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K.J. Charles's Reviews > A Beastly Kind of Earl
A Beastly Kind of Earl (Longhope Abbey, #1)
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Second novel from this author whose first was one of the standouts of last year (A Wicked Kind of Husband, fantastic). The central romance is lovely, with charming characters (the bishop Nicholas is a joy), real humanity and feeling, and some absolutely delightful glittering dialogue. Very much set in Romancelandia Regency, with a moustache-twirling villain.
Unfortunately the book goes a bit floppy after a great start, with the very common problem of a static middle in which the characters seem locked in a repeating dynamic, going over the same ground. There's lots of stuff in there--many minor characters and a plotline about the hero's dead first wife--but it isn't stuff that drives the story forward, so the book stalls. It restarts with a enjoyable if implausible third act giving us the dramatic ending, plus a very good scene with the heroine's estranged parents that warmed my judgemental heart.
The writing and dialogue are terrific and I am looking forward to book 3, the heroine of that one makes a lovely impact here (well judged and not taking up more space than she should).
One thing: There's a character with a severe case of Romance Foreigner English (totally fluent with a huge vocabulary and able to do complex constructions, but can't remember words like 'yes' or 'so' which must be said in the native tongue). I have read literally hundreds of romance characters who talk exactly like this and it has only recently dawned on me how weird it is, when my own pathetic attempts at language learning always start with precisely those words. ("Oui...um...alors!" I mumble at the unfortunate French.) This is a trope we, as a genre, could surely stand to drop.
Unfortunately the book goes a bit floppy after a great start, with the very common problem of a static middle in which the characters seem locked in a repeating dynamic, going over the same ground. There's lots of stuff in there--many minor characters and a plotline about the hero's dead first wife--but it isn't stuff that drives the story forward, so the book stalls. It restarts with a enjoyable if implausible third act giving us the dramatic ending, plus a very good scene with the heroine's estranged parents that warmed my judgemental heart.
The writing and dialogue are terrific and I am looking forward to book 3, the heroine of that one makes a lovely impact here (well judged and not taking up more space than she should).
One thing: There's a character with a severe case of Romance Foreigner English (totally fluent with a huge vocabulary and able to do complex constructions, but can't remember words like 'yes' or 'so' which must be said in the native tongue). I have read literally hundreds of romance characters who talk exactly like this and it has only recently dawned on me how weird it is, when my own pathetic attempts at language learning always start with precisely those words. ("Oui...um...alors!" I mumble at the unfortunate French.) This is a trope we, as a genre, could surely stand to drop.
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Georgie-who-is-Sarah-Drew
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rated it 3 stars
Jan 22, 2020 03:18AM
"Romance Foreigner English" - a future KJC blog? (No hurry. None.)
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That blog makes me wish I were an author.
Ja, as a foreign speaker of English, I can attest to the fact that the simplest and most innocuous words are the ones we struggle most to remember, especially when their omission (or substitution with an easily understood foreign word) makes no real difference and serves no other purpose than to remind the listener that I am, in fact, not a native speaker av English.I jest, but really, successfully incorporating the types of mistakes that non-native speakers actually make does require a passing familiarity with actual non-native speakers -- and ones with the specific mother tongue in question, too, because that will define the type of mistakes that are made. It's much harder work. I suppose substituting the odd function word here and there is a quick and easy shorthand for "foreigner" in written dialogue.
