Miss Grimsley's Oxford Career

One of the best regency novels I have read! It is a simple story, but the hero and heroine are so very likeable and the development of their relationship is realistic, yet not your typical regency. I think my favorite part is the delightful sense of humor shared by the hero and heroine! They both definitely appreciate the ridiculous. A very well-crafted regency! I highly recommend this, especially if you like Georgette Heyer or Jane Austen.

I don't need to write a lengthy review of this book, because the review below from bookjunkies has done an excellent job, with the exception of one detail: we, the readers, know from the beginning the true identity of James Gatewood, since this is revealed to us in the prologue.Kelly's descriptions of Oxford - the town and the university - suggests that she knows both places well; I've visited Oxford many times and am familiar with most of the colleges, and I found no anomalies in her depiction of the town. I did particularly like her portrayal of Ellen's frustration at not being able to study and participate in learning, and at her brother's wasting of the opportunity he had. Ellen is so well written as a woman who desperately wants to learn and read and argue and develop her mind, and yet is forbidden by the mores and practices of her day. (Great use of St Hilda's, too, Kelly!). Ellen's debates with James on Shakespeare are very well written, and these encounters were a joy to read.For a very different romance, even from most of Kelly's other novels, this one is well worth a look.

The editorial review is slightly misleading, as is the back cover blurb. Miss Ellen Grimsley, the heroine of this book, is not a student at Oxford University and its colleges (impossible then, in an era where women were not even allowed to listen to lectures). Rather, she is attending a rather disappointingly mediocre seminary at Oxford (the town). Whence then her Oxford career? Ah, that is another story, and one that kept me up, laughing slightly until 1 am.The story begins with a devastatingly funny portrayal of the Grimsley family. Think the Tallant family (in Arabella) crossed with the family of the heroine in the film The Breakfast Club. The family is country-based, of moderate means, and of a farming background - very minor gentry, in fact. Ellen Grimsley's elder sister Honoria is all set to marry the nitwitted son of a pompous baronet. Her elder brother Gordon is frittering his time away at Oxford; his family has decided he is to be a gentleman, and to that end, some terms at Oxford will be followed by a spell in the army. Gordon is barely scraping through his first year as required. His younger sister Ellen and his younger brother Ralph are the oddballs, or the odd ones in this rather dull family - both have a passion for learning, and especially for literature. Ralph is a Shakespeare fanatic, and his older sister cannot but absorb some of the Bard's lines. Her fate has all but been decided for her - she is to marry suitably, perhaps a young farmer with no interest in books. Poor Miss Grimsley! It is fortunate then that her father's aunt has the bottles of fine wine that her father had recklessly promised the baronet (future father-in-law of his eldest daughter). To obtain these bottles for the wedding, the father must promise to send his daughter Ellen to a seminary in Oxford, run by the aunt's friends. So off Ellen goes with her aunt - and near the town, she meets an untidy but interesting scholar names James Gatewood.The seminary proves to be a disappointment. Instead of studying geometry and Shakespeare (let alone geography) Ellen is expected to stitch samplers (which she does badly) and confine herself to a smattering of French. Most of Shakespeare is not allowed in the school library, some of his plays being considered indecent. [Did you know that MEASURE FOR MEASURE was an indecent play? Ah yes.]. Well, fortunately for Miss Ellen whose tongue gets her into trouble from the outset, she has a couple of friends, the maid Becky and Mr James Gatewood who falls into the habit of sending her chocolates (a slight anachronism) whenever Miss Ellen is being punished by being forced to write out lines and thus missing her meals.In the meantime, brother Gordon gets into trouble in London town. He is already in trouble with the warden of his college, having missed one too many lectures. And now, he has no money to pay a student to write his essays for him! Oh dear. Well, fortunately sister Ellen is in Oxford, and is persuad

I need only say that Carla Kelly wrote it, that's praise enough