Educating Caroline

Interesting, engaging heroine and hero, witty narration and an actual plot. What more can you ask, except perhaps more books by this author in this genre. There are too few! I have only just discovered her but am disappointed that, under the name Meg Cabot, she has written multiple other books, but not in this genre.

I'm a historical book nut and lately its been slim picken's in this book category. Seems like the same ole' stories are regurgitated all the time, that is until Educating Caroline. What a refreshing author! How did I miss Cabot? Not only is the story line original, but the writing is fabulous! There's plenty of humor (ok, maybe not hilarious, but definitely amusing) and tons of sexual tension between the H/H. I was flipping the pages so fast eager to get to the end and then I was sad to be there. One sitting for me and that says alot considering its 450 pages. Don't miss this book! And disregard the bad reviews. I mean it's fiction for goodness sake!!!, so give the author a break if she ties the ending up into too neat a package. No hero or heroine is perfect either -that's what makes them interesting. The story wouldn't be memorable or pull you in otherwise. I also highly recommend these authors in this genre: Lisa Kleypas, Sabrina Jeffries, Julia Quinn, Caroline Linden and Kathryn Caskie.

What a terrific book! I'd never read Ms Cabot before, but this book is certainly a great incentive to investigate her other books. I simply adored it. And eventhough it's a fairly long book for a romance at 400+ pages, it sure doesn't feel like it and I didn't want it to end! But if you're expecting the typical first hot kiss by page 100; sex by page 150 you may be too impatient for this book. You just need to go along for the ride on this one - and an ejoyable ride it is!I won't go too much into the plot since the book description above tells you what you need to know. But I will say that intially I was worried that the "heroine asks lothario to teach her about seduction" plot would be really hackneyed. But to my very pleasant surprise, it was well played, witty, sexy and just plain fun. I'm smiling now just remembering the first "lesson"! Both Caroline and Braden learned a little something that day!Braden Granville, nouveau riche gunsmith who worked his way out of the Seven Dials slums and Lady Caroline Linford, daughter of the Earl of Bartlett, have more in common than one would think. For Caroline's father was the first Earl of Bartlett and was, like Braden, a self-made man. Though the rest of Society looks down their noses at him (including his gold-digging fiancee) Caroline doesn't - party because of her father and partly because it simply is not in her nature. She is genuine, sympathetic, warm and kind. She's also fiery and passionate when it comes to causes near and dear to her heart (fools and animals!). She's nothing like the other Society women Braden has romanced and she throws him off balance with her logic, her lack of artifice. He finds himself using the flimsiest of excuses to seek her out and though she knows she should run from him, she finds she doesn't want to!I just loved this story, these characters. Well written, fast paced, sparkling and witty dialog all combine to a book I highly recommend!

Wow! Talk about being satisfied! Patricia Cabot certainly took us on a fascinating and mesmerizing journey! I love this book because it talks about something that is understood by all generations: cheating. Whereas now, women can leave their cheating boyfriends and husbands, poor Caroline Linford felt like she didn't have a choice but to ignore her fiancé's infidelity, due to the fact that she "owed" him for saving her brother. So, what does she do? She enlists the help of Braden Granville, the town's very own "Lothario of London." Oh, what fun it was to see these two delightful characters finally discover the path to true love! Caroline may seem like an innocent young woman, but we find her true sensuality revealed whenever she is with Braden. And Braden himself, although known for being a "ladies man," finds himself speechless, senseless and totally hopeless when it comes to Caroline. Brought together by Caroline's desire to learn more about lovemaking, these two lovers find themselves in the middle of a love in the making! The humor, the quarrels, the sexual tension and the chemistry between Caroline and Brady make it seem as if you were almost part of the story, cheering on the couple towards a sweet and sensual union. I truly enjoyed this book and I predict that the cover will be filled with creases from it being re-read over and over again. Cabot has truly written a classic.

The Irish novelist, the late Frank O'Connor, once observed that the secret of writing novels was revealed only to Jane Austen and Turgenev; that when they died, this secret died with them. Too bad O'Connor never got to read Patricia Cabot. Not long ago I completed "Educating Caroline" and, as a result, some of my long-held stereotypes (almost exclusively negative) about "romance novels" now lie, so to speak, in a shambles at my feet. Or do they? I can't decide. We have to put a tag on every book, stick it in some pigeon-hole, assign it to a genre. And I suppose "romance" was the inevitable category for "Caroline." But this novel isn't only a "romance." In fact, you don't have to like romance novels to thoroughly enjoy "Educating Caroline." It is outrageously witty and occasionally naughty, with a complex (not to say audacious) plot and interesting, believable, finely-drawn characters. And of course it has a heroine to die for: the eponymous Caroline (yeah, I'm male) -- sweet, lovely, regularly non-linear in her sentiments and activities, and just courageous and resourceful enough to keep a most dangerous situation for getting entirely out of hand. And the interesting hero, while no push-over, escapes the cliché of being primarily an aristocratic man-toy: tall, dark, brooding, and impossibly handsome (and titled) -- much to the author's credit. (Her villians, by the way, are deliciously corrupt and degenerate.) Since completing "Caroline," I've acquired and read two earlier novels by Cabot. Both make for good, amusing, even compelling entertainment. But neither lit the fire of this reader the way "Caroline" did. It's my opinion that, in Ms. Cabot's most recent novel, she has cast off some of the mass-market constraints she might once have felt compelled to observe with care. In doing so, she has now given us an exquisitely crafted novel of broad, general interest. And I am not easy to please: my novelists of choice are Henry James and (of course) the inimitable Miss Austen. It's true that "Educating Caroline" will not make us forget "The Wings of the Dove" or "Pride and Prejudice." And yet, on the basis of "Caroline," one might almost conclude that Patricia Cabot is a sort of latter-day Austen-meets-Nabokov. I'll be carefully watching Ms. Cabot's web site for future developments. Stranger things have happened ... .