Skylark [Mass Market Paperback]

However, take heart, those of you who admire Beverley for her well drawn characters and well written prose - you will be pleasantly surprised. Although not her best, it is still a pretty good book and far superior to a lot of Regency stuff being put out these days.

The hero of this book is Stephen Ball, MP - one of the Rogues who has only appeared around the edges of several previous books. Given his background and profession (law) he is not given to extravagant actions and showy heroics; just careful plotting and steadfast love for Laura Gardeyne who he nicknamed Lady Skylark based on her life in society with her first husband (fairly recently deceased).

The plot of this book is fairly well summarized by wmr-uk's review so I will not repeat it here - and it is correctly characterized as a "dramatic" one. However the pace of the book is fairly slow and I, for one, found myself a bit impatient for the next step of unraveling the mystery of the missing heir. The strength of the book is in watching Laura develop as a character and in enjoying the cast of secondary characters, especially HG and Des. It is nice to see Nick and Eleanor again; but I could barely remember who David Kerslake was (maybe I didn't finish that book, it being a bit too extravagant in plot for me).

My assessment: 3 and a half stars - read the reviews carefully and decide WHY you like Jo Beverley's books before getting this one...

Laura Gardeyne is a very frightened young woman. With the death of her fun loving husband, Hal, her 3 year old son, Harry, is now heir to her father-in-law's title, estate and riches. And Laura is almost convinced that her brother-in-law, Jack, may have it in his mind to murder her little boy so that he (Jack) can inherit everything. All Laura has are suspicions, but they are driving her mad with paronia. What should she do? What can she do? And then two things happen that gives her the first glimmer of hope. First, she discovers a letter in her father-in-law's desk that seems to suggest that there may be another heir, one whose claim definitely supersedes Harry's; and secondly, an old suitor, Stephen Ball turns up. Many years ago, serious and studious Stephen had proposed marriage, but Laura had chosen the fun-loving and more sophisticated Hal Gardeyne instead. Both Stephen and Laura have avoided each other since. Can Laura trust Stephen to help her find the missing heir and protect Harry from Jack? Will he even agree to help her?

It's true, this particular Jo Beverley novel is a bit slow moving. But it truly doesn't mean that this made it a slow and boring read. To the contrary, the more sedate pacing allowed for the authour to slowly develop Laura's character. I rather enjoyed "watching" Laura change from the scared to death and slightly self-absorbed young woman into a more intelligent and less flighty one. This, was what made the novel a compelling read. The small suspense of trying to figure out if the two men at the inn were villains or not, was well done too. However, it is true that the much slower pacing did detract a little from the overall excellence of the novel. Halfway through, the novel almost stops moving forward as Laura and Stephen grapple with their unspoken feelings for each other, and with the mystery of the two men at the inn, over and over again. On the whole though I thought that "Skylark" was a rather good "Rogue" romance novel, engrossing and compelling, and well worth the money spent.

The sub-plot takes up too much time. Worse, of 45 chapters, about 20 were so deadly dull that I started skimming or risk not being able to finish the book at all. They just dragged on forever with little action and a lot of repetition. The dangers just faded away at the end, and many of the problems were never really dealt with. Even Nicholas & Eleanor Delaney's appearance was a let-down.

Beverley is capable of so much better. I'll have to try to bring back the Stephen of the previous novels in order not to think of him as rather dull. Don't buy it; don't read it--you won't be missing anything.