The Rise of Miss Notley
Series: Tanglewood, Book 2
By: Rachael Anderson / Narrated By: Helen Taylor
Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
Loved it! Give me Book 3, pleeeeeze!!!
I dearly liked The Fall of Lord Drayson, Book 1 of the “Tanglewood” series, so I was going into The Rise of Miss Notley with a lot of hope but with few expectations as ‘twould appear there were no familiar characters to be included in it. Would Rachael Anderson be a good enough writer to keep the theme of Tanglewood but create an entirely new cast?
Answer: A resounding yes!!!
Cora Notley is a young woman not quite twenty-two who runs away because her unfeeling parents basically sell her off to a Baron who is utterly disgusting. But he is a Baron, and for her status-seeking parents that’s good enough. She is given a place in the country with the parents of Lucy, now Lady Drayson, and there she seeks a position as Housekeeper at Tanglewood, hoping the taint will make her sooooo low that no man will ever want her.
Enter Mr. Ludlow, the new owner of Tanglewood whose bitter humor makes it unlikely that he’ll be able to hold on to staff at all. But even though Cora is patently inexperienced, he likes her wit and integrity, her honesty about her lack of skills. And through a series of debacles which she totally owns up to with charming self effacement, he comes to like her stamina as well. And as it turns out, she’s just what his empty household needs, what his ramshackle group of servants need.
I liked how the book shows them growing to appreciate each other and how they start seeing how their own lacks are made whole by the other. Ludlow gets stormy at times, reminding me a lot of Mr. Rochester (sans crazy wife in attic), but good heavens how he tries to get past his seething peeves. Plus, while he rages a lot, he doesn’t become a despicable character at all; rather, he simply comes off as terribly lonely but willing.
“Mrs.” Notley (all Housekeepers are given the honorific of Mrs.) is just a lovely character, willing to see the good in people and always ready for a laugh, so there’s a lot of humor in the book also, which I dearly love. She cuts to the chase, always asking Why a situation is as it is, never taking anything or anyone at face value, and I felt that that added to her character’s depth. Truly, I was rooting for the duo the entire way, but then again, y’all know what a sap I am for a good romance. And this really is a good one.
Helen Taylor does another great job with her narration of this second book, making the characters sparkle and shine, making them cringe or snicker. I loved how Ms. Taylor put such lightness into the wittiness so that a word like “scuttle” could make me laugh when it came up in conversations that occurred throughout the audiobook. Always good with a man’s voice, she brought both twinkles and even anger to life in the women characters also.
Okay, so here I am, ready and waiting for the next in the series. And thus far, it looks like it might be the last. For now? Or is there a Book 4 storming about Rachael Anderson’s romantic brain. Ahhhhh well, I dunno. For the time being, I guess I’ll just have to dive into every single audiobook she has out there.
With pleasure…!
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