Review: The Countess by Lynsay Sands

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins

Holly‘s review of The Countess (Madison Sisters, Book 1) by Lynsay Sands

The fairy tale courtship did not turn into a happily-ever-after . . .

Not until her husband dropped dead, that is. He had been horrible enough to Christiana during their short marriage, and she was not going to allow the traditional period of mourning to ruin her sisters’ debuts as well. So she decides to put him on ice and go on as if nothing’s happened . . .

Until the real earl appears. Richard Fairgrave had every intention of confronting his villainous twin who had robbed him of his name and title . . . only to discover that he had died. Quietly assuming his identity, Richard must now deal with a maddening desire for his ravishing inherited “wife”— certainly a gold digger and possibly a murderess. And Christiana must deal with an unwanted new “husband” . . . and they both must figure out what to do before the ice melts!

Though this is the first book in a new series for Sands, I read the second book first. They’re told in tandem, which means they were kind of redundant at times, but overall they were light and fun reads. Though The Countess started out rather serious, it wasn’t long before the humor emerged. I did skim and/or skip quite a bit of this book, however, because I felt like I’d already ready it.

Although I enjoyed much of the story, I really had to suspend disbelief to buy the basic premise. The blackmail angle didn’t work for me at all, since I thought the case behind it was rather flimsy (a he said/she said kind of thing that could easily be explained away, which made the threat of blackmail pretty much laughable). Younger twin, Harry, has his brother, Richard, killed (or so he thinks) in order to take his place in society and inherit. Then he tricks the father of an heiress into losing all his money, forcing the eldest daughter, Christiana, to marry him in order to save her family from ruin (though he does woo her first, making her fall in love with him). After the wedding, he turns into a cold, controlling man she comes to fear and hate.

Richard (who wasn’t really dead) finally returns to London after a long illness in the Americas and plans to confront his twin to ring a confession from him. Instead he finds his brother is dead (not that anyone knows it) and he’s taken a wife in Richard’s name, which means certain scandal for not only Richard himself, but also the innocent woman who was unlucky enough to be married to his brother. What transpires after is nothing short of a farce of epic proportions, with blackmail, passion, murder, intrigue and a corpse that turns up in all the wrong places.

All of that was fine, if a bit on the silly side. What I had trouble accepting was the need to keep the corpse around, just in case. The argument was made that he might be needed to prove the identity of the real earl. When someone tries to blackmail him in order to keep the secret of his twin’s death a secret (the real death, not the pretend death from a year earlier), it didn’t make sense. Everyone thought Harry was dead anyway. If Richard isn’t planning to reveal that Harry had tried to murder him, why would anyone suspect anything different? Who would have believed the blackmailer?

Aside from that this was a fun story. I like that Sands explored the issue of trust between a husband and wife and what happens after marriage. Because Christiana was so mentally abused by George (pretending to be Richard) she doesn’t know that she can ever trust Richard (the real one) to be a good husband. She keeps waiting for him to change, to turn into someone else the longer they’re together. She really had a lot of baggage to sort through and I’m glad it was dealt with in a believable way (well, believable considering the rest of the story).

Richard is horrified when he realizes how bad his brother treated Christiana. He’s always loved and respected women, and he hates seeing Christiana with so little self-confidence. Watching him bolster her self-esteem was sweet to watch. He didn’t do it simply to make Christiana feel better, either. He truly believed the things he told her (that she could wear what clothes she liked, or style her hair as she pleased, that she was intelligent and beautiful, etc).

The best part about the novel was the romance. I really enjoyed the love story. Richard and Christiana didn’t come together under the best circumstances. There was a lot of mistrust and anger between them in the beginning. Seeing them fall for each other was sweet and compelling.

I enjoyed this book less than The Heiress only because I found it redundant to read the same thing a second time (there is really very little that’s different, even most of the dialogue is the same). The characters are well written and the plot fun and engaging. Sands writes really light-hearted, funny romps, and The Countess is another example of why she’s a favorite.

4 out of 5

The series:

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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