Rating: 
Summary: Libby's London Merchant
Review: Okay to be fair I have not yet finished this story. But it is 12:33AM and I am so unhappy about what I have read so far that I had to stop and try to get a hold of the author (no luck). My option on this story is not a good one. I have read Hundreds of romance books and like any other person I like twists and turns in a story, but this one was just to much. I just don't think you can have a good story when the Lady in question has feeling for two men. It was to hard to tell who she wanted. You could not pin down her feelings, and could not believe a connection with her and either man. Not to mention that in a romance "love conquers all", and for the "hero" of the story to love her but not marry her due to her station in life. That just makes you loose all credibility in the hero, and his love for her. I think there was great potential for this story but it just didn't happen, for me at least. There is enough unrequited love in real life. I like my romance novels to beat the odds. For the first time I can remember I decided to read the last page of the book ahead of time and I am glad I did. Now I can go to sleep and not waste more time with this let down of a story.
Rating: 
Summary: Adored book 1; book 2 disappointing
Review: This is an anthology containing two of Carla Kelly's novels reissued; I will review each separately.
LIBBY'S LONDON MERCHANT
Benedict Nesbit, Duke of Knaresborough, is being plagued by his sister to choose a wife. His friend Eustace, Earl of Devere, is pestering him to spy on the woman whom Eustace's family want him to marry - an heiress, but he's never met her and she could be ugly, or a shrew. Anxious to escape his sister, Nez agrees to help Eustace, and duly assumes the role of a chocolate-selling merchant and has an accident in his carriage - but worse than he'd planned - outside Libby Ames' home. She takes him in and, with the help of the local doctor, squire's son Anthony Cook, nurses him.
What Nez doesn't know, though, is that Libby has a cousin, Lydia, with whom she and her mother and mentally-handicapped brother live. Lydia, who has just departed for Brighton, is the heiress. Libby is ineligible; her mother was the daughter of a tobacconist, and her father was disinherited and disowned for marrying her. Between them, Libby and the doctor discover that Nez is an alcoholic - he drinks to forget the horrors of Waterloo - and so, while the injuries from his accident are quickly healed, they make him stay so that they can wean him off alcohol.
And so the `chocolate merchant' and Libby spend time together, and become close. Libby also spends a lot of time with the doctor - Anthony - during this time, and the overweight, bumbling, somewhat ugly man she's always seen as a figure of fun turns out to be solid, dependable and an excellent listener, as well as a cool hand in a crisis. A kiss from Nez appears to seal Libby's fate... until Anthony kisses her too. And then all is revealed about Nez's identity, and Libby receives two proposals... one later amended to a proposition once the duke discovers Libby's ineligibility.
But which man does she love? And, assuming that Nez changes his mind, whom should she marry?
It is extremely difficult to `cheer' for one suitor over another; Carla Kelly does an excellent job of making us like both. Both have flaws: the duke's pride, the doctor's tendency to secretiveness and withdrawal. Both have positive, even heroic, traits. One can offer Libby so much more, in terms of material things, than the other, while the other cannot even offer dependability in terms of always being there when she needs him - he is always on call, to the point of sometimes not sleeping for days on end when needed by patients. Nez would cherish her; Anthony is practical and would see her as a partner and helpmate.
A memorable, out of the ordinary novel about characters who ring true and who stayed in my head for hours after I had finished it - highly recommended. One of Kelly's best! There is a sequel: One Good Turn - and, as at least one other reviewer has commented, it makes no sense at all that her publisher did not include this with LLM instead of Miss Chartley's Guided Tour.
And speaking of which... MISS CHARTLEY'S GUIDED TOUR
Miss Omega Chartley, a schoolmistress, is changing jobs and has several weeks in which to make the journey from the south-west to the north, where her new school is located. So she embarks on a guided tour, something which she has promised herself for some time to do. Unfortunately, her plans are very soon disrupted when she helps a young boy to escape from a Bow Street Runner and finds herself penniless and on the run. She and the boy fall in with a wounded former soldier and his adopted daughter, and the four of them go in search of the boy's uncle, a viscount.
