RogerBW's Blog

The Winter Companion, Mimi Matthews 01 September 2023

2020 Victorian romance. Neville Cross has always got on with animals better than with people, particularly since the injury that made it hard for him to speak. Clara Hartwright is a lady's companion with unconventional plans for the future. Will they turn a brief acquaintance during a Christmas visit into something more?

Yes, of course they will. This is a romance. But as always the question is how we'll get to the predestined ending and what else will happen. This is the Victorian age, so Neville's disability readily leads to most people dismissing him as stupid and useless – and indeed his growth here takes him out of the safe and accepting space he's found for himself and out into a world that he reasonably expects to dismiss him. More seriously, even people sympathetic towards him are prone to see him as an overgrown adolescent…

Meanwhile Clara has taken on an elderly pug, who of course needs special care, and guess who's the guy who ends up dealing with all the animals…

I enjoyed the intertwining stories, but I never found myself entirely caught up in the romance; what should have been visceral and emotional engagement ended up coming over as something rather flatter. Matthews doesn't insert the bedroom scenes that many romance writers do, and I wonder whether in removing all that she's also dialled back the actual love a little too far. There's emotion here, desperation, relief, but always for me at a slight distance.

Good fun nonetheless and I'll read more by Matthews.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Previous in series: A Convenient Fiction | Series: Parish Orphans of Devon

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime crystal cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2021 hugo 2022 hugo 2023 hugo 2024 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1