You really can't do one review for these books because they intertwine with each other. I wasn't sure how this was going to go over when I heard about it, but thought I would give it a try.
In The Countess you have Christiana who is married to Dickey, now Dickey is a real jerk and doesn't treat Christiana very nice at all. Christiana married Dickey because he came courting her and she needed to get her dowry to pay off her fathers gambling debt. Book starts out with Christiana's two sister coming over because their father has gotten in trouble again with gambling. Now Suzette will have to marry so she can get her dowry and pay of the debt. As they are trying to figure out a way to do this because Dickey is such a jerk, Dickey ends up dying. So instead of telling people about Dickey's death they decide to hide his body for a few days so that Suzette can find a poor husband to marry. I loved the girls trying to hide his body.
The girls go to a ball that night and things are going very well until Dickey walks in. Now they are all in shock, they knew he was dead, they packed him in ice in his room, how could he be walking into the ball?? The truth is Dickey was really George the twin brother of the Earl, Richard. He had "killed" his brother last year and just stepped into his shoes and no one knew he had done this because he stayed away from everybody for year. They all thought he was in mourning for his brother and that is why he had changed.
Now the real Earl, Richard survived and had been transported to America, he had been sick and that is why he it took him a year to come home, he had written his best friend Daniel to help him come home. Daniel comes to America to help Richard come home and they both hoped to confront Dickey/George at the ball. Imagine Richard's surprise when he finds out that he is married and the shocked look on his wife's face when walks in and she thinks he is dead.
I liked The Countess, I laughed with everybody moving Dicky/George's body all over the place and how everybody works together to figure out what is going on.
Now in The Heiress it is in a lot of ways a rehash of The Countess, the first half of the book covers a lot of what already happens. The Heiress is about Suzette and Daniel. Suzette has asked Daniel to marry her because she thinks he needs her dowry and she can live her own life after they are married. She really doesn't want to marry because Christiana has had such a bad marriage to Dicky/George but she has to marry to save the family.
Suzette and Daniel do spend a lot of time in this book behind closed door playing with each other. Daniel is not sure he really wants to marry Suzette but is drawn to her. The reason he is spending time with her is he was almost caught when he was trying to move the dead Dickey/George. Things move on from there.
As I said the first half of The Heiress is in a lot of ways a rehash of The Countess but you do have a little more of Suzette and Daniel. Now the end of the book got very preditable to me. They are on there way to Gretna Green to get married and Daniel wants to get his mother so she can be part of the wedding. Well, something happens to him and somebody else leaves a note for Suzette saying Daniel does not want to marry her because she is a lose women. Suzette believes this notes and is talked into marrying somebody else because she still thinks she needs to pay off her fathers debts. Of course you all know how the book is going to end as I said at this point the book got very predictable to me. I really loved The Countess and thought it was well done, I laughed through it and really enjoyed it. The Heiress was not bad it was just so much of a rehash of the first book and then you knew what was going to happen in this book. At lest for me I figured things out. I will read Ms Sands again because I do enjoy her writing.
2 comments:
I really enjoyed both these books though I do have to agree with you that the second book was predictable. Lyndsay Sands books always make me laugh and The Countess and The Heiress were no exception. Loved the part where they are trying to hide Dickey/George's body. It really had me chuckling. One thing you can always count on with Ms. Sands is her wonderful sense of humor. Even though The Heiress was predicable and went over a lot of events that had already happened in the first book, I thought it was rather fun to read what had been going on between Daniel and Suzette, all the things that The Countess hinted at. It has to be a challenge to write two books with events that are happening simultaneously and keep both stories different and entertaining and I thought Ms. Sands did a wonderful job of it. Though you knew what events would happen, you were seeing the events from the different perspectives of each couple which I thought was a lot of fun.
I was glad that we got to see all of the things that The Countess hinted at, you are right about that. ANd I give Ms Sands a lot or credit to write the books the way she did. It couldn't of been that easy. Maybe if I had waited a few months before I read The Heiress it might not of been such a rehash for me.
I can say even though it was a little predicable for me I did enjoy it and will look for more of her books.
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