Rosamund's Revenge

Other than a few unfortunate typos, I found this to be a very nearly perfect book. It is gorgeously written, with believable characters, an abundance of plot and such realistic descriptions of Yorkshire and Edinburgh that one could almost imagine being there to see the action unfold. Unhappily, I suspect this book will not receive anything like the success it deserves (based on the above) because it doesn't exactly fall into the necessary guidelines of `what makes a love story a romance novel'. Indeed, it is more like the dashing historical novels of years past. Who among us hasn't made the mistake of falling in love at the wrong time or with the wrong person? Rosamund Lovelace is but ten-and-six, visiting her aunt in Edinburgh when she first meets Rory Buchanan, then a lieutenant. She throws her soul as well as her heart into this new emotion, and fearing they'll be soon separated, unwisely writes him a passionate letter. Of course, it falls into the wrong hands, and she is mortified by the outcome. She returns to her family in Yorkshire and he goes off to Portugal. Two years later, they discover each other again, when the now-Captain Buchanan ends up at a neighboring estate that has just been inherited by his commanding officer. During the next six years, they will meet and part, and meet and part, with each of them moving forward and backward as if in a dance. Of course, there are many other inhabitants of this story: Rosamund's cousin Hero, her two uncles, Anthony and Leonard (Hero's father); Hero's maybe love, Lt. Wemyss, and the other military folk-Captain Macdonald, Colonel Fitzgerald and the villainous Captain Buchan. It does all end well, finally, or at least mostly so. Not, however, before the vicious malcontent Buchan has masterminded a plot that upsets nearly everyone involved and ends in a murder. The last fifty or so pages are positively hair-raising! A rattling good read, indeed! If, that is, one reads what is there, not what one thinks should be there.

I would disagree entirely with the previous reviewer. I found the characters in this book compelling, complex and a lot less stereotypical and cookie-cutterish than most books. Madeleine Conway has fairly unashamedly borrowed from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, with Beatrice and Benedick appearing as Rory and Rosamund. But this time, we get the backstory explaining how they both come to be so prickly with each other, and a very plausible story it is too. In addition, Ms Conway writes a mean setting. I really felt transported to the English countryside, and I enjoyed the Edinburgh setting in particular, which felt fresh and very far from the Brigadoon type environments that so many writers use for Scotland. I would recommend this as an above average regency novel, with a lot to offer a reader who is prepared to put in a little work past page 55.