The viscount turns out to be Matthew Bering, Omega's former fiancé and the man who ditched her at the altar eight years ago. She never knew why he had failed to turn up for their wedding; he never explained, nor replied to any correspondence subsequently. She has told herself for years that she hates him. Yet when she sees him again she falls in love with him all over again.
What was his reason for abandoning her at the altar? How does he feel about her now? Is there any possibility of a second chance for the two of them?
As is her usual habit, Carla Kelly creates convincing and likeable characters, and this is as true of her secondary characters as much as the hero and heroine. I found myself at times warming to Omega's soldier companion, Hugh, even more so than to Matthew, and hoping at one point that Omega would marry Hugh.
My main problem with Miss Chartley's Guided Tour is that Matthew's explanation for his jilting of Omega, when we finally hear it, sounds very far-fetched - and Matthew's own reaction to the events of eight years ago, the way he has closed himself off from the world, just sounds like the behaviour of a coward and an idiot. Did he question nothing? Was he so wrapped up in his own feelings that he never gave a single thought to how he had hurt Omega? When he heard about her father's death and *knew* that she was left penniless, did he have no feelings at all? The way he lives, cloistered in his country estate and with an entire wardrobe of clothes ordered especially for Omega kept in his closets, reminds me somewhat of Miss Havisham in Dickens' Great Expectations: this is a man who is shutting himself off from reality and living in some sort of cobwebby fantasy of the past. To me, that's not a romantic hero.
However, the writing itself and the other characters merit three stars; Matthew is simply one of Kelly's less successful heroes.
If you're a fan of Kelly's and haven't read either of these two, you'll want to get this anthology. If you already have Libby's London Merchant, then this book probably isn't worth buying just for Miss Chartley's Guided Tour.
wmr-uk
Rating: 
Summary: 10 Stars!
Review: What can one say about near perfection? I have spent a lot of time, effort and money collecting all of Carla Kelly's books over the last year or so. I deliberately forced myself to spread out my reading of them over this period rather than gobbling up whole the entire opus, thus spinning out the utter delight I get from reading them. I have, to my great relief, still three to read! I bought this one even though I had already paid a lot of money for individual copies at auction because I wanted Carla Kelly to enjoy the royalties so as to encourage her to write more. Reviewer Tregatt has already given details about the actual plots, etc. I only wish to say that the author's outstanding abilities in terms of accuracy (owing to good, sound research), her ability to bring utterly delectable characters to life and her elegant and pristine prose have given me some of the most enjoyable reading in my life. If only some of the paler regency wannabees took note and could achieve half of her standard. Georgette Heyer would recognise a fellow perfectionist. Thank you, thank you, thank you Carla Kelly. You are a beacon in the dark to those of us who love well written regencies of high emotion (never maudlin) with characters we can love and believe in.
Rating:
Summary: 10 Stars!
Review: What can one say about near perfection? I have spent a lot of time, effort and money collecting all of Carla Kelly's books over the last year or so. I deliberately forced myself to spread out my reading of them over this period rather than gobbling up whole the entire opus, thus spinning out the utter delight I get from reading them. I have, to my great relief, still three to read! I bought this one even though I had already paid a lot of money for individual copies at auction because I wanted Carla Kelly to enjoy the royalties so as to encourage her to write more. Reviewer Tregatt has already given details about the actual plots, etc. I only wish to say that the author's outstanding abilities in terms of accuracy (owing to good, sound research), her ability to bring utterly delectable characters to life and her elegant and pristine prose have given me some of the most enjoyable reading in my life. If only some of the paler regency wannabees took note and could achieve half of her standard. Georgette Heyer would recognise a fellow perfectionist. Thank you, thank you, thank you Carla Kelly. You are a beacon in the dark to those of us who love well written regencies of high emotion (never maudlin) with characters we can love and believe in.
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