Gilding the Lady: 7

This book had everything you need to create a good romance: a dashing hero, a beautiful heroine, a person who always seems to interfere with the hero and heroine, and, most of all...PASSION! I found the characters to be multi-dimensional and the author weaves a mystery into the story without slowing it down or interrupting the romantic flow. The reader will feel the despair, the heartbreak, passion and the joy of Dominic and Clarissa in this very excellent character driven romance. The plot and characters seemed fresh, the pace was quick, and it was a totally engrossing read. Full of enjoyable supporting characters and stories. A very sexy historical romance book. Gilding the Lady was an emotional roller coaster, and I felt all the pain and joy they did. I was so engrossed, I read it in a day. A fast paced book with an intricate plot that I cannot help but enjoy. Gilding the Lady has a strong (but not obnoxious) heroine who is in no way ordinary, a back story which is compelling but doesn't get in the way of the love story, and of course a wonderful hero. Both the hero and the heroine have secrets of their own, which are slowly brought to light by the author, like layers being peeled from a (very good) onion....

I'm always excited to see a new Nicole Byrd book, but I was especially eager for this one, after meeting Clarissa in the previous book, Vision in Blue. In Gilding the Lady, Nicole Byrd takes the long lost sister of the hero of her previous book, who'd ended up in a nasty orphanage and was then sent out to work at a young age--lots of abuse, etc. Her brother finally found her and rescued her in the last book, and now, at 19, she's got to try to re-learn how to be a lady. A reckless earl sees her in a dispute with her governess on the street, and his friend bets him that he can't make her the toast of the ton. There's also a murder mystery and the ongoing search for the natural father of the heroine from the previous book & her brother (hero of a yet earlier book). It's a really nice series, and by the end of this book, we've picked up several more connections who are begging for their own books. The good: The mystery. Clarissa and Whitby join forces to discover who murdered the former matron of the foundling home, a murder that implicates Clarissa. The humor. A staple of Regency-era romances is the witty dialogue, and Gilding the Lady is no exception. The series connections. In contrast to many romance series, characters from previous or future books don't just make token appearances, they're integral to the story. There is also an ongoing series plot that ties the books together. The bad: While Gilding the Lady does give you enough information that you can read it without having read the other books in the series, you will get more out of it if you've read the others. The wonderful: Watching Clarissa regain a sense of her own worth, Whitby mature from the heedless, devil-may-care earl into a caring, thoughtful hero. As in all the best love stories, the romance between them is both a cause and a result of their personal growth. The verdict: Gilding the Lady has Nicole Byrd's trademark blend of romance, mystery, wit, and sensuality. Highly recommended.

I am so, so glad I didn't listen to the nasty review someone else put up here and just went with my past experience with this author. I've just recently discovered Nicole Byrd and read both WIDOW IN SCARLET and BEAUTY IN BLACK (loved, loved, LOVED them) and then was so happy that a new Byrd was out. I was immediately swept up in the action from the first page when Clarissa sees the face in the crowd that has haunted her for years. And Dominic! He was so sexy and tortured--the perfect hero for Clarissa. I really enjoyed the whole "My Fair Lady" theme, too! Now I have to go back and read the rest of Nicole Byrd's backlist. This book really made my day. I couldn't put it down and it gave me several hours of romance and escape.

My advise is to skim through the first five to six chapters -- they're a bit slow going and repetitive. However once you've breached the sixth chapter mark, "Gilding the Lady" becomes a very enjoyable and fascinating read about a young woman fighting to put all her old fears and insecurities behind her and save herself from an unjust accusation of murder. Although Clarissa Fallon was born a gentlewoman, her life has not been an easy one -- growing up in poverty, she was first, sent to an orphanage when her mother died and her elder brother, Matthew, was thought to be dead, and later sold into servitude. Except that Matthew was not dead. And when several years later, Matthew, with the help of his new wife, Gemma, finds her, Clarissa really thought that all her troubles were behind her. Except that Clarissa is finding it to be exceptionally hard going trying to adjust to her new life of luxury, feeling very much a fraud, and fearing that someone will recognise that she was once a servant and make her and Matthew the laughingstocks of the ton. And then one day, Clarissa sees the matron of the hellish orphanage that she was sent to in one of the fashionable streets of London. Clarissa confronts her dragon, only to have her run off after a fierce face off. And when later the ex-matron is found murdered, Clarissa finds herself high on the suspect list. But this time, Clarissa need not fear facing the world on her own. For now she has Matthew and Gemma on her side, and unexpectedly the worldly Earl of Whitby, who has decided not only to help Clarissa find her place in Society, but to help her establish her innocence as well... Because "Gilding the Lady" is a follow-up to "Vision in Blue" much of the interesting bits of this novel (what goes on in a badly run orphanage, poverty, and the kind of difficult lives that servants lead) was a little stale -- esp if you've just recently finished "Vision in Blue." And if Clarissa had been a different sort of heroine, the first few chapters of the book might have been a tad more engaging. As it was, even though I tried to empathise with her fears and feelings of inadequacy, I did get tired of her self-pity after a bit. Fortunately, this is where the murder inquiry sets in -- the pacing picks up, the storyline livens up and Clarissa matures almost beyond recognition as she discovers something else to focus on aside from all her shortcomings. It is also at this point that the chemistry, hitherto quite a bit absent between our hero & heroine, starts to sizzle. And I'll say this for our stiff and aloof hero, the Earl of Whitby, he does know how to capture a girl's interest -- that scene in the carriage where he kisses Clarissa's wrist was very sensual. The biggest problem I had with "Gilding the Lady" however, was that the subplot dealing with Gabriel Sinclair's (from "Dear Impostor") search for his natural father kept intruding where it really wasn't wanted, and gave this novel an off center feel. I know that t