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“I'm slowly working my way through Kinsale's backlist. I have all the books--I just ration them because they're so good.
DKayeS wrote this review Thursday, November 20 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
And My Sweet Folly is no exception. Folie Hamilton begins a correspondence with her husband's cousin Robert Cambourne when she responds to a letter he'd written to her husband. Over the course of a few years, the letters provide a source of comfort and joy to the lonely young wife and the unsuited military officer stationed in India. That all changes when Folie's husband dies and she writes Robert that she's coming to visit him. His curt response informs her that he's been married all along.
Then his wife dies and he returns to England, at about the time Folie is trying to launch her stepdaughter into society. Now head of the family, Robert commands them both to come to his estate.
Where Folie discovers a completely different Robert than the one she'd come to know through his letters. He's sullen, angry, paranoid, autocratic... mad. There are glimpses of the old Robert, but only enough to be confusing rather than reassuring.
Robert seems convinced, in his lucid states, that someone is doing this to him--poisoning him. Or is that just madness talking? And how can Folie trust him when she has her stepdaughter's future to worry about?
As is typical (if typical can be used to describe such inventive variety) of Kinsale's work, My Sweet Folly is intensely emotional. The reader isn't spared any of Folie's or Robert's pain or confusion, or, in the end, their joy. One can assume, of course, since it is romance, that Robert will be sane at the end of the book, so it's a real trick to make one doubt that in the middle. Kinsale accomplishes it.
Folie is a wonderfully believable and sympathetic heroine. I loved watching her grow through the book, from the young idealistic woman escaping the duty of her marriage, through Robert's first betrayal, she grew up and turned her focus on her stepdaughter. When they meet again, she wants to believe him, but madness seems more likely, and it's the classic conflict between what the heart needs and what the head knows.
Robert is even more poignant. Spurned by his beautiful wife, he knows he's unloveable, and now it seems he's going mad. He retains enough self-preservation to be suspicious and paranoid, but can't be sure that's not also madness. It's a frightening thing not to be able to trust your own mind, and I could feel that right along with him.
I also loved the contrast between the first flowering of their romance--a sweet, naive, hopeful love story that could have been a whole book on its own, and the eventual HEA that was forged in the fire of adversity. (hyperbole, yes, but it seems to fit) It's like a fable about the difference between puppy love and real, lasting mature love. I'm not sure how the love between that young couple who wrote such lovely letters to each other would have survived the inevitable trials of life. The couple who ended up together at the end of the book, however, will survive anything. ”
“Laura Kinsale is a misstress of writing and characterization, as always! This novel is somewhat more upbeat than some of her other novels (I would have liked to see the hero struggle more), but it's a minor point. ”
Selene wrote this review Tuesday, October 28 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I really thought I'd read all the books Kinsale's published, but apparently not. I picked this one up at the local UBS, thinking I would re-read it, since I couldn't remember the plot, and when I read it, I didn't even get the echoes of familiarity I'll get if it's been a long time since I read something. This is one of those stories where the hero and heroine fall in love during a written correspondence. She's married, but she lives in England and he lives in India, and it seems like a harmless flirtation. Then she's widowed, and mentions coming to India to meet him, and he drops the bomb that he's been married all along. All this happens in the prologue, so I'm not giving away any spoilers. (Besides, this is a 10-year-old book.) The hero's father is named guardian to the heroine's step-daughter (and to the heroine too), and dad dies, leaving the guardianship to the hero. (The hero is a cousin of some sort to the heroine's dead husband.) But as long as the hero stays in India, things are fine. Then he comes to England and things start getting complicated. He's not the same man he was. He runs hot and cold and the heroine can't figure him out. This has a very gothic tone—and yet the heroine is no wilting maiden. I loved this book. ”
Gail Dayton wrote this review Saturday, September 15 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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