Christmas Awards 2011

Sunday, 23 December 2007

Valerie

Valerie by Joan Smith

Robert Hale Publishers

224 Pages

December 2007

9780709079224

4.5 Stars



If you like Regency romances, you’ll love Joan Smith’s Valerie! Witty, romantic and wonderfully written, this is one historical romance that deserves a place on your keeper shelf!

Valerie is delighted when her Aunt Loo asks her to accompany her to spend a few weeks at her estate called Troy Fenners. But little does Valerie know that her brief sojourn in the country is going to be anything but peaceful – especially when Valerie finds out that her Aunt Loo is a Gothic romance novelist who wants to cast her as the heroine of her next book!

Before long, Valerie finds herself vaulting over stiles on horseback, scaling walls and climbing up trees and ladders all in the name of research! But that’s nothing compared to having to take part in seances and ghost hunting!



Valerie begins to wonder just what she has let herself into and the mystery deepens when her distant cousins Welland and Pierre Sinclair arrive! Why is Pierre blackmailing her aunt for a thousand pounds? And what about Welland? Is he a man to be trusted?



If you haven’t read Joan Smith’s wonderful Regency romances, then you are missing out on a marvellous treat! Written in the first person, Valerie is a cross between Georgette Heyer’s wonderful Regencies and Victoria Holt’s chilling Gothics and once you start reading it, you will not want to put it down.

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