My apologies for my
lengthy absence from this blog. The causes include snafus with the blog, a
freelance project that threatened my sanity, and some health issues. But the
freedom from bi-weekly posts has persuaded me that the time has come to end
Just Janga. Since I am woefully behind on reviews, I will be posting almost
daily through the end of this month, but July 31 will be my final day to post
here. I’ll have more to say about my decision in that final post. Meanwhile, I
hope you will forgive my silence and join me for a final flurry of reviews over the
next two weeks.
Vixen in Velvet
By Loretta Chase
Publisher: Avon
Release Date: June
24, 2014
Leonie Noirot is the youngest of the
three sisters who own Maison Noirot, a dressmaking establishment known not only
for its fabulous fashions but also for the fact that two of its owners have
married into the aristocracy. Marcelline, the creative genius whose designs are
breathtaking, is the wife of the Duke of Clevedon (Silk Is for Seduction) and Sophy, whose acting and writing talents
are used to assure Maison Noirot of the very best publicity, is the wife of the
Earl of Longmore (Scandal Wears Satin).
With Marcelline suffering from morning sickness and Sophy traveling on her
wedding trip, Leonie, the sister with a head for business and a remarkable
facility with numbers, is in charge. Having learned that Viscount Swanton,
London’s newest literary sensation whose poetry and person have the young
ladies of the ton sighing and swooning, will be attending the British
Institution’s Annual Summer Exhibition, Leonie decided the exhibition was the
perfect spot to appear in a Noirot creation that might draw the attention of
the young ladies or their chaperones and thus increase the shop’s clientele. Her
fascination with one painting in the exhibit, Botticelli’s Venus and Mars, caught her by surprise. So too did the effects of
her meeting with the owner of the painting.
Simon Blair, Marquess of Lisburne, has
recently returned to England after a half dozen years on the Continent
following the death of his father. The trip to England was supposed to be a
brief one, but Swanton’s fame and angelic looks have made him the target of
excessive attention. Although they are only cousins, Lisburne feels an elder
brother’s responsibility for the younger man. Once he meets Leonie Noirot,
Swanton is not the only reason Lisburne chooses to linger in England.
When Leonie begins the work of
transforming the graceless, overbearing, physically unattractive Lady Gladys
Fairfax into a woman who can attract the beau of her choice, Lisburne is
convinced she is setting herself up for disaster. He believes Lady Gladys is
the sow’s ear that no effort or skill will make over into silk, and Leonie’s
efforts will make her ridiculous. But Leonie is confident that she can show Lady
Gladys the way to social success. So the two agree on a wager. If Lady Gladys
has at least six followers and one non-mercenary offer of marriage within a
matter of weeks, Lisburne will pass the ownership of his Botticelli to Leonie.
If Lady Gladys remains a social failure, Leonie will give Lisburne two weeks of
her undivided attention.
As the two spend more and more time in
one another’s company, of course they fall in love. This is a romance. One of
the things that makes this story more than a charming, if predictable, wealthy
lord-meets-unsuitable-heroine tale is watching the initial chemistry between
Leonie and Lisburne deepen into liking and understanding of one another. Along
the way, they each also come to know himself/herself more fully.
Sometimes everything in a book just
works for a reader in a way that is difficult to explain. Such was my
experience with Vixen in Velvet.
I loved the characters. Leonie really believes
she is all logic and business, but her feelings for Lisburne show her how
incomplete that image of her is. The vulnerability the reader see when Leonie’s
memories of the Paris riots, the dangers the Noirots escaped, and all they
lost, her very real gifts for the work she does, and her commitment to the
sisters’ charity all prove that she is more that an amusing lightweight. In a
similar fashion, Lisburne may appear to be a practiced and not overly
intelligent charmer, but in reality he is devoted to his family, sensitive to
beauty, and possessed of a social conscience and a sense of humor as well as
being handsome and wealthy.
I also loved the
subplot centered around Lady Gladys. It serves to illustrate Leonie’s
compassion and insight as well as reveal the sensitive, longing creature that
Lady Gladys is beneath her porcupine exterior. And Brava to Loretta Chase for
making Lady Gladys’s makeover less magical transformation and more education in
how to make the most of her assets. One of my favorite lines in the novel was
Leonie’s pronouncement: “I've dressed
her … The rest she's done for herself.”
Other things I love included a
description of Leonie’s fascination with the Botticelli that should strike a
chord with any reader who has even been enthralled by a painting, a poem, or a
piece of music, one of the best first kiss scenes, and Leonie’s poetry
recitation. As much as I enjoyed these scenes, my favorite is the one when
Lisburne visits the Milliners’ Society for the Education of Indigent Females.
Leonie shows him the crafts the girls have created to sell, and Lisburne is
visibly moved.
“It would seem that
your friend's poetry has infected you with excessive tenderness,” she said.
“That may be so, madame, yet I wonder how any man could withstand this.” He waved his hand at the contents of the display case. “Look at them. Little hearts and flowers and curlicues and lilies of the valley and lace. Made by girls who've known mainly deprivation and squalor and violence.”
She considered the pincushions and watch guards and mittens and handkerchiefs. “They don't have Botticelli paintings to look at,” she said. “If they want beauty in their lives, they have to make it.”
“Madame,” he said, “is it necessary to break my heart completely?”
“That may be so, madame, yet I wonder how any man could withstand this.” He waved his hand at the contents of the display case. “Look at them. Little hearts and flowers and curlicues and lilies of the valley and lace. Made by girls who've known mainly deprivation and squalor and violence.”
She considered the pincushions and watch guards and mittens and handkerchiefs. “They don't have Botticelli paintings to look at,” she said. “If they want beauty in their lives, they have to make it.”
“Madame,” he said, “is it necessary to break my heart completely?”
If you are looking for a romance with a tightly woven plot,
heavy on action, you may want to skip Vixen
in Velvet. But if you want a character-driven romance with delightful
dialogue and real conversations and sparkling humor that is sometimes
wonderfully subtle written by a virtuoso in the genre, I highly recommend this
book.
Which is more important to you as a reader, characters or plot?
