Elisabeth Fairchild: Always a Pleasure To Read

I'm never disappointed by an Elisabeth Fairchild Regency - some are better than others but they're always a cut above the rest.

A Fresh Perspective by Elisabeth Fairchild
(1996, Regency) 12/3/05
Grade: 4.5

Lord Reed Talcott returns from his grand tour to find his best friend and neighbor, Megan Breech, greatly changed. They always shared a love for art, but it seems that she’s grown up overnight! Megan’s first love was always Reed, but he sees her as just a friend. So she’ll have to look elsewhere - unless she can get him to see her from a new perspective...

Elisabeth Fairchild always impresses me with her writing - she is so vivid, and does such a great job at depicting characters in just a few words. My favorite one, describing a secondary character: "The young woman reminded her of a vine. It did not seem to matter that it was always a different fellow, only that there should be someone male to wind herself around." I also enjoyed the way she keeps coming back to “perspective” - for once, a title that really means something! The story here isn’t all that romantic (Fairchild’s characters are always down to earth but I prefer her more passionate books, like Miss Dornton's Hero) but she keeps me turning the pages because I genuinely like these characters and want to find out what happens to them. The ending is a bit muddled, but that's a minor quibble. Her books never disappoint - highly recommended.

I'm crossing my fingers that Fairchild survives the demise of the Regency, and finds a way to write her wonderful books without destroying what's special about them. (Something that too many Regency authors haven't been able to do...)