The Governess
Series: Sisters of Woodside Mysteries, Book 1
By: Mary Kingswood / Narrated By: Joanna Stephens
Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
Yippeeeeee! A new Regency series with a gentle yet captivating start!
So I was reeeally all sad and distressed when I hit the end of the Beaton/Chesney Traveling Matchmaker series last week, not knowing what the HECK I was gonna do after to get my romance ya-yas out. After all, that had been the third series of hers I’d done, and the other sets of series that verrry prolific author put out aren’t rated rather highly. What to do? What to do?
Why, hit Kindle Unlimited to see if there are any other offerings, hopefully with 4-6 books in a series, of course! And thank oh golly gosh, the author Mary Kingswood has three series out there, and I checked out the first book in this one, the Sisters of Woodside Mysteries, bought the audiobook for cheap, returned the ebook, and settled myself in for some Regency listening.
And how delighted I was, especially after meeting all the Winterton sisters and finding Annabelle to be the most interesting one, and it’s her story that kicks things off here in The Governess. After the death of their father, Edmund Winterton’s daughters discover that he left them all penniless and in debt from his frivolous ways and his prodigious gambling habits. Their home of Woodside must be sold to pay off debts, and each daughter must find genteel employment to make her way in the world.
As it turns out, SURPRISE! That’s about all the Publisher’s Summary and the actual story have in common. The PS makes it sound like Annabelle, who finds a job as governess to the Earl of Brackenwood’s three daughters, will be spending the book wrangling with her charges, in over her head in trying to teach, and that the Earl, aka Allan, will be wantonly hitting on her the whole time. Plus: Murder!!!
Uhm, well, it isn’t quiiiiite exactly like that. Annabelle is quite capable when it comes to teaching, only one of her charges is remotely rebellious, and Allan is really quite shy. Add to that, there’s no Instant Attraction thing going, which is good cuz I hate that, but the relationship develops over time and through instances of shared connection, through learning to regard and respect each other. Plus: Murder!!!
Whiiiich actually? Comes off as more of a cozy, with Allan’s recently deceased wife maybe having been offed by someone, and everybody is a suspect. The mystery is kinda there, kinda not, addressed only here and there, with the romance aspect of the book taking its rightful precedence. A group of detective-ish men is called in, and that’s probably what I liked least of the whole murder mystery: Since nobody is even sure the wife’s death was indeed a murder, and since everybody is a suspect, the main detective, a lawyer with an absolutely indecipherable name rePEATedly throws out pronouncements that it was a murder, done by this person, it wasn’t a murder, it was, was not, maybe a suicide, maybe not. Which is fine, but the little lawyer makes each pronouncement as if the case was now closed. Then maybe not. Then maybe it was, only it happened differently from what he said the laaaaast time. It’s hard to take a character seriously as a competent person when their judgment is so obviously flawed. Also, the other characters, while taking the murder seriously, don’t take the death of the woman seriously at all, which is kinda tasteless.
But that’s my only quibble. Others found the book to be slow going and yes, I can see that. It’s more a study of characters and slowly developing bonds. Imagine how grateful I was to discover that this was a delightfully clean romance with Annabelle worried only about getting a kiss maybe somewhere down the line. Yessss, slow going is fine with me.
Joanna Stephens has gotta be one of the most enthusiastic narrators out there. She goes to great lengths to vary voices, to infuse drama and emotion. And this can at times be a tad much. Lucy, who’s a chatterbox, has a flighty squeaky voice, the little lawyer sounds like he’s about ready to cough up a phlegm ball, one of the daughters pitches a tearful fit—aaaall ear-assaulting, I tell you. Still, if you’re going to have a rather slowly evolving story, it’s nice that there are some rather impressive vocal gyrations that go with it to keep you awake and on your toes.
As luck would have it, Lucy (She of chatterbox fame) is to have her story told next for Book 2 of the series, so I guess I’ll find out whether the screechy voice Stephens uses for her is tooo much, or perhaps I’ll find that there’s a depth to her as yet unguessed at.
So see whether Annabelle can fall for a “dull dog” like Allan, see if Allan is indeed falling for Annabelle (Dunno, it could be she shines cuz all other females are senseless or avaricious creatures, see whether the wife was offed and if Allan did it. But mostly stay for the banter which, while not always packed with humor, is at least packed with a touch of wit and a heavy helping of good writing.
Now it’s off to Book 2!!!
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