Celia by Sophia Holloway

 

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre:  Romance, Historical Romance
Content: Clean

 

Celia Mardham's first London Season should have been a great success, but a near fatal riding accident has left her with a pronounced limp which means she cannot even curtsy, let alone dance.


Condemned it seems to spinsterhood, her mother Lady Mardham makes one last effort. She draws up a list of guests for a country house party, picking only young ladies who will not be rivals, as well as some potential suitors.


Among the gentlemen is Lord Levedale and when he meets Celia he sees her , not the limp. However, a number of accidents, misunderstandings and spiteful interventions litter the path ahead, and may succeed in driving them apart for good.

 

This is the second book I've read by this author and I must say, I'm hooked! I gave the other book 3.5 stars, but I would have given it 4 if not for a couple of annoying things the main character did. I went into this one hoping I would like it even better because I really enjoyed this author's writing style which reminds me a bit of reading a classic. Little did I know I would end up giving this book 5 stars! I rarely give out 5 stars, especially to romance books, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. 

I loved the characters, particularly the main character Celia, and I love the way this was written. We get a peek into the different characters perspectives on things that are happening and it was great. I just loved Lord Levedale and the fact that he saw Celia right from the beginning and not her injury. I enjoyed getting to know the minor characters as well as the main ones. Celia's mother was a piece of work though! 

There was some nice witty dialog that I also enjoyed, and it was particularly funny when it was at the expense of the more unsavory characters, like this paragraph that was during an archery competition:

"All that mattered was that she won and was the centre of attention. Had one inquired of several members of the party, they would have preferred her to be the centre of attention by being the target."

That was so unexpected that it had me bursting out laughing! 

People have said this author's books remind them of Georgette Heyer, whose books I've been aware of for a long time but never tried, so I decided to give one of her books a try next to compare. I'll post a review of that book later.