Rainbird's Revenge
Series: A House for the Season, Book 6
By: Marion Chesney / Narrated By: Lindy Nettleton
Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
Awwww, the final book of the series… a good one!
Sooo, I’ve whined enough about how, nice tho’ this A House for the Season series can be, it doesn't hold a candle to “The Other” series I read by MC Beaton writing as Marion Chesney… oh okay, I can’t stand it: The Poor Relation series! No, even after wrapping this, the last one, up I can say that ultimately it wasn’t as fun. Tho’ each series had a main character who was despicable, at least Sir Philip was cagey and had a warm heart every now and then. But here, Joseph was mean-spirited and selfish and really didn’t have a whole lot to offer the other servants at 67 Clarges Street in Mayfair. I’ll be quite happy to never have to hear him shouting at poor Lizzie, or conniving with other footmen again.
But I must admit that this series has the better concluding book of the two. Here, the Hero and heroine are far more memorable, and they have chucklesome character arcs indeed. In this book, the owner of the house, the Duke of Pelham, returns to inhabit the place as his townhouse is being redone. He’s a haughty man, handsome, rich, automatically deMANds respect. So when he’s in the country and deigns to attend a small country ball, he automatically asSUMEs that the most beautiful girl there will be delighted to attend to him and his every word.
Unfortunately, the prettiest girl, our heroine, is Jenny Sutherland, a girl made vain by her beauty, who doesn’t know he’s a Duke, and is rude to him, adjusting her hair and gloves and dress, as he blathers on. The two butt heads, the Duke heads to London for the Season to find a wife who will NOT be like Jenny Sutheland; and Jenny is dragged to London because her Aunt Letitia feels she needs to be taught that there’s more to being popular, more to life, than being just beautiful.
Naturally, if our 67 Clarges Street servants, with butler John Rainbird leading the way, can get their hands on either of these two, maybe some personalities can be tweaked, some set-downs could be handed out in only the most necessary of ways. And will either our H or h find a match this Season?
Then too, the servants’ stories are brought to a close. There’s that pub that they now have the money to open, so they’re only staying on for the rest of the Season to serve the Duke and to see if they can figure out whether the Duke knew just how starvation their wages have been. -But- There’s a definite unrest starting to descend as one maid starts to see marriage as a possibility, and one maid sees only more work and drudgery to be done at the pub; the cook and the housekeeper form their attachment; Joseph haaates the country; the pot boy really wants Rainbird to take an opportunity that crops up; and little Lizzie? Well, she’s a young woman now, and she’s mournful that everyone expects her to just marry Joseph and settle in to work her fingers to the bone. Lizzie’s all grown up, all educated, and she has dreams of her own. So this book provided a fine ending, and we get to see how it all works out for them.
Lindy Nettleton as a narrator had more work to do with this one as she had many, many characters coming and going, many accents to manage, a Hero and heroine to make likable, and situations fraught hauteur and injured pride and vanity, and worries that come to the fore. Brava, Ms. Nettleton! No, you’re still not Davina Porter, but you juggled six audiobooks in fine fashion.
One thing I’ll add here is how, in most of Beaton/Chesney’s work, I GREATLY disliked how, once any of her characters are in love and settled in their relationships, the men always think: Oh, I’m never going to let her talk to him again; oh, she’ll never be doing that again. I mean, I realize that it’s probably true to the time period (What am I saying? It’s pretty true now), but it irks me mightily every time I listen to a Hero think the thoughts of a controlling jerk.
Okay, I’ve had my say on it all. And now?
Join me, dear fellow Accomplice, cuz there’s one more Beaton/Chesney series that I would like to revisit: The Traveling Matchmaker! Let’s see how the men treat the women there!
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