A book review of Fallen Angel by Charlotte Louise Dolan.
I have no idea how I wound up picking up this book, I think I was looking for historical cross-class romance after getting hooked on Alyssa Cole’s amazing books. I think that I found it on someone’s favorites list. I am usually not a big romance reader; I like my books to have romance in them, but I usually don’t like the story to be all or mostly about the romance. (Alyssa Cole really walks the line.)
That said…this book is definitely all about the romance, but it is really funny. It’s a Regency romantic comedy. How true is it to the culture and events of the Regency period in Great Britain? I don’t know. I know more about the mores of Late Imperial China than I do about Regency England. (Had a bit of a diversion in college, it took me to Japan and got me my first real job, so I can’t feel bad about it.) Anyway, it might not be completely historically accurate, but I didn’t feel someone had taken a modern romance and given everyone silly pants and long dresses.
There are no steamy bodice ripping scenes, just one fade to black scene and it happens after the characters are married. I do admit, when I read about non-married couples having sex in historical romances my eyelid twitches: no concern about pregnancy? Really?
Both characters grow through the book, too. The hero, a definite misogynist, finds redeeming qualities in women by the end, and not just in the heroine. The heroine, something of a doormat, learns from the hero to stick up for herself. They don’t set out to change each other, but they do.
Did I mention it’s funny? Laugh out loud funny in some parts. If you need a gentle diversion from what we shall call “Come on Eileen,” this might be the book for you.
Available at Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany