"The Charm School" is the first book that I have read by Susan Wiggs and I enjoyed it so much that I will look out for some of her others.

Isadora Peabody is the ugly duckling of the Peabody family and she's so used to being overlooked and misunderstood (she's very intelligent and well-read) that she had turned in on herself and become a dull person. Her family don't understand her and the only person in whom she has any interest is Chad, a friend of her brothers', but Chad doesn't seem to notice her.

Then Isadora has a chance to escape - to take a sea voyage as translator on the Silver Swan, a trading ship. Unfortunately her first introduction to the captain Ryan Calhoun wasn't optimal but she manages to persuade the ship's owner to let her come aboard, against Captain Calhoun's wishes.

When they set sail the book really takes off - the description of sailing in the mid-nineteenth century are excellent. I'm a bit of a sailor myself and I found it fascinating to read about how all the crew worked together on the boat and the different tasks they had. There's a very strong theme throughout the book about the slave trade in America and the way that so many people were slave owners without ever really thinking about it. There is some wonderful description when the ship docks in Rio and the way that Isadora slowly unfurls from the ugly duckling into the swan is beautifully written. The ending is satisfying and overall it was a very enjoyable book and I recommend it very highly.

I've enjoyed some books by Wiggs in the past (THE MISTRESS, THE FIREBRAND), and have not enjoyed some others (THE HORSEMASTER'S DAUGHTER, KINGDOM OF GOLD). So I'm never really sure what I'm going to get when I pick up a Wiggs novel. She is a talented writer, no question, but some of the stories she chooses to spend that talent on leave a lot to be desired.

As usual, this book was written with an easy-to-read engaging flowing style. I've never once had a complaint about Wiggs' writing style. The heroine was what earned this book a two-star rating, rather than a one-star. I could really identify with her. Though I wasn't shy or timid like her (quite the opposite, in fact :), I too went through an ugly-duckling stage (I've destroyed all pictures of me when I was in the ninth grade, just to give you an idea). I was looking forward to watching an awkward girl blossom into a confident woman.

My problem with this book was with the hero. He had some admirable qualities, such as the fact that he was against slavery and didn't look down on Isadora. But he was completely ruled by his sex drive. It was really annoying. When the reader first meets Ryan, he's three-sheets-to-the-wind, falling down drunk pawing at a prostitute (whose name he doesn't even know) that is sitting on his lap. Ugh. I don't find the idea of men paying for sex attractive, even in a historical novel. (And don't you dare say that men have needs or I will scream! Contrary to what mass media would have you believe, a man can live without sex.)

I tried to get past this, but then the heroine later barges in on Ryan in the middle of having sex with a prostitute. It was just so disgusting, and completely unnecessary for the story. It grossed me out, and I found myself thinking that Ryan didn't deserve a sweet, innocent, intelligent woman like Isadora. She'd probably end up catching syphilis from him.

I quit reading at this point, and after checking out this book on the Amazon page, and finding out that Ryan gets Isadora high on hemp during a love scene (how sickening!) just makes me glad that I didn't waste any more time on this book. I'm about ready to give up on Wiggs. Writing talent without morality makes for a poor read.

October 1851 - Boston. The Peabody's of Boston are a proper Bostonian family. Isadora is their oddball. She is dark, pasty, and plump. Her siblings are stylishly fair, fashionably pale, and wonderfully slender. Repugnance fills Isadora's soul. Her family shuns her, she has no friends, and the man she loves ignores her. She will never be part of the 'Charmed Bostonian World'. They will never invite her to the dazzling mythical circle of acceptance - a fairytale place filled with light and beauty and laughter. So why shouldn't Isadora Peabody seize the chance to journey, to journey into a wonderful new world?

Ryan Calhoun is a reckless southern gentleman. He is a charmer. In Boston Harbor, Captain Ryan Calhoun is the latest hot-shot skipper. He is famous for his outlandish clothes, his rakish behavior, and for bringing in lucrative cargos. As accomplished as he is, Ryan Calhoun has only one goal - to reunite his partner with his wife and children. A wife and children bound with the chains of slavery. This time Ryan Calhoun's destination is Rio de Janeiro and he desperately needs a translator. Isadora Peabody fits the bill . . .

