A delightful eNovella from New York Times bestselling author Sabrina Jeffries about a young woman who learns that you can’t learn about love from a textbook.
In "Ten Reasons to Stay," previously published in the anthology The School for Heiresses, lessons go far beyond etiquette and needlepoint. Eliza Crenshawe’s lesson is to look before she leaps. But when she discovers that her new guardian plans to marry her off without so much as a Season, she forgets all that. She flees—on a horse she unwittingly steals (oops!)—from Colin Hunt, a newly minted earl who wants nothing more than for her to go home…or stay forever
In "Ten Reasons to Stay," previously published in the anthology The School for Heiresses, lessons go far beyond etiquette and needlepoint. Eliza Crenshawe’s lesson is to look before she leaps. But when she discovers that her new guardian plans to marry her off without so much as a Season, she forgets all that. She flees—on a horse she unwittingly steals (oops!)—from Colin Hunt, a newly minted earl who wants nothing more than for her to go home…or stay forever
Sabrina
Jeffries is probably one of my favourite historical romance authors. And this
novella was what introduced me to her work, back when it was part of an
anthology. So now that it's available for purchase by itself, this seems like
the perfect time to review it!
The story has no lulls, and, as always, her characters are brilliant, well
written, relatable and flawed. Her clear writing style sends you straight
into 19th century England, but without the confusion a lot of other
historical novels often bring. Another thing that sets this story apart is that
Colin, the hero, is bi-racial, something rarely seen in many stories,
especially historics. The great thing about this author’s writing is that she
looks at the societal barriers of class, race, and image,
which are issues that we still have today, and is able to write a story with
depth, as well as one with love, comedy and drama. This ability to deliver so
much, with so little words, is brilliant.
The chemistry between the characters is
another thing of beauty, with enough sexual tension, angst and common ground to
bring about a truly genuine relationship in a relatively short amount of time.
Thus, the love scenes are pretty erotic, but not gratuitously so.
All in all this is a brilliant short
story, and holds true to me for all but one scene near the end, where I feel
some loose ends are too easily tied up. But I’ll leave you to decide for
yourself!
(4 stars)
(4 stars)
