Bless Thine Inheritance
By: Sophia Holloway / Narrated By: Matt Addis
Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
Okay, so maybe it does drag a bit, but that just means more Regency Romance to love!
Yes, yes, yes: Reviewers seem to be a trifle torn about Bless Thine Inheritance. They either like it a lot, or they feel that author Sophia Holloway’s first novel, The Devil You Know, is the better of her two works. Some say it’s because this story starts off strong but then draaaags.
Hmm… I have to totally disagree. While I liked The Devil You Know, I thought the main characters in that one did far too many things that exasperated the beJESus outta me. I must say that I much prefer this new Hero-heroine duo!
Celia Mardham is a miracle. By all rights, a riding accident should’ve killed her and, now that her family has gotten past the fear of losing her to an early death, they’re dealing with the reality that their golden daughter, who would’ve been a smashing success in her first London Season, is now crippled and not likely to find a husband. …And what other future could a woman in that era possibly want to show she’s a success?
So dearest Mama throws a summer house party and invites marriageable men, plus a friend of Celia’s, plus a sweet poor relation, plus a sneering young woman who will make all their lives most distressing by her definite and opinionated ways. Certainly, hopefully, maaaaybe, one of the gentlemen will see past her physical disfigurement and will ask for her hand?
Okay, so I do realize that the characters are pretty black or white: The snotty characters remain wholly without redeeming virtues and show no sign of growth during the entire 9+ hours of the book, but I did so love Celia and Lord Levedale (Even tho’ yeah yeah yeah he’s one of two titled men who have to marry money to save their family estates. The other is an unapologetic wastrel, so of course there’s no problem seeing him as a romantic figure there). But I think the book dragged in a good way because there are other characters who have storylines, and they do indeed show growth throughout the book, plus they have their little dramas and flirtations and misunderstandings.
I don’t find the miscommunications anywhere NEAR so exasperating when it’s minor characters who are suffering them; it’s only when it’s the main characters having them over and over and over again. But Celia and Lord Levedale are written slowly and methodically so that it’s believable that we see their growing affinity for each other. We see that Levedale doesn’t pity Celia (As her other would-be suitor does, a rather aged suitor, I might add), and we find it entirely plausible that of course theirs is a Happily Ever After. I had no problem with that because Levedale had me at the Pony Cart (Listen to the book, and you’ll understand).
I always get twitchy when a male narrates romances as they can usually make muddles of everything. But Matt Addis has grown on me since The Devil You Know where the female characters wound up coming off as a bit mousy-mouthed. Celia, here, was performed to perfection, and naturally Levedale is worthy of swooning and dying over, if I do say so m’self.
I’m very much looking forward to his next performance, and need I say it: I’m sooo looking forward to Ms. Holloway’s next offering. Her bio says she writes Mediaeval murder mysteries under a pen name.
…hmm… MUST get down to some serious sleuthing as those also seem right up my alley!
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