Love's a Stage

Rating:
Summary: all the world's a stage, but don't watch if Frances is on it
Review: Beautiful country parson's daughter Frances Atherton has come to London to expose the man who is responsible for sending her father to prison.

One of the first people we meet is the hero: Lord David Landry, rake and playwright, the darling of the theatre world. David helps Frances find her great Aunt Shophia, who, coincidently enough, lives above David's young cousin, Richard Rivington. Rivington, naturally, fills the Cat Role (we're talking Windflower, and no complaints from me there) and aids and abets Frances' hairbrained Sherlockian schemes.

We have a positive ID of the suspect from the start: Edward Kennan. Actor supreme, sometime thief, smuggler, and framer of country parsons. Thus, Frances decides to become an actress herself the better to spy, my dear. Sadly, Frances can't act her way out of a paper bag and it is only thru the ulterior motived intervention (did that come out right?) of David that Frances gets a bit role in the play. I'm not sure if this bad actress bit was supposed to be humorous but I just found it excruciatingly squirmacious. In any case, Frances' work at the theatre promotes her sleuthing and her relationship with David to the conclusion of our story.

Frankly, if it wasn't for the Curtises' usual wit and humor, this story would have gotten just plain zero from me. I'm sorry for the harsh criticism but it just didn't work somehow. At the start, David teasingly nicknames Frances, Prudence Sweetsteeple. Well, I agree with the Pru part --- as in prunes (hyuk, hyuk). I thought Frances was the most unfunny, starchy, unrealistic, prosy bore set on God's green England. Geez. Why hotties like David or Richard would fall for her is just beyond me. Oh, the male mind --- or whatever they were using to think with. I guess that answers the question, really, since Frances was real easy on the eyes. Anyhoo, not being male, I just found her annoying and unlikable and how do you get around that to enjoy a story? You can't and I didn't, so there.

As always, don't take my word for it, read 'em and weep.

Rating:
Summary: Love's A Stage, by Laura London
Review: I fell in love with David Landry about the same time the heroine did, and equally in love with the writings of Tom and Sharon Curtis. Their writing style is elegant and charming, their characters appealing, attractive and often very funny and the stories out of the ordinary. This is probably my favorite Regency romance. Its the best!

Rating:
Summary: Love's A Stage, by Laura London
Review: Love's a Stage was charming and eminantly readable even if for no other reason than that the authors (Sharon and Tom Curtis--no confusion here!) are masters of their craft. Laura London, in general, writes Regency Romances in a voice remenescent of Jane Austin, characters who seem to step right out of Charles Dickens (especially the heroines), but with the attention to romantic chemistry and sexual attraction that is almost indespensible to modern audiences. There is no sex in the Laura London Regencies, like in Austin's novels, but there is always plenty of innuendo, unlike Austin. That said, Love's A Stage had a sort of aesthetic value, but was, unfortunately, not quite up to speed. The plot was a bit forced (our intrepid heroine sets out to single-handedly stop a murderous sabotour who moonlights as the darling of the London stage--we all need a hobby!). The heroine Francis was often rather annoying; she either talked too much about nothing to be likeable, or didn't say enough about nothing to be charmingly eccentric. The brilliant, explicitly sexy hero, who also happens to be a nobleman and (go figure) a quirky playwrite, just didn't seem to work up any appreciable chemistry with Francis until the book was practically finished, though he did have some great one-liners. I recommend The Bad Baron's Daughter or The Gypsy Heiress, both Regencies by Laura London.

Rating:
Summary: excellent romantic reading
Review: this couple should still be writing. the world is missing their talent.