After leaving the army and falling out with his family, Catesby Burgoyne is drowning his sorrows when he comes across a woman being attacked by thugs. A fight is just what he needs, but little does he realize that the lady he rescues will change his life.
Prudence Youlgrave is not just the victim of ruffians. Her life has been made a shambles by her selfish brother and her brutish fiancé. But she has a bold and courageous spirit Catesby can’t resist – and before he knows it, he rescues her again by marrying her himself.
A reckless adventurer may be forgiven for such an impulse. But when Catesby’s elder brother dies, he becomes the Earl of Malzard – and Prudence is suddenly a most unlikely countess. Neither she nor Catesby is prepared to face the shock of his family. Still almost strangers, Prudence ad Catesby have no one to turn to but each other – and it is in each other’s arms that they find a love neither ever expected.
Prudence Youlgrave is living in poverty. She grew up the daughter of a librarian and when the lord of the manor passed away, the Youlgraves’ patriarch passed not too long after as well. Since then, Prudence’s mother concentrated all her efforts on her son, Aaron. He was to be a barrister and so Prudence and her mother scrimped and saved for her brother’s schooling. Now that her brother is a barrister and Prudence’s mother has passed away, Aaron is conveniently forgetting about his sister’s plight. Prudence doesn’t want much. She just wants to meet a respectable man who can provide her with a home and a family. She knows she deserves more than where she currently is, surviving off three guineas a month and taking charity from her neighbors.
Catesby Burgoyne is a man with close to nothing. His elder brother is the Earl of Malzard and the Earl doesn’t approve of his younger brother, an attitude he inherited from their parents. All his life the Burgoynes focused all their attention on the heir, and when it was obvious Cate wasn’t fit for the cloth, his dad forced him to join the army. He did well, even though he didn’t like being told what to do. Exaggerated tales of his ‘exploits’ made their way home and did nothing to change his family’s attitude about him. Forced to resign his commission, Cate returns to the only home he’s even known, only to get into a horrible fight with his brother and told not to come back home.
Getting gloriously drunk, Cate rescues Prudence from an attack and she offers him a place to stay, just for the night. Getting to know each other, Cate is attracted and he wants to help Prudence anyway he can. He leaves her a few coins and a silver pin before he leaves the next morning. Little does he know that he hasn’t seen the last of Prudence Youlgrave.
All right, what did I think? I thought An Unlikely Countess was just ok. The writing was solid if a tad dry and the story did nothing to wow me.
The characters were…what they were. Prudence is a very practical woman who I thought at the beginning thought more of herself than deserved. She was a librarian’s daughter – she wasn’t nobility and yet she strived to keep her distance from her neighbors, who were better off than her. It was like she was holding onto an ideal and she knew if she made allowances towards her neighbors, she would be no better than them. At the same time, this attitude allowed her to go after her brother and his new wife and practically demand that they take her in and provide her with what she wants so she can get out of their hair. That initial attitude I had does eventually change, but I kind of didn’t like Prudence at the beginning. Her character does improve when her and Catesby meet up again. She is practical and she does have a positive, realistic outlook on life. She can see the challenges she will face as the new countess and although she would like to hide out in her rooms, she doesn’t. I can get behind a character like that.
And Cate, I liked Cate but his character seemed to fade a bit into the background when he brings Prudence to his family home. Despite his family’s attitude towards him, being only a second son, he’s always associated Keynings (their estate) with happy times and more than anything he just wants to be home. This leads everyone to believe he envied his brother’s position and when his brother dies, he knows people think this is what he wished for. This is not true. Cate is a kind person and just tries to do his best, despite his mother’s negative attitude. I do wish Cate had stood up more to his mother, but he does what he can.
Now for the story. It started off interesting. I liked how Cate and Pru met. But once they got married, things stalled a bit for me. There was a lengthy bit in the middle that was tied up on their journey from the town where they got married to them arrive at Keynings. The length of this bit felt really epic, like they had to travel over mountains to get like 13 miles. I know back in the day of horse drawn carriages that that’s far, but still. I felt like that ride home got a whole more pages than it deserved. It did set up some small misconceptions between Cate and Pru, but that just shows how they didn’t really communicate with each other as honestly as they could have. And like I said, Cate kind of faded to the background in the last part of the book. Here it was about Pru dealing with being a countess when she wasn’t really prepared for it. I thought she did a good job though. As for the romance, I thought it was well done. They were attracted to each other, they were very open about that. It was believable and I like how they decided to wait to consummate their marriage (they didn’t want any doubt over the baby’s parentage – Pru’s fiancé was really not a nice guy and said some nasty stuff). That scene in particular was my favorite, when Cate disrupted Pru’s wedding ceremony to another man.
All in all, I thought An Unlikely Countess was just ok. It gets a 3.25 out of 5 from me.
This book is available from Signet (Penguin). You can buy it here or here in e-format.
You can read more from ~ames~ at Thrifty Reader.
Hmmm, doesn’t sound like my type of book.
I agree Nath, I know what you like and I don’t think this is your cup of tea. 😛