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A Cousinly Connexion
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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When Lady Meriden's eldest stepson and husband die within days of each other, the estate passes to the second stepson. No one has seen him in years, yet he inherits everything, including his father's gambling debts and guardianship of his seven siblings. Jane Ash rushes to her aunt's aid. Months go by before the new baron comes, and Jane is left to cope with her ailing, self-dramatizing aunt and bewildered cousins, all of whom have problems. Lady Meriden alternately spoils and neglects them. Julian, the heir, has his own problems and wants nothing less than to play the heavy parent to his unknown siblings. When he does come, he and Jane form an unexpected alliance that might lead, by twists and turns, to romance. This title is published by Uncial Press and is distributed worldwide by Untreed Reads.
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Reviews for A Cousinly Connexion
Rating: 3.8076923076923075 out of 5 stars
4/5
26 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Julian Stretton was shipped off to live with his grandparents at a very young age. Years later, while recovering from being badly wounded at Waterloo, he recieves word that his father and older brother have died within weeks of each other. He is now Lord Meriden. He has seven younger siblings to take care of, and a histrionic step-mother to deal with tactfully. Luckily, he also has the assistance of the children's cousin, Jane Ash.
There isn't much of a plot to this story; it is entirely about the characters and their interactions with each other. But we get rather more nuanced moments than in Heyer, for instance. Heyer mastered all the details of the Regency, but somehow her Society always seemed like a role-playing game, with specific slots for each person. The step-mother is classic--always retiring to her rooms and using her tears as weapons. But then, while talking about her manipulative hypochondria, Jane says, "Five stillbirths" and Julian, about to say something cutting, stills. Or Will, who nurses Julian back to health but gets stiff and angry when Julian becoms a lord. Not everything is as cut and dried as in Heyer. Class is not the determiner of character--the lower class doesn't have country wisdom; the upper class isn't naturally prettier and smarter. Simonson is clearly aware of some of the darker aspects of the Regency period--she understands where the money comes from, for instance.
The characters are wonderfully drawn, and their relationships are no less engaging. Julian is kind and empathic with his new-found family, and most of the plot is about his rehabilitation of them. But when thinking about why she fell in love with him, Jane realizes it was not his kind actions or way with children--it was his sharp tongue and sarcastic quotations. What a terrible person I am! she thinks, yet the reader utterly understands. His proposal is one of my favorites--the scene is so perfectly described.
Now that I've read one of her regencys, I absolutely must track down Simonson's others. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's an extremely nice book. However I can't like the heroine very much. I haven't understood what se was doing for such a long time at her aunts home. Even after the hero arrives she stays put. Is it pure arrogance on her part? Or the free rein at the house hold? The guy is great.lkeable and with genuine kindness and love toward his younger siblings. The other characters too have been well developed.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Read this thinking I had read it before but I hadn't. It was a very nice read and Simonson is a great Regency author with too few books to her name. However, ii's not a Keeper for me.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5When her Aunt Louisa is unexpectedly widowed, and left in charge of a family of young children, Jane Ash soon finds herself in West Dorset, all but running Meriden Place. As the months pass, she and her Stretton cousins begin to wonder when the new Lord Meriden will arrive. How will he behave to the stepmother who sent him away to be raised by his maternal grandparents, or the step-siblings he barely knows? Julian Stretton, in the meantime, finds his recovery from wounds received during the battle of Waterloo interrupted by the unexpected news of his elevation, following the deaths of his father and older brother. Unprepared for the duties of a managing a large estate, or the challenges of heading a large family, the new Lord Meriden must navigate some tricky waters upon his homecoming. Luckily, the capable Jane is there to assist him. But for how long...? Having exhausted all of Georgette Heyer's romantic fiction, I have been looking around lately for a worthy successor - an author of light-hearted, reasonably well-written, and intelligent regency novels. It's a pity that Sheila Simonson only wrote four books in this vein, as I enjoyed A Cousinly Connexion immensely (despite the overly pink cover!), and think her work might be just the sort of thing I've been wanting. With an engaging narrative, appealing characters, and a good grasp of the social milieu in which she is setting her story, Simonson does an excellent job here. I'm looking forward to her next, Lady Elizabeth's Comet!
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A Cousinly Connexion - Sheila Simonson
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