Friday, April 23, 2010

Review: Lessons in French by Laura Kinsale

He's always been trouble...
Trevelyan and Callie are childhood sweethearts with a taste for adventure.  Until the fateful day her father discovers them embracing in the carriage house and in a furious frenzy drives Trevelyan away in disgrace...

Exactly the kind of trouble she's never been able to resist...

Nine long, lonely years later, Trevelyan returns.  Callie is shocked to discover that he can still make her blood race and fill her life with mischief, excitement and scandal.  He would give her the world, but he can't give her the one thing she wants more than anything -- himself...

For Trevelyan, Callie is a spark of light in a world of darkness and deceit.  Before he can bear to say his last goodbyes, he's determined to sweep her into one last, fateful adventure, just for the two of them. 




I'll admit it, the jodhpurs made me read this book.  It's shallow, I know, but when I saw the cover on Twitter, I knew I had to read it.  Regardless of the buzz or the recommendations and agreements that yes, this is a good book.

It was the jodhpurs.

I've never read Ms. Kinsale's work previously, had never heard of her, in fact, until the cover started making its rounds.   Now, I'm glad I took a chance.

Lessons in French is artfully crafted and meticulously researched, that much is obvious.  A heroine who breeds bulls?  A hero who sends letters home which are full of lies?  Callie and Trevelyan are unusual in their quirks, but it is these quirks, their ordinary-ness, that drew me in and kept me engaged.  And their various hair-brained schemes?  Well, what's more ordinary than plots and plans which go awry?

Above all, Callie and Trevelyan are human -- they are real.  Callie daydreams; Trev lies; Callie feels alone; Trev feels alone; both of them are smart-asses.  Their believability makes them that much easier to connect to, and I loved learning about their history, both shared and individual, because it made their ending that much sweeter.

I promise to be more easily swayed by jodhpurs in the future.

4 comments:

Mandi said...

I've never read Laura Kinsale either..but have heard good things about this book. Nice review:)

Jo said...

Thanks, Mandi! There's a lot of pulp to this book, but when it was over, I wished it had gone on a bit longer.

Anonymous said...

Found your review through Year of the Historical...I'm glad you liked this book! It's on my TBR list, so I'm happy to hear that it's good, haha. I have also read Flowers from the Storm by Kinsale, and I would definitely recommend it if you're interested in reading more of her books!

Jo said...

It's a pleasure to meet you, Christina!

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