Euphemia and the Unexpected Enchantment
Series: The Fentons, Book 3
By: Alicia Cameron / Narrated By: Helen Taylor
Length: 2 hrs and 15 mins
Very sweet, but tooooo short for such a nice character…!
Which is to say, I s’pose, that no Alicia Cameron can EVER be too long to suit my tastes and moods. EsPECially if that character just happens to be meek and shy Miss Fleet, the spinster Companion of Felicity’s (She of the Damaged Reputation) aunt.
Miss Fleet is on her way out of London, traveling by coach to join Felicity and her new husband in their home in the country. She’s delighted to be getting away from her duties as a Companion to that ornery old woman, but now she’s a tad worried that she’s to be a burden on the new couple just as they’re embarking on their new marriage. Will she be a Companion to Felicity? Miss Fleet, Euphemia, has been told no, she’s to feel like part of the family, but Euphemia will indeed fret.
She’s startled from her musings by the big bark of a big man which startles her enough so that she tosses her chocolate all over her gown. This will not do, the big bear of a man declares, and he scoops the tiny woman up and carries her off to his own estate. He’s the Baron of Balfour, widowed these past two years, and Euphemia is plopped down in his house, amongst his surly servants who look at her a tad askance. She’s popped into one of his dead wife’s gowns, an almost perfect fit, and the sight of this “Pocket Venus” astonishes the man so much that he’s left swaying and gasping for air. Asthma it is, and back in the Regency years? Deadly.
And so the good Euphemia, counseled by the physician and by a faithful servant, is asked to stay as her presence seems to make the Baron breathe easier. She fills her days in the man’s bedchambers (With a chaperone!), reading to him from her favorite Gothic romances, acting out each part soooo verrrrry dramatically and with great wit and verve. She’s delighted to be of such great help to him, and it does make her feel good about herself, as tho’ she’s of some worth, not just a poor relation destined to forever be a burden.
Soon, the two have bonded a bit, the big “Wounded Bear” (As Euphemia calls him) having the skills and the good nature to make her laugh and laugh. But he crosses the line when he embraces her and peppers her with kisses, which she finds herself responding to, and she flat out fleeeeees when he proposes marriage to her.
She’s traumatized! First, what kind of wanton woman is she that she could respond with such heat, such longing? And second? Well, she full well knows that he’s just reminded of his dead wife every time he sees her, and she can NEVER, will NEVER, put herself in a position of being sloppy seconds, of simply filling the dead woman’s dresses and gowns. She wants soooo much to say yes, to have a home of her own, to take delight in this man, but she’s haunted by the portrait of the beautiful dead woman. Euphemia knows she’s plain, and she knows she’ll forever feel miserable living beneath the painted eyes of that portrait.
Helen Taylor does her usual wonderful job with the narration, here voicing the entirety of the story from the point of view of the plain spinster. We feel her timid nature as it wakes up and becomes bolder, we feel her fierceness as she knows that NO she will NOT stand in for the dead beauty, and we feel how shattered she is as she falls into the arms of the waiting Felicity, who is just as warm and kind as she was in Book 2 of “The Fentons”. Taylor keeps things timid, until she warms them waaaay up. Plus, she truly does the Wounded Bear so very well, and he’s a big boomer of a man! Brava!
Alas, this is way less than 3 hours, so Euphemia and the Unexpected Enchantment juuuuust baaaarely scratches the surface of the wonderful Miss Fleet, and as I did so love her in Book 2, where she was such a good and loyal friend to Felicity that I was hoping for so much more— I unfortunately shall have to make do with this. It has author Alicia Cameron’s usual pathos in every single word, and it has the routine excellence of Taylor’s narration, but dang it! I wish it had been a few hours longer.
It is to be noted that Cameron states her favorite as being a piece that is but 53 minutes, and I don’t doubt for a second that THAT one will be superb too.
Ahhhh, but will it leave me longing for more, as this one does…?
Write on, Ms. Cameron, write on! Whip! Whip! Whip!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.