Easy Conquest

Rating:
Summary: Sandra delights again...
Review: Emily Fairfield had loved her husband, Geoffrey, dearly! But he had died in a horse accident, leaving Emily in dire financial straits. Her thirteen-year-old son, Peter, had become mischievous lately too, spying on everyone or stalking them like a hunter. Come November, the year of mourning would be over. Emily had no choice but to marry Sir Rafe Warrender, a man she cared nothing for. The more she learned, the less she liked. However, there was no other way for Emily to care for her son or mother.

Cora Preston begged her daughter not to consider marrying Sir Rafe. Cora wrote to Felix Reynolds, the man who was once her lover, for help. Though Emily did not know it, Felix was her biological father, and Cora still loved the man.

Felix was an explorer of distant lands. Too sick to help his daughter, he sent the man he trusted most in the world, Jack Lincoln. Jack was to keep Emily from marrying Rafe, somehow help pay off her debts, and marry Emily himself. He also sent along Cristoval (a Creole nobleman) and Manco (an Indian with Inca magic). Together they would somehow succeed.

Sir Rafe was also Jack's deceitful cousin. He had stolen Jack's title and inheritance. Jack meant to get them back!

**** I found this to be a great way to spend an afternoon! I do not believe it to be Sandra Heath's best work, but it was very entertaining. Parts were a bit unbelievable, but all-in-all the book was a true delight! ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Rating:
Summary: Celebrate Bonfire Night!
Review: Here is another excellent and wonderful Regency tale from Sandra Heath, who is absolutely the most creative writer I've ever encountered. It's entirely too bad that whatever nourishes her imagination can't be bottled and sold to authors everywhere. There would certainly soon thereafter be a shortage of dull, boring, books.

Easy Conquest has all sorts of unusual components: the heroine, Emily Fairfield, is thirty-three and a widow who most lovingly remembers her husband. Geoffrey had been killed in a riding accident nearly six months before this tale opens, leaving one son, Peter, now eleven. Due to Geoff's gambling debts, Emily is about to lose the family home, Fairfield Hall, which the author describes thusly: "It was a half-timbered Tudor building, and over the centuries the foundations of the house had shifted and the timbers warped, giving the building an astonishingly drunken look, as if at any moment it would lurch to one side or the other, jump over the moat, then reel its way across the park."

Emily's Mama, Cora Preston, also a widow, resides with Emily and Peter, and also remembers her long-lost love Felix Reynolds, with great fondness, considering that Felix was NOT her husband, but a several-times-removed cousin.

Felix is now in Lima, Peru, recovering from the ague, when he realizes that nefarious happenings have jeopardized the welfare of the ladies he loves most in the world, and he pleads with his young English friend, Jack Lincoln, to go back to the country Jack had left some five years previously, and try to straighten out all the mis-deeds. And mis-deeds there are aplenty, for Jack is accompanied by his Peruvian host, Don Cristoval de Soto, and Cristoval's Inca Indian, um, somewhat servant, Manco. Manco is the sort of wonderfully ebullient character who will stay with you long after you've finished reading this delightful tale. Certainly, the village of Temford will never be the same again after even a brief stay by Manco, who definitely marches to his own drummer. Except that in his case, it's a flute.

The first mis-deed is that Emily has just agreed to a marriage with Sir Rafe Warrender, who is not above a bit of coercion if it will get him what he wants. And he wants Emily! The truth of Geoffrey's death is nowhere in evidence, nor is the real reason why Rafe is so determined to have Emily for his own, in spite of major objections by Cora and Peter and Jack, and nearly everyone!

Now, it just so happens that Jack and Rafe are cousins, but Jack has been done out his inheritance by Rafe. Hmmm. Of course, it was love at Jack's first sight of Emily. But she is determined to do her best to protect her son from any scandalous tales about his father, and it appears the best way to do that is to marry Rafe. The betrothal is to be announced on Bonfire night, otherwise known as Guy Fawkes night, a few days after Hallowe'en, but not if Jack has anything to say about it. And does he ever!

An amazing amount of discoveries are made, old mysteries are solved, and wrongs made right in this highly unusual, very creative and humorous tale. Simply wonderful, in fact.

Rating:
Summary: Loved the Book!!!!
Review: This book was a bit different than the other two I have read by Sandra Heath. This one is about a poor penniless widow, Emily Fairfield, who has to provide for herself, her son and her mother and somehow, has to manage to hold on to her son's inheritance of Fairfield Hall. Unfortunately, her husband left her in debt. She is being courted (more like blackmailed) into marrying Sir Rafe Warrender, who no one, including her mother and son, like. Sir Rafe has gotten his money by falsifying documents and stealing his cousin's, John Lincoln, inheritance. John is currently in Peru with Felix, who happens to have had an affair, and is still in love with, Emily's mother, Cora. Cora and Felix want Emily to be happy and they both know that won't happen if she is forced to marry Sir Rafe. Felix sends John Lincoln to England to "save" Emily from Sir Rafe. Of course, it is love at first sight for Emily and John. Then, the mystery begins. Add a little Inca Magic, in the form of Manco, and this story takes a thrilling twist. I loved this book and will treasure it always.

Rating:
Summary: Loved the Book!!!!
Review: This book was a bit different than the other two I have read by Sandra Heath. This one is about a poor penniless widow, Emily Fairfield, who has to provide for herself, her son and her mother and somehow, has to manage to hold on to her son's inheritance of Fairfield Hall. Unfortunately, her husband left her in debt. She is being courted (more like blackmailed) into marrying Sir Rafe Warrender, who no one, including her mother and son, like. Sir Rafe has gotten his money by falsifying documents and stealing his cousin's, John Lincoln, inheritance. John is currently in Peru with Felix, who happens to have had an affair, and is still in love with, Emily's mother, Cora. Cora and Felix want Emily to be happy and they both know that won't happen if she is forced to marry Sir Rafe. Felix sends John Lincoln to England to "save" Emily from Sir Rafe. Of course, it is love at first sight for Emily and John. Then, the mystery begins. Add a little Inca Magic, in the form of Manco, and this story takes a thrilling twist. I loved this book and will treasure it always.

Rating:
Summary: Clever plot twists overcome melodrama.
Review: To get her family out of debt, Emily Fairfield had chosen
to marry the odious Sir Rafe Warrender who wanted nothing to do
with Emily herself but everything to do with the gambling debts
her late husband left behind. The only thing in which Rafe was
interested was the money, and he'd stop nothing to get his hands
on it.
Jack Lincoln, having recently returned from Peru, wanted
everything to do with Emily and her family. With the help of
his trusty Peruvian companions, Jack would make sure that Emily
got the happiness she deserved.
Although this book seems melodramatic on the surface,
Sandra Heath makes up for this by placing subtle plot twists in
just the right places. The mystery behind the melodrama is well
crafted, and the audience will want to applaud in the right
places, just as this reviewer did.