However, Isadora Peabody confuses Ryan Calhoun. She makes him uncomfortable. Usually, he is drawn to beautiful women, women who can't see him for what he is - a spoiled, aimless young man. Isadora Peabody sees beneath his carefully constructed facade. Undeniably, he means to intimidate her, to humiliate her, to make her sorry she forced her way onto his ship. Yet, his plans misfire. Ryan finds that sharing Isadora's friendship, trust, and respect is far more satisfying.

Although THE CHARM SCHOOL has a humorous feel, the story lacks something much more important - emotion! To fulfill the metamorphosis idea the reader must feel the heroine's pain and suffering - both emotions seem lacking. Isadora's transformation from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan is never truly felt - so in the end, Susan Wiggs' overall significance was lost.
Grade: B-

MaryGrace Meloche,
Reviewer for: RomanceDesigns.

This is the only book so far that I've reviewed, that I did not
finish.

I could not get into this book. Maybe it is because my reading interests are more simplistic, but the 2nd story with his first
mate threatened to overwhelm the book.

Also, I did not see where the people on board the ship did all that much to change her, it seemed to me like she did a lot of the changing herself, and much of that came from her new environment, onboard a seagoing vessel.

I read approx. 1/2 of the book, give or take a few pages. I did
want to find out the reaction of the snotty boy back home, when she comes back to London society, but not bad enough to spend a few more hours reading the rest of the book to find out.

After having read the back of the book "Lady Pirate" by Lynsay Sands, it sounds more like a book I would enjoy. I have read 3 of her books and all 3 were very good to excellent. The plot
described on the back of her book sounds very much like the plot on the back of this one, but since I didn't like this one, Lynsay's book will most likely deliver.

I hate to be the only nay-sayer in the crowd, but I simply did not enjoy "The Charm School". It was very well written, and the plotting and idea were excellent, but I found the story to be such a sad one that I simply could not read past the first few chapters. (I skimmed the rest, so I know the story).

Isadora was not only an ugly duckling, she was so badly treated by everyone around her, and she was in such a tremendous amount of emotional pain, it took all my self control to keep from wringing their necks. Everyone was so nasty to her, there was not one person who was nice to her?

I have to admit that I did identify somewhat with Isadora, but I was simply horrified by the way she was treated. The intensity of the cruelty of the people around her seemed horrific beyond words - I have to thank G-d that I was not treated this way. I have to admit that like Isadora I wasn't Miss Social Debutante - but most people were not outright nasty to me, the way people are here in this story. I was simply horrified.

Especially since very early on in the story, I was able to figure out why Isadora acted the way she did. There is something called "sensory integration disfunction", if you will type this into any search engine you can get a lot of information about this condition. This is a minor nervous system disorder - similar to ADD, yet very easily diagnosable, and also easily treated (no drugs, just certain kinds of exercise). "Sensory integration" is how the nervous system, and the brain, process all the millions of sensory stimuli that are constantly around us and are able to synthesize it into a cohesive whole. Some people have excellent sensory integration, and these are the people who seem very much at ease with themselves and with their bodies, their sensory input is processed quickly and efficiently, and they will come across as "poised" and "with it" because their nervous system does a better job at processing and interperting everything around them. At the other end of the spectrum are people whose nervous systems do a poor job processing all kinds of stimulation properly - and these deficiencies can come across in many different ways. One of the faces of SID is the way Isadora is presented - awkward, clumsy, tongue tied, and ill at ease in the physical world around her.

The most serious end of the SID spectrum is autism. An autistic child or person usually has very bad sensory integration, and this is why they sometimes hear things either lower or higher than they actually are, they will feel things either not at all, or they are extremely sensitive. (Perhaps that's also why they do sometimes bizarre - to us - activities, such as rocking, because they are trying to stimulate a nervous system (vestibular stimulation) which is under-stimulated because they can't process normal stimulation properly). But most people with poor sensory integration are not autistic, and their deficiencies are usually not as dramatic or serious as the autistic person's deficiencies.

Normal people who have SID may have difficulty processing auditory stimuli - for instance they will hear a little too loud, or too low, or they will be unable to tune out background noises as well as the average person, which makes it harder for them to concentrate in class, let's say, if there's a humming from the electricity, for instance. Or they will be more sensitive to certain clothing - or less sensitive so that they don't feel pain the way they should, and will do dangerous things - like scald themselves - because they don't realize how hot the water is.

Some children with SI crave stimulation - because since they are not processing the ordinary stimulation around them in a meaningful way, they crave an "extra" dose just to feel normal. Other children with SI will be too sensitive - and will feel that even the slightest touch "hurts" them. One thing they all have in