AMELIA GREY has written another exciting, fun and clever romance. This is my favorite type of romance. I love British romances with a mystery to solve.. This time a woman named Arianna Sweet sees her father's murdered body and an Indian man standing beside the bloody body. Not only has Arianna lost her father in a dreadful way. She also loses the land she loves, India. She has spent ten years living in India with her father. Arianna loves India and it's people. She returns to England, if possible, more Indian than British.
She also returns to England with the purpose of finding her father's written cure for consumption. Finding this cure will help many, many people and also, keep her father's name alive. She begins her new life at Valleydale Estates. Here she will meet Lord Morgandale. He is a man determined to keep his independence in other words, not make any long term promises to a woman. He feels safe with women like Miss Good Body.
I did not remember this woman from the other book. I did remember Morgan's cousins Race and Blake. They are always a lot of fun. There is Gibby who always is in some sort of mess. This time Gibby, after thirty years, might find himself a new father to twins. You have to love Gibby. He's old, still good looking and spunky.
Along with meeting Gibby again in An Earl to Enchant I especially loved Arianna Sweet's love of India. She continues to wear the saris from India which are beautiful and brightly colored compared to the mute colors the British are wearing at this time. Arianna loves Indian dance too. One night Morgan, Race and Blake see Arianna through her window doing a "belly dance." Her Indian skirt hem is bordered with tiny bells.
I took this part of the book seriously. I have read a little bit about the time Britains spent in India. I have never spent much time thinking about what it must have been like for these women to return to England. Did these women suffer a sort of culture shock? While in England, Arianna forgets herself and uses Indian words. She remembers the elephants. I believe these women had to make great adjustments. Were all these women happy to leave? Were some of the women like Arianna ? She longed for what she had left and tried to fit it in to her "real" homeland.
The book is wonderful in every way. My only wish is to get back to another book by Amelia Grey. I did feel sad that only one portrait of Lady Elder hangs on the walls of Valleydale Estates. Arianna felt the same way. I think there were four more portraits in the attic. Those portraits were placed there by Lady Elder. I think she wears the long five stranded Talbot pearls in each painting. Why did she hide those other portraits? I wonder if this is something AMELIA GREY will share in her future book. I can't wait to find out.
readwithtea.blogspot.com Amelia Grey, The Rogues Dynasty
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