Lord Hadleigh's Rebellion by Paula Marshall

When I first started reading romance, in the early 80's, the "big misunderstanding" was a staple of romance. All the major authors of the time depended on it to keep the hero and heroine apart, their grand passion desperately thwarted because of some minor misunderstanding that tore them apart. It worked in the 80's, I guess. I can remember a few of those books that I enjoyed. But I haven't read a true "big misunderstanding" book in a long time (especially when the misunderstanding is something so simple that a two minute conversation could clear it up). Maybe I just don't pick up these books anymore, but the device just feels very dated to me. I found it surprising to find such a trite plot device in a recent book (although it came out in the UK in 2001, it was only released here in January of this year.)

Lord Hadleigh's Rebellion by Paula Marshall
(2001, Regency) 3/14/08
Grade: 2.5

All his life, Lord Hadleigh has been made to feel second best to his younger twin brother, Ritchie. Even though he is the heir, his father has forced him to remain idle, which doesn’t suit him at all. A chance encounter with Mary, the girl he loved and lost many years earlier, inspires him to change his life - in more ways than one!

This was a surprisingly frustrating book. The biggest problem was the old romance cliche, the “big misunderstanding”. It was blindingly obvious why Russell “abandoned” Mary thirteen years earlier, but it takes 170 pages (over half the book!) before these supposedly intelligent characters to talk to each other and figure it out. Maybe for good reason, because once they make up, all of the chemistry between them fizzled out. Russell’s character also felt a little inconsistent - the author kept telling me who Russell was, but it didn’t always reflect the way he was depicted on the page. (And there was also something odd about the point of view - it jumps around within scenes - something I don’t normally notice but I noticed it here.) So why did I keep reading? There were some good things. I liked Russell as the idle heir who secretly loved mathematics and wanting to be more responsible. Especially in the first half, there was nice chemistry between the hero and heroine. And by the time I’d gotten 170+ pages into it, I wanted to find out what happened! But I came close to giving up.

One thing I wondered about - is "stern" considered a good thing in Britain? The heroine kept admiring the hero because of how "stern" he was. It didn't seem like a compliment to me (in romance, it's the mean father who's described as "stern", not the hero), but maybe that's a difference in English usage. It made me curious.