Lord Nightingale's Debut

I laughed so hard when I read this book. My mom was visiting and she couldn't wait until I was done so she could read it too!By the time I wrote this review, I had read all four in the series. "Debut" was my favorite. Sera and Nicky are delightful characters! It is a wonderful read & will cheer your spirits at the same time.

I just recently finished this book, and I must say it's a breath of fresh air. I am a large fan of the Regency novels that involve rakes, but I do have to say there are far too many of them. It's refreshing to have a lead male that *isn't* out to bed every female possible, or avoid marriage, or anything of that nature. This book has a sensitive, caring, kind male lead, and I think that's one part that makes it so enchanting. I enjoyed the bits with the animals, and I thought the plot was nicely done and creative, but the real winner in my book was Nicky.

I waited until I had all four of the Nightingale books before I started reading the "trilogy". I have just finished Lord Nightingale's Debut and loved it. Nicky was wonderful! It was so refreshing to have a caring, thoughtful man as a hero instead of the usual selfish, lustful rake. Serendipity was a lot of fun, especially near the end where she had me in stitches. I thought that the two were ideally suited, and found their falling in love very believable.One of the reasons this book was so special was the extraordinary cast of secondary characters. Delight is charming, Lady Wickenshire is a wonderful mother, Eugenia is entertaining (I see that she is the heroine in LNLS), Neil is a deliciously funny villain (surely there is room for redemption here), and I totally fell in love with Jenkins who is one of the best butler's I have ever read about.Of course you can't talk about this book without mentioning the splendid array of animal characters. Lord Nightingale is the main focal point of the book, but he definitely gets a run for his money from Sweetpea and Stanley Blithe.This was an excellent book. It was extremely entertaining, the hero and heroine were charming, and the story had my laughing out loud in several places. I was sorry when it ended, but then I immediately started the next book in the series (at midnight, although I did read only a couple of chapters). If it's anywhere near as good as LND I will be an extremely happy reader.

Reading Judith Lansdowne to me is like slowly savoring a fine, aged brandy. Once I have finished the two, I am left with nice feelings of warmth and contentment. Brandy, on the one hand, might go to my head but Lansdowne's prose goes to my heart. I've only read a few of Judith Lansdowne's regencies because most are hard to find. Lansdowne's heroes are not your run of the mill arrogant, pleasure-seeking, useless men of the aristocracy. Her heroes are of the warm, honest, loyal, sweet, tender selfless variety.(Need I go on?) The heroines are usually a match for the hero. Nicholas Chastiain, the Earl of Wickenshire, inherited his title and a mountain of debts from his wastrel of a father at the age of 13. Since that time, he has worked almost like a common laborer on his estates to pay off these debts and improve the estates. Now years later, he is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. He also stands to inherit a large amount of money from an aunt that will further his improvements. But the will comes with a stipulation. He must teach his aunt's bird, Lord Nightingale, to sing. And he has a deadline. Thank goodness his cousin has a school chum who can sing and is in something of a bind. Serendipity's (Sera) father has died leaving his title and money to a distant relative. This dastardly relative has removed Sera and her much younger sister, Delight, from the ancestral home and now threatens to remove them from the family's London home as well. When Wickenshire's offer comes to teach Lord Nightingale to sing, Sera grabs the offer like an anchor (she has no idea that Lord Nightingale is a bird). Nicky's interaction with Delight, who has a facial birthmark, are some of the most touching scenes I've read in many a day. Nicky, himself, is a well sketched character. He has no idea of his own worth (a trait of Lansdowne heroes). He doesn't think he is fit to be an earl because of his lack of social skills and of the callouses on his hands from hard manual labor. If I were to venture a guess, I'd say his aunt made the strange provision in her will because the all-too-serious Nicky needed some fun in his life. This book is the first of a trilogy (actually four) to be released every month til Christmas. I can't wait for September. Debbie Jett

I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Lord Nightingale's Debut" and eagerly await the rest of the series. The story was filled with humor and warmth and the main characters were so delightfully human and compassionate. The book had intrigue, but was a lighter story than some of her previous books and I especially enjoyed the "frog and prince" references. As always her vivid descriptions of the characters and settings were so well written that I could easily picture them. I would highly recommend this book to my friends and fellow Regency romance readers and it is a "keeper" as are all my other books by Judith Lansdowne. I never tire of re-reading them.