A Lady by Any Other Name

Jennifer
Kitchens
ISBN Number: 
9781477612415
Genre: 
Historical

Nicole Farrington has never had it easy, her mother died when she was young, then lost her father as well,   her brother is now her guardian and her jailor. She lives quietly at his country home, until he decides to sell her off to a lecherous old man.  Nicole makes a desperate plan to find her real father’s family and beg for sanctuary.  Things don’t go as planned (they never do), but help comes in the form of one Julian Huntington, Earl of Foxley.

Julian is on a mission of his own. He needs to know the truth behind his brother’s accident. But his success is limited - as most of the clues have gone cold.  So when a woman shows up on his doorstep, asking for his brother, claiming she needs his help, Julian isn’t eager to involve himself, but honor leaves him no choice.

The premise of this story showed a lot of promise - a woman on the run from her wicked family, a strong man willing to help and protect her. It’s the characters that quickly became the problem. They felt flat and unreal with a surface quality only. Rather than drawing the reader into the emotion, one is merely being told what the characters feel (and even the telling isn’t vivid).  Also, the falling in love part came completely out of the left field.  Foxley spent spent most of the book resisting Nicole, then suddenly and abruptly, he was pledging his love.  A little less surface action and  more time dedicated to the actual growth and relationship would have made this promising book a pleasure to read.

Ana Smith