Christmas Carol ꧁꧂ 's Reviews > Charity Girl

After rereading The Foundling & Cousin Kate & having an improved opinion of both, I did hope my assessment of Charity Girl would improve. I didn't expect to like this novel, mind, but hoped to find it an average read. Wrong. Charity Girl is still terrible & owes a lot to The Foundling & Sprig Muslin - both far better books. Reading Kloester's biography it sounds like GH wasn't well when she wrote this & genuinely thought she had written a good book. To be honest I had hoped on her usual diet of dexdrine, gin & cigarettes, she had phoned this one in. That at least would have been an excuse!

Not much actually happens in this book, the hero & heroine spend very little time together & the ending feels rushed. & I have read enough times in GH's works about inn servants not being allowed to handle a hero's boots, in case they put a thumb mark on them! I did like some of the minor characters (most notably Simon) & (view spoiler)[ & Wilfred Steane's first scene, while laboured, gave me a chuckle! (hide spoiler)]

Now to proofreading criticisms of this particular publication. (Arrow) Page 164, Peccavi is not in italics, but it is in my old Pan copy. The italics make it clear it's a foreign word. When I first read it I thought it was a typo. Worse, they talk about a bumblebroth in the book, but it's called a humblebroth on the back cover. Very sloppy.

The other GH Regency I didn't think much of was Lady of Quality. I may put off that reread for a while.