Author: Sabrina Jeffries
Original Title: A Lady Never Surrenders
Release Year: 2012
Literary Genre: Romance
Setting: England, regency
Series: 5° of The Hellions of Halstead Hall series
Vote: 10/10
I truly liked it, beautiful story,
engaging implications, very well organised mystery and, at least for
me, not that obvious and last but not least the characters are
wonderful and charming.
Now, as always, I firstly read the last
of the series and now, I'm definitely going through the others
(probably not following the correct order), I most certainly love
Celia and Jackson but I must say I found the rest of the principal
characters quite interesting and catching too, especially the Sharpe
family's males, see Gabriel (To wed a wild lord).
Celia Sharpe is the youngest of the
Marquesses of Stoneville's five children, her parents are both dead
several years before, in what is thought to be an homicide/suicide:
the former marchioness would have murdered her faithless husband and
then she would have killed herself.
Celia has a recurring recollection
about that sad night twenty years earlier, when she was five: she was
ill and sleepy because of the medicines and she casually eavesdropped
a quarrel between her parents, shortly before their death. Celia
hasn't never seriously thought about it, believing it was just a
child dream or imagination and she keeps thinking that way until the
Bow street runner Jackson Pinter, employed by her older brother
Oliver (the present Marquess) to find out the truth about their
parents' departure, discovers some important news about the incident.
These discoveries make Celia believes that maybe that unforgettable
dream is, in truth, real.
Furthermore Celia is burdened by her
grandmother's ultimatum: the old woman, who is taking care of her
five grandchildren since they are orphans and who is extremely rich
despite her common origins, has given the all of them, one year to
find a spouse and to stop their exuberant lives (among the ton they are known as
the hellions of Halstead Hall), if they won't succeed they will be
disinherited (behind this plan there is the grandma's sorrow in
seeing her beloved grandchildren wasting their life after the
horrible loss and their painful childhoods).
Fortunately four of the Sharpe's
siblings have found their soul mates and they are happily married;
the only one left is Celia.
Celia who's definitely the most
hardheaded and the sharpest of her family, is determined to do as she
pleases, rejecting her grandmother's scheme, and to succeed makes
a plan but, to make it work she needs Jakson Pinter's help, the man with whom,
unfortunately, she hasn't an heavenly relationship: every time they
meet they provoke each other, sometime with not particularly
flattering words.
But the truth behind Jackson's crabby,
harsh and unfriendly manners is that he's deeply attracted and fond
of the young Sharpe who, irremediable bewitched him. So when she asks
him to make some research about three possible suitors, a duke, a
viscount and an earl, Jackson who's extremely jealous, does
everything he can to ruin her plan and make Celia see him despite his
low-born condition: he is not only untitled but he's also illegitimate
and of unknown father.
I adored Celia and Jackson together, I
deeply appreciate Sabrina Jeffiries, she creates remarkable
characters with strong personalities and, so doing, they are difficult
to forget. I enjoyed so much how the author expressed Jackson's
contrasting thoughts, from the hope and the happiness he feels when
he allows himself to dream about a life with Celia, to his turmoil
given by his deep love for the young woman he thinks they can't truly
live because of his origins and their economic disparity.
Celia is smart, witty and sharp but also sweet, sympathetic and fragile, exactly the kind of character I like.
Celia is smart, witty and sharp but also sweet, sympathetic and fragile, exactly the kind of character I like.
I was a bit crossed by the grandmother's
behaviour and absurd request, the most irritating thing is that she
wants her grandchildren to find their spouses in a short time but
she won't accept nothing less then love matches...is so frustrating!
It has to be said, with the story proceeding I stared to understand
her reasons and how difficult it was for her to be so harsh with
them, but I still can't share her ways.
Buona lettura!
M.E.G.
The Hellions of Halstead Hall series: 1. The truth about Lord Stoneville (Oliver, Maria)
2. A hellion in her bed (Jarret, Annabel)
3. How to woo a reluctant lady (Minerva, Giles)
4. To wed a wild lord (Gabriel, Virginia)
5. A lady never surrender (Celia, Jackson)
6. 'Twas The Night After Christmas (Pierce, Camilla)
Sabrina Jeffiries' bibliography
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