. I wanted her to be more active.
In the end, I wanted to say to Henry, what gives with your fixed state on Polly, my man, move on.
I could see why Polly wanted Henry--he's for all intents a paragon. I didn't need convincing they could be a good couple, but I did need convincing *why they should be* over the course of the book and beyond.
And then the structure, which pretty handily smothered the decent plot.
Henry immediately rekindling his pursuit of Polly after a five-year separation in the first chapter of the book--but then having to disappear or pretend to be an indolent rake interested only in conquering CYPRIANS (also used too much lol) far too often after. The mystery/thriller plotline buried beneath Polly's daily life, balls, and reactions. I definitely got what was going on and figured out all the players relatively early, but there was no impact to either Henry's need for Polly to understand or his need to be clandestine and play a role, and no impact to its conclusion because nearly all of the skullduggery took place off-page.
I do know Harlequin Historicals need to be longer than their category titles. That's a lot of the reason for the cloak-and-dagger B-plot. For my druthers and editing, I'd have pulled it completely separate from the rest and given it space, and made up word count that way [it was, again, a decent storyline!], instead of leaving it as ~oooh mysterious~~ bookends on chapters. Particularly and importantly as it didn't develop or help our couple along, in their characterization or their romantic arc, it just played out as Polly continued to be a ninny and Henry a cutout.
The headhopping is rampant. It's nbd, but it can also run thin and be cheap.
And then after everything, and Polly at last gets her shit together and trusts Henry and acts as they need in the final five pages, we get a Ha-Ha Ending with all the secondary characters. Pah.
On a nitpick note, far far too many exclamation points in the dialogue. I think it was supposed to seem frothy and banterish and all that, but so so many starts to read as strident.
There's several other Suffolk books. I found this one at a book sale. I won't track the others down.
This suffered several issues but I'll say the main two were structure and Polly herself.
My other issue was I didn't realize this is a #2 in a series, making many of the already established characters unknown to me, and the book felt way too crowded. Romance does this though, and it's a known thing for known reasons -- so you, like I did, don't scan the cover, see that it's book x of y, and put it down again instead of buying it. The books in a series of this type are written as connecting but not dependent on another, making the singular book you happen to find still "work" even if you don't know anything else or seek out another title in the series. It mostly held that this one "worked," in that sense, as its failings were internal.
Wait, I've thought of a fourth issue. My annoyance that I kept reading thinking "okay, good, HERE'S where Polly will finally find her wits and we'll pivot and things will really get going...." Because the promise of that lurked, but it was never realized. That's almost worse than an entirely awful book.
The writing is decent, the characterizations decent, and a decent plot is in there somewhere. But it's all bogged down by a contradictory and looping story and an inflexible, bit of a ninny, heroine.
Several times in the book, our hero Henry explicitly said to Polly, here's what I can and can't reveal, why I'm telling you more than I should, and to please trust me. Several times in the book, Polly was described as especially intuitive to Henry, and to events surrounding him, more so than nearly anyone else. Several times in the book Polly would listen to Henry's explanations and entreats, sit a moment, and then say hmm no I don't think I will--you're still obviously an unreliable hellrake!
Maybe you could push that twice, even thrice, because everyone likes things in threes. But not every single interaction or observation that leads Polly back to "I thought I could love him, and he could love me, but I'm wrong and he's inconstant and we'll be forever apart :("
I wanted Polly to develop, to mature into her keen observations and listen to Henry and start to see the bigger picture and intrigue unspooling right under her nose. I wanted her to start helping Henry, in whatever ways she could. I wanted her to be more active.
In the end, I wanted to say to Henry, what gives with your fixed state on Polly, my man, move on.
I could see why Polly wanted Henry--he's for all intents a paragon. I didn't need convincing they could be a good couple, but I did need convincing *why they should be* over the course of the book and beyond.
And then the structure, which pretty handily smothered the decent plot.
Henry immediately rekindling his pursuit of Polly after a five-year separation in the first chapter of the book--but then having to disappear or pretend to be an indolent rake interested only in conquering CYPRIANS (also used too much lol) far too often after. The mystery/thriller plotline buried beneath Polly's daily life, balls, and reactions. I definitely got what was going on and figured out all the players relatively early, but there was no impact to either Henry's need for Polly to understand or his need to be clandestine and play a role, and no impact to its conclusion because nearly all of the skullduggery took place off-page.
