It was just Spring on Wednesday, now it’s snowing. What happened?
Our giveaway shelves are currently pretty light. I hope we receive a shipment of giveaway books soon. I have shifted some things around the shelves and found something we usually don’t have in our giveaways, a Regency romance.
Let’s talk expectations. Like me, I am sure you get plenty to emails listing discounted ebooks. I picked up a book the other day which sounded interesting called Better Off Wed by Susanna Craig. I was in that unsettling moment when you are between books and trying to figure out what to read next. This was something different so I picked up a copy and jumped right in. This is a Regency period spy novel and while that story was okay, it wasn’t what I was expecting. From the description, “Using the alias, Lady Sterling, Laura helps young women who have been mistreated or compromised by their employers. Some might see it as theft and blackmail. For Laura, it is a small measure of justice. But while in pursuit of her latest target, Laura is unexpectedly aided by a gentleman who announces that he is Lord Sterling.”
When I read this description, I anticipated this to be like the old TV series Remington Steele. There. I’ve just dated myself. For those who don’t know what I am talking about, Private Investigator Laura Holt opens her own investigative firm but as a female P.I. she can’t get clients so she makes up a male boss, changes the firm’s name to Remington Steele, and suddenly business is booming. Then one day, a man shows up in the middle of her client meeting announcing that he is Remington Steele and nosing in on Laura’s investigations. As Laura can’t just call him out as an impostor since she made up the name, she has to go along with it.
I expected this story to involve Lady Sterling, an experienced spy, and a mystery man who like in Remington Steele, jumps into her investigation announcing he is Lord Sterling. That is not what I got. In this story, a young woman is trying to help women who have been mostly physically assaulted/raped by their aristocratic employers. She leaves a calling card of Lady Sterling but didn’t really think things through when choosing the moniker Lady Sterling since there really was a title of Lord Sterling. Jeremy was an Officer in the British army as well as a codebreaker but he is not a spy. His boss thinks it would be entertaining to send out Lord Sterling to bring in Lady Sterling to make sure that her business of secrets wasn’t branching out to selling secrets to the enemy.
At some point, I will post a review of the story but the main issue is that the story I read isn’t the story I anticipated and which I think would have been a much better story. That is the crux of the problem here. There was nothing wrong with the story I read. I was entertained. It just wasn’t the story I expected and therefore I was disappointed. In rating and reviewing it, it is going to be hard to separate that disappointment from the actual quality of the story.
I am certain I am not the only one who has done this, how often do you grab a story that sounds perfect only to be disappointed that it wasn’t what you expected?
Leave a comment to be entered in this week’s giveaway.
Giveaway open to U.S. residents. Giveaway ends Thursday, March 3rd.
A series of stepfathers and a difficult childhood have left Fletcher “Grey” Pryde, 5th Duke of Greycourt, with a guarded heart, enviable wealth, and the undeserved reputation of a rogue. Grey’s focus on expanding his dukedom allows him little time to find a wife. But when his mother is widowed yet again and he meets the charmingly unconventional woman managing his stepfather’s funeral, he’s shocked to discover how much they have in common. Still, Grey isn’t interested in love, no matter how pretty, or delightfully outspoken, the lady . . .
Beatrice Wolfe gave up on romance long ago, and the arrogant Duke of Greycourt with his rakish reputation isn’t exactly changing her mind. Then Grey agrees to assist his grief-stricken mother with her latest “project”: schooling spirited, unfashionable Beatrice for her debut. Now that Beatrice is seeing through Grey’s charms to his wounded heart, she’s having trouble keeping him at arm’s length. But once Grey starts digging into her family’s secrets, she must decide whether her loyalties lie with her family . . . or with the man whose lessons capture her heart . . .
too bad about the book