Hello again!
Every time I start on the next book of this series. I realize I need to work on the previous books’ review too. I can’t get too mad at it as I feel like I’m coming out of my blogging rut, and branching out to check out a genre of books I thought I would hate forever. I owe a lot of credit to certain classics like Charles Dickins and Daphne du Maurier in the last year or two.
If you’d like to check out my reviews of the other books in the “Ladies of Devon” series, click on the titles mentioned here. The Jewels of Halstead Manor and The Lady of Larkspur Vale.
Can true love break the curse?
Amelia Fawn is cursed—or so she believes. How else can she explain each of her husbands’ deaths within the first year of marriage? So after the ton names her the Black Widow and warns eligible men to stay clear, Amelia vows never to marry again. Not even if she falls in love.
Charles Fremont has loved Amelia Fawn his entire life. But after enduring countless rejections and watching her get married three other times, he’s finally had enough. He swears a vow to never ask anything from her again. Even if it kills him.
Book three in the Ladies of Devon series, The Widow of Falbrooke Court, is a clean Regency romance continuing the story of the four women who make up a literary society in Devon and form a lasting friendship.
taken from Goodreads.
I was fairly excited to learn more about Amelia Fawn since I started reading this series in late April. She was brought to Halstead Manor in a hope to become a friend to the newcomer Giulia. My first impression of Amelia was that she’s very proper and understands her role in life is to be a good wife, mother and mistress of an estate, but within the first meeting with Giulia, you are told she’s a newly widow, but isn’t told much else until the ladies attend a literary society meeting with two other women of Devon, Mabel and Hattie.
While you meet Amelia in Giulia’s story, you also learn about Charles Freemont in the second book, as Mabel, Pippa and Charles are cousins. Charles is mentioned to have always been in love with Amelia, but she does not feel the same way about him. As much as I was into Amelia’s character, I’ve also lived like Charles, loving a person from afar. Charles does in fact try to give her all of the space they desperately need, but they are being pulled together by unseen forces–well, Miss Hattie Green helps just a little with her own quest to find romance. You can look forward to that review coming soon!
Amelia Fawn had married three times. It was a truth generally accepted between those who knew her intimately, as well as the majority of the local parishioners, that Amelia would never, ever marry again.
These two characters are very caring. I found myself drawn towards Charles, especially after he promised a man by the name of George Halpert, he would look on his wife and unborn child if anything was to happen to him. Amelia and her brother Andrew, who is an early doctor of the Regency period, allow the widow to stay at Falbrooke Court to heal and recover, and this makes an awkward but lovely awakening for Amelia and Charles.
The one thing that messed with me was hearing about Amelia’s feelings about not being able to fulfill a life that many ladies were doing at that time. She completed a Season with other ladies her age to find a husband, and it was an actual love match which is wild in the Regency-era (hell, it was practically nonexistent throughout the Victorian and Edwardian times as well!) but getting married was the easy part, making the marriage last long enough to produce children was another part of life.
“Trust me, Amelia. A man does not purposefully spend so much time in any woman’s company unless he has feelings for her,” Charles said, his voice dropping.
The poor woman has been made a widow three times. This is a lot of heartache for someone to take, doesn’t matter the age or sex, that kind of experience of loss is largely traumatic. She has been the blunt of gossip in society, but her friends are there for her to show her how much love she has on her side. She’s a wonderful lady who does deserve a rich marriage and children. I understand her hesitation of wanting to quit hoping for those things, but you sense she can be a jealous woman, despite not having any feelings for Charles early on.
I mean, Charles is in the same boat. He’s never been married or had any mistresses in the past. He’s a perfect catch for any woman, but as much as he’d like to forget about Amelia, he can’t and they start to pull into each other that reminds readers, everything happens for a reason.
Have you read the third book, “The Widow of Falbrooke Court” by Kasey Stockton yet? If so, please leave me your comments below!
Got Meghan's Blog 