Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of The Beauty Within (Armstrong Sisters, Book 3) by Marguerite Kaye
Historical Romance published by Harlequin Historical 23 Apr 13
Marguerite Kaye set the first two books in her Armstrong sisters series in exotic Arabia, marrying off the two oldest sisters to sheikhs. For this book, featuring the plain blue-stocking sister, Cressida, the author stays closer to home in England. Which would probably make some readers think that we’re in for yet another late-Regency romance, completely interchangeable from all the other Regency-set romances out there in Romancelandia. Rest assured, nothing could be further from the truth. Kaye gives us a very different hero, an intelligent heroine, and says a lot of interesting things about beauty, the eye of the beholder, and making your own destiny even when your family may be holding you back.
Cressida “Cressie” Armstrong is one of the middle daughters of Lord Henry Armstrong, a respected diplomat who has been looking to marry off all five of his daughters to best suit his political purposes. Since Henry has remarried Cressie’s stepmother, Bella, and she has squeezed out four healthy sons, Henry is more than past ready to have his girls out of his hair. Unfortunately, Cressie is proving difficult. In her mid-twenties, and with several Seasons under her belt, her plain looks and penchant for mathematics has scared off every man her father has paraded in front of her. Cressie wants to please her father, but years of being brow-beaten and dismissed have taken their toll. Now Daddy is sending her to the family’s country house. Her stepmother is pregnant again and ordered on bed rest. On top of that, her four younger brothers have just chased off their latest governess. Cressie is dispatched to act as temporary tutor.
Into this family dysfunction enters Giovanni di Matteo, an Italian artist who is becoming increasingly disillusioned. His portraits have set the ton on fire, but all his patrons want are lies on canvas. They don’t want the truth, they want empty beauty. Giovanni is bored senseless, that is until he walks into Lord Armstrong’s study. He is being hired to paint the man’s four sons, which Giovanni could give a flying fig about. No, it’s Cressie that captivates him the moment he enters the room. And it turns out? Not only is she supposed to relieve her stepmother’s burden and tutor her four brothers, she is also to oversee the portrait painting.
What follows is not only the two becoming increasingly attracted to each other, but also entering into a bargain. As a mathematician, Cressie believes that beauty can “be reduced to a series of mathematical rules.” While as an artist Giovanni sees it as a bit more nebulous than that. Giovanni agrees to paint two portraits of Cressie – one in the style that supports her theory and one in the style that supports his. It’s a way of testing her hypothesis, and naturally will require her to sit for Giovanni. I mean, what could possibly go wrong here?
The author has a lot of interesting things to say about the nature of beauty in this book. Cressie has been assigned a role by her father, that of the “plain” sister. Giovanni is impossibly beautiful, classically so – and while it would seem inconceivable to everybody that he would be attracted to Cressie, he is. She’s unlike anyone he’s met before and he’s fascinated. Not only that, they have an awful lot in common. The fly in the ointment? Although wildly successful, he’s beneath her in station, plus he has a past that he deems as “not good enough” for the likes of her.
It’s an interesting story with interesting characters. The nature of art, beauty, and the passion that both can spark in people. My one quibble is I do feel that the ending is abrupt and little too much is left dangling at the end – most of it involving Cressie’s father’s approval or disapproval of the match. Certainly, by the end, Cressie has worked past a lot of her own personal demons, but there is still the practical side of getting married, along with parental approval, in 1830s England. Although, I’ll confess, I kind of hope our couple tells Lord Armstrong to sod off and they catch the earliest mail coach to Gretna Green.
Grade: B
Summary:
BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
Considered the plain, clever one in her family, Lady Cressida Armstrong knows her father has given up on her ever marrying. But who needs a husband when science is the only thing to set Cressie’s pulse racing?
Disillusioned artist Giovanni di Matteo is setting the ton abuzz with his expertly executed portraits. Once his art was inspired; now it’s only technique. Until he meets Cressie….
Challenging, intelligent and yet insecure, Cressie is the one whose face and body he dreams of capturing on canvas. In the enclosed, intimate world of his studio, Giovanni rediscovers his passion as he awakens hers….
Other books in this series:
