Cut from the Same Cloth (My Notorious Aunt, 3) by Kathleen Baldwin #review

Pages -  224 

Publisher -  Ink Lion Books

Published -  June 18, 2014

Sold by -  Amazon Digital Services LLC

Series -  My Notorious Aunt Book 3 of 3

Genre -  Clean & Wholesome Regency

Language -  0/5

Sexual Content -  0/5

Narrative -  3rd Person

Aunt Honore is up to her old tricks, only now she’s meddling in her mysterious nephew’s life…
Why does the powerfully built, golden-haired, Lord St. Evert dress like an overdone Dandy? His outlandish wardrobe belies the hard unyielding lines of his face. Whoever he is, he’s ruining Elizabeth Hampton’s desperate scheme to secure a rich husband. Terribly vexing, to arrive at the most fashionable Breakfast Party of the Season wearing a perfectly stunning Chinese silk gown, only to discover Lord St. Evert is clad in unmentionables cut from identical cloth.
Humiliating. And insufferable! Why, the devil, must he show up in fabrics Elizabeth searched so diligently to procure? To say nothing of the long hours she spent secretly stitching her creations together. He must be stopped. She is determined to spy out his perplexing game, and put an end to his interference.
Scarlet O’Hara meets the Scarlet Pimpernel
St. Evert despises pretension of any kind. He cannot abide the self-important airs put on by some members of the Ton and takes pleasure in making a mockery of Brummell’s fashion strictures. Conceited frauds! Hadn’t his grandfather’s snobbery made his mother’s life a misery? All the more maddening to discover that the one woman who captures his interest is the biggest pretender of all. He vows to teach Miss Elizabeth Hampton a lesson she won’t soon forget.

When I first approached this story, it was with a great amount of apprehension.

The synopsis startled me and had me hating the Hero without even knowing who he is or what he is about!

And, as I started to read this story, that opinion actually grew worse until I began to ask myself why I was continuing to read something that upset me this much.

I do NOT like men (or women) who treat others with disdain, malice, hatred, or rudeness.

I've know far too man 'guys' like our Valen to want to read about him in a romantic light because his kind are not redeemable in my eyes.

So what if he's great to look at!

Human nature dictates that the more you get to know someone, the more that person physically changes in your eyes (and estimation).

They either grow more lovely or more hideous depending on your experiences, am I right?

So, from a purely logical standpoint, this 'romance' cannot exist because our heroine, Elizabeth, read a lot like me as a human being, meaning there is no way she would gradually come to appreciate Valen's idea of humor, much less entertain any romantic notions about a guy like him.

He's arrogant, rude, mouthy, and stubborn.

Even AFTER finding out why it is Elizabeth is desperate to find a suitable husband, Valen continues to treat her like an idiot, a vain dolt, and a haughty money-grubber.

And yet...

I can't say I didn't enjoy their story or that the plot was somehow lacking, because it isn't true.

I actually DID grow to like Valen and the story!

The author proved to me that Elizabeth had the fortitude and maturity to deal with Valen in a way that actually WOULD help her to see that he is more than just a rude bastard with a chip on his broad shoulders.

That still doesn't excuse his rudeness, though.

And, his aunt wasn't much better... although towards the end of their story, I began to see and understand why it was Lady Alameda had said most of the things she'd said that had annoyed me.

Now, the author makes it a point of letting us readers know how much she adores Jane Austen, Scarlet O'Hara, and The Scarlet Pimpernel...

I loved reading the Scarlet Pimpernel, and the character of Scarlet O'Hara always intrigued me. What if those two characters were thrust into their own story. Thus was born Cut from the Same Cloth. And as always my work takes a bow to the incomparable Georgette Heyer, and to the mother of romantic comedy, Jane Austen. I hope you will have as much fun reading this romance as I did writing it.

But, none of that resonated with me as I read this work.

Unless her intention was to infuse Scarlet O'Hara into Valen and then it makes more sense.

As for Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer?

Let me just say that the writing style was elegant enough, pretty much stuck to its time period, and wasn't meet-kiss-sex-love within the first quarter of the story.

This was a clean read start to finish, and as far as character-building goes, I think that the author did a pretty good job of showing me who these two were, why they behaved as they did, and how they were both unwilling to let go of their original premises about life in general.

Valen had more to overcome than Elizabeth, but Elizabeth was put into a position she felt strongly about and, for the time period, it made perfect sense.

I still don't understand why Valen would choose to be as childish and unyielding for so much of the story, but then again, it did make for a more entertaining read.

To understand that, you'll need to read it for yourself.

Very few issues with GPS here, although I did find a few things to show you.

• anyone one
• gammoning
• might clear her head from the effects of the opiates.
• Who ever
• to emphasis her point,
• n’cet pas?
• jibing

Also, at one point in the story, a doctor is summoned to the castle, and the author made a ridiculous point of using Elizabeth to decry the use of leeches.

• She nodded obediently but wondered, somewhat annoyed, how a man who just set three hideous leeches to suck on Valen’s chest might judge the validity of using a little garlic to st...

I always get annoyed any time an author foolishly decides to insert modern-day mentality into a historical novel.

All I read and hear is "Look how much smarter we are compared to them!" , and it is a turn-off.

Laudanum (is an opiate -- the author wrote it as plural, opiates) and leeches were standard practice back then and hardly anyone gave it a second thought until OTHER treatments came into vogue.

This, to me, is the equivalent of a patient in 2017 questioning every blessed thing their family physician said, does, and prescribes... which is hardly the case imho.

MOST of us trust our medical personnel implicitly, so why would they not have the same mindset back in the day?

Anyway, if I had been Elizabeth, there would have been a different outcome to this particular story, even if she did read pretty much like me start to finish.

Valen had far more ass-kissing, self-reflecting, and apologizing to do than the author allowed as far as I'm concerned, but that still didn't prevent me from enjoying their story.

I am now curious to read the first two in the My Notorious Aunt series.

Would recommend to anyone looking for a light read with a clean feel to it with a Regency setting as a bonus.