Customer Reviews
Wonderful! Delightful! Witty! Jane Austen with sex!
What a terrific book! I'd never read Ms Cabot before, but this book is certainly a great incentive to investigate her other books. I simply adored it. And eventhough it's a fairly long book for a romance at 400+ pages, it sure doesn't feel like it and I didn't want it to end! But if you're expecting the typical first hot kiss by page 100; sex by page 150 you may be too impatient for this book. You just need to go along for the ride on this one - and an ejoyable ride it is!
I won't go too much into the plot since the book description above tells you what you need to know. But I will say that intially I was worried that the "heroine asks lothario to teach her about seduction" plot would be really hackneyed. But to my very pleasant surprise, it was well played, witty, sexy and just plain fun. I'm smiling now just remembering the first "lesson"! Both Caroline and Braden learned a little something that day!
Braden Granville, nouveau riche gunsmith who worked his way out of the Seven Dials slums and Lady Caroline Linford, daughter of the Earl of Bartlett, have more in common than one would think. For Caroline's father was the first Earl of Bartlett and was, like Braden, a self-made man. Though the rest of Society looks down their noses at him (including his gold-digging fiancee) Caroline doesn't - party because of her father and partly because it simply is not in her nature. She is genuine, sympathetic, warm and kind. She's also fiery and passionate when it comes to causes near and dear to her heart (fools and animals!). She's nothing like the other Society women Braden has romanced and she throws him off balance with her logic, her lack of artifice. He finds himself using the flimsiest of excuses to seek her out and though she knows she should run from him, she finds she doesn't want to!
I just loved this story, these characters. Well written, fast paced, sparkling and witty dialog all combine to a book I highly recommend!
Great characters make for a satisfying read
"Educating Caroline" is a delightful regency romance. The book begins when Caroline oversees her fiance with another woman. The other woman turns out to be the fiance of Braden Granville, our hero. Caroline plans to immediately call off her engagement, but her family's aristocratic credentials are questionable and her mother pressures her to continue the engagement to a marquis. Caroline decides that perhaps her naivety is to blame for his wandering eye, so she solicits Braden's help in learning more about the romantic arts. Braden has his own agenda which involves catching his fiance in compromising circumstances so that he can break his engagement. No big surprises as to where all this eventually leads. Normally I wouldn't have much use for a heroine who would willing remain engaged to a man who was cheating on her, but Patricia Cabot does a good job of making it work. Both Caroline and Braden are strong, appealing characters, and their interaction is full of humor and sexual tension. All in all, a very satisfying read.
Really good!
I wish I could give this 4.5 stars, because it was nearly perfect to me. I loved the characters, the dialogue was delicious (especially Caroline's internal conversation) and the ending was very satisfying. The only drawback (and it is a slight one and just based on personal preference) is that the plot is supposed to be about Braden giving Caroline "lessons" in how to please a man, but they only have two such lessons and and they are all about pleasing Caroline. I love Cabot's writing and really hoped to see a scene where Caroline got to explore Braden thoroughly. Just a small disappointment in an otherwise wonderful book.
