Guest Review: Beguiling the Beauty by Sherry Thomas

Judith’s review of Beguiling the Beauty (Fitzhugh Trilogy #1) by Sherry Thomas

When the Duke of Lexington meets the mysterious Baroness von Seidlitz-Hardenberg aboard a transatlantic ocean liner, he is fascinated. She is exactly what he has been searching for—a beautiful woman who interests and entices him. He falls hard and fast—and soon proposes marriage.

And then she disappears without a trace…

For in reality, the “baroness” is Venetia Easterbrook—a proper young widow who had her own vengeful reasons for instigating an affair with the duke. But the plan has backfired. Venetia has fallen in love with the man she despised—and there’s no telling what might happen when she is finally unmasked.

It is difficult for most women to imagine great beauty to be a hindrance or burden. A very high percentage of the women on this planet desire to be more attractive or to enhance what attractiveness they presently possess. Not many of us would rue the fact that we are so beautiful that men lose their train of thought, seem to become disoriented and such just because they come face to face with a face that is unspeakably beautiful. Such was the case with Venetia Fitzhugh Townsend Easterbrook, a women whose life has been singularly affected in negative ways by the extraordinary beauty of her visage. She is incredibly intelligent, fascinated with archeology, loves her siblings and her family, is giving and caring and all things gentle and kind. Yet she suffers the scourge of gossip that paints her as a greedy, grasping, and uncaring female whose self-centered ways have been the death of her first husband and which led her into a second marriage with a man 30 years older than she. Yet having seen her when he was nineteen, the Duke of Lexington has dreamed of her for years and has lost all desire to be with anyone else for almost 10 years.

Sherry Thomas has written an involved and complicated novel that puts forth the core issue of how people respond to others–on the basis of external appearance rather than the finer values of heart and mind and the will to live a productive and authentic life. For a 19th century woman, beauty was all the thing, and for Venetia, it was far less important than most people could even imagine. It is also a novel of disappointment, the power of gossip to hurt and destroy individuals, reputations, and future relationships. Yet within that framework, both the duke and Venetia must find a way to move forward. The duke thinks that is what he has done in acting on his fascination with the mysterious German lady aboard the transatlantic steamer enroute from New York to England. Yet Venetia, who started out to punish the duke for his unwise and hurtful public statements about her–even though her name was never mentioned–during a lecture he gave on archeology in New York, finds that revenge isn’t really all it’s cracked up to be and can become just as hurtful in the long run.

This novel is not for the faint of heart nor is it a fun and fluffy love story. There are layers and layers of family involvement and as this is the first in a series, the author as written extensively about other members of the family. That is probably my only criticism: that the dialogue and sections that were focusing on Venetia and the duke’s families were a bit on the long side and I found myself losing interest. After all, I wanted to know what would happen to them. Yet that being said, it was a novel that has set the stage for future stories involving the Fizhugh family and has given the reader a sound foundation for understanding the stories to come. There are surprises here in abundance and the novel holds together surprisingly well in light of all the characters. Some may find the cast of characters excessive. I did not. If anything, the interaction between the siblings as well as the duke’s family conversations revealed much more about them so that the reader could grasp the injustice that was done to both of them by each other and others in their social circles.

I found the book quite engaging and hard to put down. Except for the criticism voiced above, I found the story moved along well and the double life Venetia led to be one that produced a great deal of tension, the kind of which kept me moving forward to see what happened to them. I think this novel will please historical romance lovers and I encourage you to check it out.

I give it a rating of 4 out of 5

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.

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

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