Sheri Cobb South: Brighton Honeymoon

Brighton Honeymoon: A
Polly Hampton & Sir Aubrey Tabor

Suddenly unemployed and with no place to turn, orphaned Polly Hampton refuses to abandon the project that brought her to London in the first placeDthe search for her unknown noble father. In a flash of audacious inventiveness, she presents herself at the home of wealthy weaver Ethan Brundy, claiming to be his long-lost sister. Although Ethan sees through her ruse immediately, his aristocratic wife decides to take Polly under her wing, with rewarding and highly entertaining results. Good attention to period detail, a lively, witty style, and wonderfully atypical characters combine in a sparkling story vaguely reminiscent of Georgette Heyer's classic These Old Shades. Here, South nicely continues the story begun in The Weaver Takes a Wife...(amazon)


In the continuing glomming of Ms. Sheri Cobb South's books, I was delighted to discover that there was a sequel to The Weaver Takes a Wife. As you know, I loved TWTAF so I opened Brighton Honeymoon with high expectations.

I was not disappointed.

In Brighton Honeymoon, we are introduced to Polly, a sweet girl who came to the city in search of her father. She was a child born out of wedlock and was assured by her mother that her father was someone of importance; after her mother passes away, she is determined to find her father, envisioning their reunion to be glorious, filled with happy tears, and all that jazz.

She finds employment at a bookstore, partially because of her love of books (ooh, I love characters who love to read!) and partially because she hopes that her father will magically walk in.

The situation quickly turns sour when she is fired from her job. With nowhere to go, she goes to our beloved Mr. Ethan Brundy's home and claims she is his long-lost sister!

His wife, Helena, who is not nearly as snotty as we once believed, embraces Polly, however, Ethan remains unconvinced. He knows that he is extraordinarily wealthy and he knows that the world is full of people hoping to snag a piece of his hard-earned dough. (er, money..)

Ethan calls upon his friend, Sir Aubrey Tabor. Aubrey knows something is not right with Polly and tells Ethan he will rid the newly-wedded couple of her.

Unfortunately for Ethan, Aubrey, Polly, and Aubrey's mother (cranky, hoity-toity haughty woman) join him and Helena on their honeymoon to Brighton!


This is a delightful romp and it is filled with giggles, impeccable characters, and Ms. South's exquisite writing. It is so delightful that you will overlook the cliched and very coincidental ending - it somehow works.

Another must-read in my book.

Sheri Cobb South: The Weaver Takes a Wife

The Weaver Takes a Wife: A+
Lady Helen Radney & Ethan Brundy


It is easy to understand why Regency romances are so popular with women. Like Cinderella, Pamela, and Jane Eyre, the heroines in these books labor on, unappreciated, until a wealthy aristocrat happens along, recognizes their true worth, and whisks them off to his world of wealth, privilege, and abundant hired help. Although Sheri Cobb South calls her new novel a Regency romance, The Weaver Takes a Wife is not typical of the genre. In this case, the heroine is an aristocrat, the daughter of a duke, while the hero is an orphan without a pedigree. All that Ethan Brundy has to recommend his as a husband is the wealth he derives from his textile mill in Lancashire. One of the reasons the characters are so believable is that...all of them speak exactly as they would have during the Regency period. South is at her best when she lets her characters reveal themselves in dialogue. Occasionally, the novel moves toward melodrama, but fortunately the author soon returns to her comic mode, or even to farce, as in the final episode. The Weaver Takes a Wife is really too good a book to be dismissed as a Regency romance; it deserves to be described as a novel of manners in the Austen tradition. (First Draft, amazon)



I read Ms. South's other novel, Of Paupers and Peers, and was completely engrossed in the story. The dialogue was rich, the characters real, the romance genuine, and the story - completely compelling.

Therefore, I did what any other reader would do:

I went online to my library system and requested for all her other novels. I believe this is what you would call "glomming."

I'm a big, fat glommer.
And I was not disappointed.

In The Weaver Takes a Wife, we are introduced to despicably haughty and sharp-tongued Lady Helen Radney, the daughter of a Duke, whose bloodlines go back some eight-hundred years. She's mean, she "sniffs her nose in disdain," and, of course, is beautiful.

