The Countess by Lynsay Sands

The Countess

Madison Sisters #1

Lynsay Sands

Historical Romance

Published in 2011

H/h - Richard Fairgrave, the Earl of Radnor/Lady Christiana Fairgrave

Setting: London, in the Regency era. (unsure)

Read in Feb, 2011.

My rating:

                                                                     [spoiler alert]

Read 1st few chps, the starting is kinda odd. I hated the husband, the earl but Christiana is also odd, so are her sisters Suzette and Lisa. I know, I've read such plots from Lynsay Sands before but this one is proving kinda difficult read. The earl was definitely abusive, at least verbally, tried everything to break Christiana's spirit. I understand that her sisters are mad about the fact as during the courtship, he was the epitome of goodness. But, when he died, the sisters' conversations are ... odd. All those talks of smell, how long he'll last before some certain ball, will ice be enough are hard to gulp down. My face's starting to look all green! :/

**************

Ok, read 2 more chps ... Proving to be slow, it's mainly because I'm still finding it odd. It felt like LS is trying to unravel it all in that ball the sisters attended ... All the secrets and past histories, all the links etc. We meet the 'real earl' Richard (who hates when others call him Dicky, can't blame him at all!) and his best friend (hero of the next book) Daniel, another earl I think. It's slow yet feels like all the informations are totally rushed ... Why don't just let them find out as the novel progresses *rolls eyes*??? What will I look forward to now? lmao

*************

Insane, is just what I feel about this book. Not bad yet something's not there ... LS is trying to do a lot of things in one plot (incld: the setting for the next books of the series), so all seem crammed in and at times, many things seem too obvious.

I think Grace, Christiana's lady's maid acts too much like a 'lady' herself and I don't like it a bit. She's trying to rule Christiana's life, who is actually letting her. There's an explanation to why but I didn't buy it. Grace is downright annoying.

There are funny moments on the verge of being absurd yet they're quite a nice distraction from the weirdo plot. I can only say the book feels like began in the middle of a story and everything's just too rushed in ... I've read much much better books from LS (excld: the vampire series, as I never read vampire/werewolf stuff).

*************

Even in the end this felt too rushed up, started in the middle, ended the same way. I agree with those reviews when they say it ended before you even take your breath or too many plot holes. There were a lot going on between Suzette and Daniel (h/h of the next book) but nothing much on the narrative side which left me positively exasperated. There is also another secondary character, Robert, Lord Langley, who's grown up with them. He's a good family friend. Also think something's up with him and the youngest one, Lisa.

3 stars because it wasn't too bad, because there were more than one laugh out loud moment I so love from LS and even after all these, I'm looking forward to Daniel/Suzette's and Lisa/Robert's books.