Member Reviews
Vivian Fox is given the chance to have one Grand Season. She lives with her mother and younger brother and they struggle to support their family. Vivian is given the chance to have a grand season and to be shown around Town to experience the good life. She gets so much more than she expects from this grand season. Will it be enough or will she go home disappointed with the outcome? You will have to read to find out!
This story was fairly fast paced but it was a sweet and clean romance that I enjoyed reading.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
A sweet romance. Vivian is her family's poor relation, but when she is given the opportunity to have one season to enjoy. When a theif turns up just at the same time as Vivian, however, her character is called into question. A sweet Cinderella sort of story.
One Grand Season is not your typical romance and was very different from what I was expecting. As a romance, there seemed to be very little romancing and very little chemistry between the main characters.
Normally, I love novellas because they leave out a lot of the filler in books. Season just did not read well.
I never really understood why so much time was spent describing Oliver’s ‘madness’ if he was not the hero. His anger and quick judgment did not endear me to him at all. Will seemed to be the more patient one, but I did not see any real connection between him and Vivian until the end of the book.
The thieving issue seemed to be solved too easily and too quickly without any real sleuthing. It was just kind of handed to them.
Vivian, along with the other ladies, did not have any real depth either. I was really looking forward to a ‘grand’ romance. It was not there. Sarita Leone has potential, so I do not want this to be the only one of her books I read. I would like to see her concentrate more on her two main characters without including any side fluff – concentrate on the romance and connection between the hero and heroine. Then, add in the secondary characters and minor side issues. Since I cannot give a better review, I will not be providing a public review. Thank you Net Galley for sharing this book in exchange for an honest review.
There are some great ideas here, and the Cinderella-ish theme has its appeal (as it’s done here, without evil secondary female characters more in the background). However, all the research mistakes really got to me in the end.
I did also like that the story did NOT in any way go in the direction I expected.
For a quick read some readers might be frustrated by the lack of time hero and heroine actually spend together, but I didn’t care too much.
On the other hand, there’s a point in this genre where too many liberties can be taken with historical behaviour and a reader is left with modern characters in pretty outfits.
In the case of One Grand Season, it’s the little things that gradually chip away until you don’t have much of the 19th century left.
The duke’s heir who introduces himself to low-ranking people with his Christian name…
The poor seamstress who somehow gets herself invited to be a houseguest of a duke and a duchess…
The duchess who thinks associating with people so poor they are socially beneath half her servants is just delightful…
The heroine who doesn't know the names of vehicles people used in her time...
The made-up region of England called “Stropshire”, which is really just the real county of Shropshire with a spelling mistake. It’s no different to setting the book in the United States and having a heroine come from the imaginary place named “Yew Nork”.
The heroine whose best gown is from some sort of 1810s bargain bin at the dress shop…
The terms of address for the aristocracy that are incorrect…
The confusion about what constitutes the Season, and what time of the year it actually happened…
This book is going to work better for people with less idea of how Regency society worked than it did for me.