A Diamond In The Rough (Dangerous Liaisons, #1) (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
Adrian is a very tightly wound son of parents who have ruined their lives by making poor decisions. Adrian is a landscape architect who keeps his profession a secret because he would lose even more of the family reputation with the ton if it were known he is in trade. Now his father has made a bet on a game of golf and the winner will get the family home. The man who lured his father into this bet is a gambler who wants to ruin the family.And the person playing the game of golf at St Andrews in Scotland, will be Adrian. Adrian has never played golf in his life.At the same time he finds himself in this position, he has just become engaged to Honoria. A most beautiful young lady, but so reserved that it appears she has no feelings at all.When Adrian arrives in St Andrews to learn the game of golf, his is assigned a caddy Derrie, who dislikes him and knows he must be a dissolute gambler to have put his family home in such jeopardy. The caddy is actually a young lady in disguise. She is a very adept and knowledgeable golfer.The plot is based on a good idea and the conversations between Adrian and Derrie are entertaining. The premise of having to learn golf within one month and having his teacher be a young woman makes the plot immediately entertaining.The characters are interesting people and as time passes the sharing of interests and learning to enjoy the game of golf are developments which allow the reader to get to know both Adrian and Derrie better. There are secondary characters who add to the fabric of the story and introduce an unexpected direction to the plot.If you enjoy a romance with an interesting and unusual plot device, you will enjoy this book.
I swear, Kindle freebies are my downfall, and Regency romance freebies are my kryptonite. I can't resist them, and then I feel silly after I've read them. But no promises--I know I'll still get sucked in by the next one.This particular Regency romance is distinguished by having the 19th century version of golf and the famed Scottish golf course of St. Andrews play a starring role in the story. Adrian Linsley is the viscount who has to learn golf in one month to win a golf match against the villain, in order to save his ancestral home from a particularly unfortunate bet of his gambling addict father; Derrien (Derry) is the unconventional girl who loves golf and regularly masquerades (apparently quite successfully) as a young man so she can play at St. Andrews. She's asked to caddy for Adrian for the month and help him learn the game well enough to win his match.The golf part is somewhat interesting, as is the hero's and heroine's shared interest in landscape design. Otherwise this is a tale chock full of standard Regency tropes: constantly arguing main characters, improbable hidden identities, falling in love with someone whilst engaged to someone else (but--as happens so often--no one gets hurt because the fiancée is also conveniently in love with someone else). It kind of lost me when the fact that the heroine is an illegitimate child apparently never particularly bothers anyone in the story, including the hero, which, I'm sorry, was not the way high society worked back in the day. If you're going to put that kind of elephant in the room when writing historical fiction, I think you need to deal with it in some way that bears more than a passing resemblance to the realities of the time.
What do You think about A Diamond In The Rough (Dangerous Liaisons, #1) (2014)?
I love this quote at the end, but it is a wee bit spoilerish. You all know we always get a HEA in romances, so you should be safe to click. (view spoiler)[He nearly laughed aloud realizing that for all the time he had spent amid silk and splendor searching for the perfect Countess for Woolsey Hall, she had magically walked into his life sporting a floppy tweed cap and baggy breeches. (hide spoiler)]
—Misfit
Very good and interestingNever did I think that I would read about golf in a romance. This story takes place in Regency times. A Viscount has to win a round of golf to save his family home. He did not know the first thing about the game so his friend got him help from a well known master and the very best caddie. The Viscount gets engaged before he takes off for Scotland to learn the game. His caddie happens to be a girl disguised as a boy. In the meantime his fiancé has a surprise for him and his caddie meets him dressed as herself and they have many pleasant conversations. I guess you can see where this is going. I did enjoy this book.
—Diane creech
