My Fair Princess by Vanessa Kelly

my-fair-princessNarrated by Beverley A. Crick

My Fair Princess is the first book in Vanessa Kelly’s new Improper Princesses series, which is a spin-off of her previous one, Renegade Royals. Just as the heroes of those books were all illegitimate sons of various Royal Dukes (they were a promiscuous lot!), the heroines of these are the illegitimate daughters of various Royal Dukes. It should be noted that George III and Queen Charlotte had seven adult sons, most of whom liked to put it about more than a bit, so this handful of wrong-side-of-the-blanket offspring is most certainly within the bounds of possibility ;)

The illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Cumberland, Gillian Dryden has lived for most of her life in Sicily with her mother and step-father, to whom she became very close. Gillian was heartbroken when he was murdered by bandits, and swore to hunt them down and kill them. She is making good on her vow, but when her latest escapade doesn’t go according to plan, there is no alternative but for Gillian and her mother to leave Sicily immediately, which they do with the help of her half-brother (another royal by-blow) Griffin Steele.

In London, they settle with Gillian’s grandmother Lady Marbury, and make plans for Gillian’s introduction to the ton. But bringing a woman like Gillian into society is going to be a difficult task. Not only is there the matter of her illegitimacy to be dealt with (because of course the sins of the father were always visited upon the children at this point in time) there is the fact that her natural vivacity and her unwillingness to adopt the simpering appearance of demure rectitude that is required of an unmarried young lady are likely to make her a target for the gossips and for those unscrupulous men who believe her to be an easy mark; like mother, like daughter, after all. Gillian, however, has no intention of entering the marriage mart. She hopes that it won’t take too long before she is discovered to be completely unsuited to London life and will be able to return to Sicily and finish avenging her step-father’s death.

Lady Marbury has recruited her distant cousin, Charles Penley, Duke of Leverton, to help smooth Gillian’s entry into society. Leverton is handsome, wealthy, responsible and widely regarded throughout the ton as a model of respectability and correct behaviour, so he is extremely well placed to manage Gillian’s début. His standing will lend her sufficient social cachet to at least stop the worst of the gossip about the circumstances of her birth, provided, of course, that she does nothing to provoke it. But within moments of meeting her, Leverton realises he has his work cut out for him.

The book’s title would naturally lead one to assume it’s a Pygmalion-like story with Leverton molding Gillian into a proper lady – or at the very least attempting to – but that’s not quite it. In fact, I was reminded more of Georgette Heyer’s The Grand Sophy, in which an independent, spirited young woman raised on the continent comes to London and becomes a thorn in the side of her very proper cousin (also, incidentally, named Charles). Sophy doesn’t carry the stigma of illegitimacy, but Gillian’s determination and no-nonsense attitude are certainly reminiscent of her, and those are the aspects of her character I most liked. She’s that rare breed – an independently minded heroine who can ride, shoot and fight but who isn’t irritatingly “feisty” or TSTL. That’s not so say that she doesn’t have her annoying moments; her insistence on tracking down a group of smugglers who operate near Leverton’s estate arises from a rather flimsy motive and while she’s smart, her stubbornness sometimes overrides her intellect and causes her to go off half-cocked and without thinking things through. But that side of her is nicely offset by the vulnerabilities she tries very hard to hide.

Leverton is a bit stereotypical, but is an attractive hero, nonetheless. His character is obviously meant to provide the counterpoint to Gillian’s impulsiveness, but he never comes across as starchy or priggish. He is an expert in matters of etiquette and does his best to instil that knowledge into Gillian, but as he comes to know and understand her, he realises that he enjoys her quick mind, her forthright manner and her unconventional outlook, and he can’t help wondering if perhaps her spirit is one that shouldn’t be squashed.

The romance between Gillian and Leverton develops at a sensible pace and their attraction simmers below the surface right from their first meeting. They are a well-matched pair, and their quickfire verbal sparring is entertaining and often funny, making My Fair Princess a good example of the starchy-hero-loosened-up-by-spirited-heroine trope. But while the content is generally enjoyable, the book falls down in the execution on numerous occasions because of the way it is constructed. For some reason, the author often opts to end some chapters with an important piece of information – a mini-bombshell or cliffhanger – but doesn’t follow through on it in the next one. I noticed several instances of this, but as an example, one chapter ends with Charles telling Gillian that the lady they had just met in the park walking with her husband had almost become his – Charles’ – wife. The next chapter opens on a completely different time and place, with Charles escorting his sister to meet Gillian on the night of her first ball. That chapter ends with Gillian joining the family party, obviously dolled up to the nines and Charles taking one look at her and forgetting how to breathe – and the next opens with the ball in progress and Gillian dancing with someone else. I assume this was done in order to create tension but instead it was incredibly anti-climactic and extremely frustrating.

Beverley A. Crick’s narration is – fortunately – not at all frustrating. In fact, it was seeing her listed as the narrator of this title that caused me to ask to listen to it; I had a fairly large TBL pile when it was released (end of August) and might have passed it by had she not been associated with it. Once again, she delivers an enjoyable, polished performance that is well-paced, strongly characterised and emotionally nuanced in all the right places. It’s mentioned in the text that Gillian’s speech is accented, and the Italian accent Ms. Crick adopts is just right; not over the top or too thick to be intelligible and is maintained consistently throughout. Her interpretation of Leverton is nicely judged, too; with a slight drop in pitch and a slightly harder edge to her tone, she brings him to life as an attractive, confident man with a wry sense of humour. Her ability to convey a wide range of emotion is something that never disappoints and I like the way she adds little touches here and there – a giggle, or a breathy sigh – where required. Most importantly, I appreciate the way she always sounds completely engaged with whatever she is reading, enabling her connection to the characters to communicate easily to the listener. My one criticism of her performance here is that she doesn’t quite manage to differentiate effectively between some of the male characters – principally between Leverton and Griffin Steele. They only appear in a few scenes together, but I did sometimes need to rely on the text to work out which of them was speaking. Other than that, however, this is another strong performance to add to Ms. Crick’s growing catalogue of historical romance narrations.

All in all, My Fair Princess is a fun listen and an engaging start to a new series.

Caz


Narration: A-

Book Content: B-

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence Rating: Minimal

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Tantor Audio

My Fair Princess was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for a review.

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