TWELFTH NIGHT by Deanna Raybourn

Publisher:  Mira  

Published:   June 1, 2014

ISBN:  B00JD7TX4A

Genre:   Historical Romance

Format:  Ebook
Obtained via:  Netgalley  

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina Gina@loveromancesandmorereviews.com

THREE HEARTS

 

Gathered for the once a decade, Twelfth Night revels the March family has gathered at the family home of Bellmont Abbey.  While the community celebrates each year, once every ten years the Marches step up to take their place in the festivities.  Joining them this year are Lady Julia and her oh so handsome and still somewhat mysterious husband Brisbane. But nothing that involves the March family proceeds with all the decorum one might imagine in a proper English family.  In fact this year there is talk of ghosts and other worldly happenings in the yard outside the family home.  What Julia and Brisbane find may well forever change the direction of their lives.

I’m not a fan of novellas or short stories.  I feel short changed by them—that there are pieces missing and that characters just don’t have a chance to full develop.  With Lady Julie and Brisbane we know who they are as earlier, full length books grew them into fully formed characters.  Still, Deanna Raybourn’s latest, TWELFTH NIGHT, just didn’t make it for me.  It had fun elements and it was good to catch up with the March family, but the story wasn’t as good as the full length reads.  The resolution to the supposed mystery seemed more an attempt to fill in a gap or to make up for Julia’s loss of her child in an earlier book than truly solving a mystery.  It wasn’t even really a romance but more a fill in type read until the next mystery Julia and Brisbane embark on.

I’ll continue to read the full length Lady Julia books – if any more re written, but the novellas….they just aren’t for me.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.