eBook A Well Matched Pair (Masquerade) download

A Well Match Pair is a traditional Regency that takes a candid look at infidelity and it's consequences within an aristocratic marriage. It is also the coming of age story about a Rector's 18yr old daughter's journey from a sheltered country miss into a young woman's rude awakening of what it means to live life in the fast lane Regency Style. I love how SB through her writing portray the Regency period. The house parties, Melford House, and the ducal seat of Rythorpe all added to the flavor of the story. Make no mistake this is a serious little read with plenty of issues for you to think about once the story is over.

Edith, young, un-spoilt, and totally naive find herself thrust upon the lives of a Duke and Duchess marriage that has quietly fallen apart. She has a lot of adjusting to do, mainly that she is of the lower class trying to fit in where she never dreamed she'd be. There is a sad undertone to this story. The reader gets to experience Edith's disillusionment with the aristocrats she meets. Nothing is as it seems, her potential suitor is the Duchess ex-lover, the beautiful and kind Duchess is an adulteress, the Duke isn't much better, the only difference is, he played by the rules, whereas the Duchess gets caught trying to pass off another man's child into the ducal nest. Ms Bishop set herself a tricky task in showing the reader how Edith matured into a young woman that fell in love with a married Duke and still managed to be the devoted companion to his Duchess. There is one scene when Edith correctly sums up the Duke's character that will have you debating whether or not their relationship can survive. I felt the romance between Edith and the Duke was a bit clinical. Yes, there were moments of yearning for each other and the whole forbidden attraction/age difference thing going on, but when the Duke explains his rights as a husband to Edith while professing his love to her, he totally lost any sympathy I had for him as the cuckold husband. His beliefs about marriage and infidelity are truly 19th century.

If you like your Regency's with a 21st century spin to them, you might want to pass on this book and author. If you like traditional Regency's that are centered more in the realism of the time period, that deals honestly with marriage, you will enjoy her stories. SB h's are not stupid, in most cases just naive, but once they get it, they've got it for life. The heat factor is very cool, almost frigid by my standards....they don't kiss until........, the story is truly a testament to how women have evolved within society.

This is a gripping, readable story, but take warning: it is essentially a sad one. I had trouble being completely satisfied with it. For one thing, only a tragedy can finally allow the lovers to be together--and there are some good questions about how guilt might poison their relationship.
For another, I wasn't sure I liked the hero. Bishop originally shows him as a not very likable man, and that was hard to shake. There is an interesting scene near the end where, based on a misunderstanding, the heroine pithily sums up his character. Although all is cleared up in the end, I couldn't help but feel there was some truth in that summing up. And you know, the ideal romance is one where you are as in love with the hero as the heroine is:)
Bishop's intelligent observation of people and relationships is here, though. There is always the sense in her books that you are dealing with real people living through trials and learning from them the way people really do.
Her Edith grows from a young, untried girl to a poised woman. The character of the Duchess is handled nicely, although I find it sad that she suffers so much guilt for a kind of infidelity it's taken for granted her husband has the right to commit.
There is also some nice inclusion of children in the story, and their characters add an extra dimension you don't usually find in romance novel.
So, recommended, but don't expect a frothy story a la Georgette Heyer.

As far as Regency romances go, most are strictly light reading, with variations on the same old plot devices. I have not read too many books by Sheila Bishop, but her Lucasta was more Gothic than a romance. A WELL-MATCHED PAIR is a gem of a book, as far as Regency romances go. Of course, this comparison is made with other traditional Regencies and with Regency romances in general.
I would strongly recommend this book, along with a few by Carla Kelly (MISS MILTON SPEAKS HER MIND and THE LADY'S COMPANION), and Laura Kinsale's FLOWERS FROM THE STORM for anyone who thinks that modern Regency romances (pre- and post-Heyer) are just love stories, with humor at best being their only merit.
A bit about the story - (unusual, along with the plots of the other books I have listed above): a young woman is rescued from a road mishap by a house party of lords and ladies, and falls in love with a personable young man who is a rising politician. She travels to a ducal seat, where she soon realizes that things are not what they seem. Her suitor - who is genuinely attracted to her - has had an affair with a married woman, the wife of his best friend at school, and she is now pregnant. The child is apparently his, and the angry husband fights a duel with the suitor (who is rejected by our heroine when he discovers the truth). The unhappy wife is sent away to have her child in seclusion, and everyone pretends that the child was born too early and died young. Oddly enough, the heroine develops a genuine liking for the adulterous wife (to whom she is now acting as companion), and also falls in love with her husband.
However, the husband and his wife's companion do not have an affair, although they acknowledge their feelings to each other. The wife dies in an accident, and the heroine learns that a) the wife always loved her husband who had grown indifferent to her after the birth of their son; and b) the wife learned that her husband and her friend were in love. The guilt felt by the heroine and the new widower drive them apart, as much as does social convention (it is now impossible for the couple to meet or to correspond). Later, the heroine comes to London, where the widower (now the hero) acts strangely cold towards her, forcing the heroine to contemplate marriage to her former suitor (the former lover of the hero's wife and the father of their child).
I won't go into further details, except to say that the heroine and hero do end up together. All the major characters, including the adulterous wife and her lover (the heroine's former suitor), are beautifully drawn, and are living and breathing people, for whom you can feel. In fact, the story reminded me of a cross between Mansfield Park (the lover/suitor being Henry Crawford, but less indolent), and the sad love affair of Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire, upto a point.
This was a great read, and well worth my time (it kept me up until 1:30 AM). If you find this, and you are tired of melodramatic plots but want a story about adultery, platonic infidelity (unconsummated extramarital love), friendship, forgiveness, and the like, try this little gem.