Georgette and the Unrequited Love (Sisters of Castle Fortune #1)

(3.5 stars) Alicia Cameron is back on track for me with this new romance. Her first Regency romances, in particular those with the heroines Clarissa, Honoria and Angelique, were delightful but the ones to follow were not as much to my taste. I found them too wordy and with wandering plots and the heroines a bit boring. But Georgette is a heroine to delight in and, in addition, I also appreciated the trajectory of the romance here.

Georgette is one of numerous daughters of the horridly appalling Baron Fortune. He’s a self-centered, self-absorbed widower with only one son, his heir, who is almost as appalling as he is, with the exception that the son doesn’t have the baron’s tendency to blurt things out ex-abrupto that are highly embarrassing to the family. Externalizing one’s thought bubbles is not especially appealing, although Georgette seems to be used to this by now and can often find some amusement along with the embarrassment.

Of all the numerous daughters (I forget the exact count) five are unmarried and the baron would like to remedy that. There’s a certain Lord Paxton showing interest in daughter Jocasta, so the baron thinks giving a house party with Paxton and friends included is just the ticket to get one daughter married off.

Unfortunately, it falls to Georgette, as usual, to do everything. She’s a bit of an unappreciated Cinderella in the family. Although pretty and sweet and kind, she’s not as pretty or artistically and/or musically talented as the other daughters, so the baron tends to discount her in his matrimonial schemes.

But let’s not think of Georgette as a pitiful being. Nope, she’s got pluck and character and a winning personality, especially once you get to really know her. She has even had marriage proposals which she has kept to herself, not wanting her horrid papa to know she has refused them. And why refuse them? Well, you see, Georgette is in love, but it’s unrequited love and she’s trying to make the best of it, but she doesn’t want to settle just because the man of her dreams doesn’t exactly know she exists and is even in love with someone else.

There you go. Georgette loves from afar and is trying to forget about that love. But when he turns up as a guest at the house party, and not only he but also the woman he is in love with and also the man who had once proposed to Georgette, now we have a story to sit down with and savor.

This is a kisses-only (and at the very end) romance but it’s romantic enough for me. I especially enjoyed the developing friendship between H and h and watching love creeping up on the hero without him realizing it at first.

This is not a perfect book. Cameron has a tendency to wander off in her plots into bits that often are not as interesting to me as the main romance is and she does this here also, but she managed to get on track again every time I began to tire of the tangents she had taken me on. I liked this and am looking forward to Sisters of Castle Fortune Book 2, whenever it is released.

This story is for every female who ever had a youthful unrequited crush (and that probably includes about 98% of us).

Miss Georgette Fortune is in the throes of such feelings for the unattainable Marquis of Onslow, who was, last time she saw him, in love with someone else.

Georgette lives in decrepit Fortune Castle where, as the oldest unmarried of 10 sisters (6 remain at home), she is responsible for keeping the castle running, despite lack of funds and surly staff members who resent her giving orders.

Her father adds to Georgette’s difficulties by being irresponsible and by having no filter between having a thought and uttering it aloud. He is a constant source of embarrassment.

There are such filterless people as George Fortune. In case you have never met one, I will share my most memorable: When I was teaching English to college freshmen, I had just such a fellow in class. While everyone was quietly reading a passage, he randomly, loudly and abruptly announced, “Dolphins are the only other species besides humans to have recreational sex.” Twenty-five startled faces looked up at me. The speaker was blushing as if to say “Did I say that out loud?” I struggled mightily to keep from laughing and continued with the lesson, which had nothing to do with dolphins or sex. I can relate to Georgette.

The story is fun to read. It takes its time to unfold a two-week house party featuring a cast of about 25 family and guests; subplots galore; details involved in keeping guests warm, amused and fed; plus small steps leading to the HEA.

Up until a kiss near the end, the only physical contact occurs when an auxiliary couple entwines their pinky fingers surreptitiously under the table.

I enjoyed this gentle book, but it was confusing at times. Each guest and sister had a distinct personality, but there were too many of them. The ladies did a great deal of embroidery during their visit, and I felt like I joined them and had to sort out all the threads of the story from time to time.

OK, Miss Fortune. I’ve seen this one before in a Regency historical so the pun didn’t work for me. And what really didn’t work was that after an initially cute and amusing opening this novel failed because there were (1) more characters than necessary (and, yes, no doubt some will get their own books) and (2) the plot of the house party fell a bit flat. No one was having a good time, there were too many people at odds with each other, too many cookie cutter characters and although the father of the house was meant to be funny, he was just a real irritation; I wanted to smack him round the old earhole. Sadly, the hero was not one you would fall in love with, he seemed flat and pretty smug and he and the heroine didn’t seem to have much in common. Part way through the story a previous suitor appears after several years abroad and somehow expects the heroine to fall in love and marry him based on what seemed to have been just a brief acquaintance years ago during which time he made no attempt to get in touch and she seems to have forgotten him. All in all, I would say that the book suffered from poor editing. The sub-plot lines were overly abundant and I found it hard to keep track of so many sisters, partners, nasty neighbours, etc. A good attempt but not a book I would want to reread and I have no interest in seeing about any of the numerous unmarried sisters. I struggled to finish it and have exiled it to my kindle cloud.

What an excellent start to a new series.
The book cover was strikng, and the story was well written, with a plot that was like being on a helter skelter ride, full of angst, misunderstandings, unrequited love, tears and laughter it had the lot. I noticed one reviewer felt that there were too many characters but I disagree, it added to the mayhem that was the impromptu house party arranged without thought by Baron Fortune. The central characters popped up frequently, particularly the 3 vindictive dames, the son of one gained a spine and a betrothed, the diamond of the first water, who although gained all the attention missed out on what she truly desired, the gibbering Lord who unable to speak to women may have met his future bride, (time and Alicia will only tell!!!) and the romantic who the party was given for in order to woo one of the Fortune daughter’s ended up with a different one. The Fortune daughter’s were totally unalike and a more diverse group it would be difficult to find but they supported each other and were held together as a family, by the hard done to Georgette, who was overlooked and abused by the obnoxious father and son.I did feel for 2 gentlemen in the group, Sir Justin Faulkes and Colonel Bellamy who had both been refused by Gergette in favour of Lucian , Marquis of Onslow, whom Georgtte had loved for years. It, however, took Onslow some time to get his act together, and a little help from Sir Justin before a Happy Ending could be achieved.
All in all I felt it to be an excellent read and would thoroughly recommend. I look forward to th next book.

I listened the other books by the author and especially Francine I thought very original. (Since it is very short I went for the bundle on audible) But this book was all over the place and the heroine ended up with the wrong guy in my opinion. It could be, that this author works better on audio, because this was the first of her book I did read myself and not listened to.

Also naming the heroine after Georgette Heyer was annoying, because this book had no humour in it. Sure I know were the writer tried for humour, but it failed to tickle me.

I usually do not mind a few loose ends, but in this book happens so little, that the stuff that was unresolved did get on my nerves.

The side romances were better than the main one.

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