It is during a play that Mr. Ethan Brundy sees Helen and falls in love with her. He is determined ot marry her and lets his two friends (both peers) know.

They think he's joking.
Then they're scared for him when they realize he's not.

You see, Ethan is an orphan who was raised by a Mr. Brundy, the owner of textile mills. Ethan learns the skill of the trade, then inherits the mills. He is fabulously wealthy, but speaks with a cockneyed accent, immediately revealing himself to have originated from the lower class.

When he gets one of his friends to introduce him to Helen, she is disgusted.
She sniffs her nose at him and mocks him - subtly. He doesn't realize that he is being mocked. If he does, he ignores it admirably.

Unfortunately for Helen, her father has made poor investments and is a gambler: their financial situation is dire.

Ethan, in love with Helen, asks for her hand. Her father mandates she marries him because of his profound wealth. This is her response:

"Mr. Brundy, you are no doubt as well acquainted with my circumstances as I am with yours, so let us not beat about the bush. I have a fondness for the finer things in life, and I suppose I always will. As a result, I am frightfully expensive to maintain. I have already bankrupted my father, and have no doubt I should do the same to you, should you be so foolhardy as to persist in the desire for such a union. Furthermore, I have a shrewish disposition and a sharp tongue. My father, having despaired of seeing me wed to a gentleman of my own class, has ordered me to either accept your suit or seek employment. If I married you, it would only be for your wealth, and only because I find the prospect of marriage to you preferable - but only slightly! - to the life of a governess or a paid companion. If, knowing this, you still wish to marry me, why, you have only to name the day."

Having delivered herself of this speech, Lady Helen waited expectantly for Mr. Brundy's stammering retraction. Her suitor pondered her words for a long moment, then made his response.

"'ow about Thursday?"

Ahhhh! Ethan Brundy is my hero!

This 232 page, double-spaced read (amazingly) encompasses true romance.

Ethan loves Helen. He is so kind to her, he is patient with her, and he realizes that underneath Helen's bitchy nature, there is a woman to be loved.

He pursues her - determinedly.
He endures her jibes.

And best of all, he slowly has Helen falling in love with him. (A Cit! A low-class worker! Gasp!)

Isn't that what romance is all about?


Furthermore, Ms. South's writing is truly authentic to the Regency time (I repeat: very Jane Austen-esque). It's romantic without being explicitly graphic. It made me giggle, it made me sigh, it made me love Ethan.


A must read for any fan of romance, Jane Austen, and loooooove.

Sheri Cobb South: Of Paupers and Peers

Of Paupers and Peers: A
Margaret Darrington & James Weatherly


This book looked lonesome on the shelf of my beloved library. It was a thin, short novel but a small tag said that it was a romance.

Romance?
I do love romance!

And so I decided to give this lonely book a try.

It was a lovely decision.

James Weatherly is a tall, lanky, and kind grammar tutor for his small village. Unknown to him, almost a century ago, a Duke disowned his son for falling in love with a maid. The son was erased from the family and life went on.

Surprisingly, James receives a visit from the solicitors and is told that his great-great-great-great-(however many greats there are) grandfather disowned his son who was a direct ancestor of James. And since all other living descendants of the dukedom were goners, James became the new Duke!

Exciting, right?
Except on the way to his estate, James has an incident with footpads and is left for dead. He is awoken by practical Margaret Darrington, who incidentally, assumes he is the tutor for her younger brother. Since James has amnesia and cannot remember who he is, he too assumes he is the tutor for the Darrington family.

And so goes the love story of James and Margaret. It is a misplaced love at first, since he believes himself to believe to be in love with Margaret's beautiful younger sister, Amanda. But he begins to see the wonderfulness of Margaret (as all good heroes come to this very necessary realization) despite her unconventional looks (not quite beautiful, but striking in her own manner).


Though this story is short, it's beautifully written. Very Jane Austen-esque. The language and dialect of the characters is one I would believe the long-ago British to have spoken and it is very witty (again, very Jane Austen-esque).

A definite recommend!

(I'm looking to glom her backlist of novels. Ooooooh, yes!)