I do know Harlequin Historicals need to be longer than their category titles. That's a lot of the reason for the cloak-and-dagger B-plot. For my druthers and editing, I'd have pulled it completely separate from the rest and given it space, and made up word count that way [it was, again, a decent storyline!], instead of leaving it as ~oooh mysterious~~ bookends on chapters. Particularly and importantly as it didn't develop or help our couple along, in their characterization or their romantic arc, it just played out as Polly continued to be a ninny and Henry a cutout.
The headhopping is rampant. It's nbd, but it can also run thin and be cheap.
And then after everything, and Polly at last gets her shit together and trusts Henry and acts as they need in the final five pages, we get a Ha-Ha Ending with all the secondary characters. Pah.
On a nitpick note, far far too many exclamation points in the dialogue. I think it was supposed to seem frothy and banterish and all that, but so so many starts to read as strident.
There's several other Suffolk books. I found this one at a book sale. I won't track the others down.
September 16, 2024
it was sujested that i read miss verey's proposal before this one.
i disagree with this as a number of charactors in book 1 where in here too.
also we don't see anything of the hero and heroine from book 2 in here. we see the brother and his wife more but that is all. i wish i had stuck to the way the author sujested
as for the hero and heroine in this story i didn't really conected with them that well and found the book dull. there where a few parts that where good but that's all sadly.
i disagree with this as a number of charactors in book 1 where in here too.
also we don't see anything of the hero and heroine from book 2 in here. we see the brother and his wife more but that is all. i wish i had stuck to the way the author sujested
as for the hero and heroine in this story i didn't really conected with them that well and found the book dull. there where a few parts that where good but that's all sadly.
September 18, 2024
Nice and fine "traditional style" regency about two people who were torn apart by noise and never moved on from each other. A bit messy, there is of course an explanation for why the ML has become such a dissolute character. It has "FL becomes an idiot" syndrome in parts, which is a smidge frustrating. I would say that Polly is working through things and there is probably a better way to do it.
Overall, a good setup and plain execution. Wouldn't say go out of your way to read it but I did have a fine time with the book.
Overall, a good setup and plain execution. Wouldn't say go out of your way to read it but I did have a fine time with the book.
February 2, 2019
This was one of the earlier romances by Nicola Cornick. It was more in the traditional regency style. However the writing was so simple. The romance between a young conventional girl raised strictly and a so called rake was developed through a series of misunderstandings which went on and on. I just kept remembering Arabella by Georgette Heyer and her mastery over comedic situations. This one was fairly boring with a lot of repetitive sentences.
September 23, 2025
Comencé a leerlo con mucho interés y ya como a la mitad, seguía sin entender el punto del libro. No me gustó tanto. Para empezar, la separación tan larga, realmente sin sentido. Luego, ya no explicaron exactamente que pasó con él después de eso(si dicen en qué trabajó y así, pero su vida personal y sentimental no) y sentí que me faltó química en ellos, realmente no me creía que después de tanto, siguieran enamorados, con confianza y así. Definitivamente me decepcionó.
October 25, 2022
I enjoyed the book Lady Polly. Although I found the other books of hers more beautiful and powerful, and enjoyed the storyline more.
Still, lady polly is a beautiful story.
It is striking for Nicola Cornick that she briefly relives certain characters in her books in other storylines: such as: Ditton, Peter and Nicolas Seagrave etc.
Still, lady polly is a beautiful story.
It is striking for Nicola Cornick that she briefly relives certain characters in her books in other storylines: such as: Ditton, Peter and Nicolas Seagrave etc.
March 10, 2025
A história é boa mas estava à espera de mais urgência e romance.
August 12, 2010
Since read The Virtuous Cyprian, I've been wondering what is the story of Polly and Henry?
Long since, I cannot find 'Lady Polly' on any bookstore. Thanks to Internet, I found the e-book version.
And the story... is not disappointed me ^_^
Long since, I cannot find 'Lady Polly' on any bookstore. Thanks to Internet, I found the e-book version.
And the story... is not disappointed me ^_^
January 6, 2016
This book was pretty comparable with every other book I have read by this author. I've given ones and never more than three so I decided that even though this book was contrived and predictable and the heroine was a milksop I would give it two.
August 17, 2014
I hated Polly, I can see where Polly was created to be the antithesis of Lucinda, and Polly comes up short.
November 14, 2016
Star Rating: ★★½☆☆
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews