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Overview
Bribed by Kyle, his twin brother, Dominic Renbourne agrees to take his twin's place for a few weeks at Warfield Manor, where he is to pay court to Lady Meriel Grahame, the orphaned heiress Kyle intends to marry. The last thing Dominic expects is to be entranced by a silent sprite whose ethereal beauty is as intoxicating as the flowers and trees that surround her.For much of her life Meriel has lived outside normal society, finding joy and peace in her garden, safe from the nightmare that nearly destroyed her as a child. She is content with solitude until the handsome intruder begins to inspire dreams of life beyond her sanctuary. Despite his longing, Dominic's sense of duty keeps him away from his brother's future bride, but Meriel's untamed spirit proves more powerful than Dominic can resist . . .
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Synopsis
You may know how old you are chronologically, but Michael Roizen wants you to know that biologically, you may be years older or younger. In Real Age, he sets out a series of detailed questionnaires about diet, lifestyle, and habits from taking medications to chronic smoking to help readers determine their true biological age. Then he offers individualized advice for how to make the years drop away. We've all known people who seem old before their time, as well as people who enjoy amazingly active lives well into old age. Which would you rather be?
Romantic Times - Kathe Robin
With many deep emotions and a powerful story, Mary Jo Putney spins a tale worthy of her Fallen Angels series. The brothers conflict and its resolution, and the secret of Meriel s silence and madness, are deeply moving and completely capture the reader. Ms. Putney delves far into the reaches of the heart to thrill her fans. Sensual.
Editorials
Kathe Robin
With many deep emotions and a powerful story, Mary Jo Putney spins a tale worthy of her Fallen Angels series. The brothers’ conflict and its resolution, and the secret of Meriel’s silence and “madness,” are deeply moving and completely capture the reader. Ms. Putney delves far into the reaches of the heart to thrill her fans. Sensual.— Romantic Times
Publishers Weekly -
Lady Meriel Grahame, the eighth heroine in Putney's Fallen Angels series, has lived in a world of self-imposed silence since the night of violence in colonial India that claimed her parents' lives. Deemed mad by her guardian uncles (one good, one evil), looked after by two widows (both good), she lives a life of fey barefoot willfulness, making weedy centerpieces for the mahogany dining table and communing with the animals who roam the gorgeous grounds of her ancestral home, Warfield. Lord Grahame, her evil uncle, would like to see her locked up in a mental asylum (Putney dwells on the horrors of early 19th-century "modern" psychiatry), but her good uncle, Lord Amworth, thinks a wedding and bedding might cure her--and the time is now, while Grahame is out of the country. Since infancy, Meriel has been pledged to Kyle Renbourne, Lord Maxwell, the future earl of Wrexham. Heart-bound to escort his dying mistress home to Spain, Kyle dispatches his twin brother, Dominic, to court Meriel in his place. The novel is most enjoyable precisely where it's most predictable, and it's in the all-consuming attraction, body and spirit, between Dominic and Meriel that it reaches its peak. Allowed unthinkable liberties, Meriel paints henna designs on Dominic's trembling torso, laughs at his morality and offers up an irresistible bargaining chip: if she may have his body, he shall hear her voice. Her words may lack the eloquence of her silence, and the second half of the novel is altogether the weaker, but there's satisfaction for readers who like to see villains die and everyone else live happily ever after. Author tour. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.School Library Journal
YA-Identical twins Kyle and Dominic were close as children but have grown apart as young adults. Thus, Dominic is surprised when Kyle asks him to temporarily take his place courting Lady Meriel, who is rumored to be mad. Wealthy, beautiful, gentle Meriel was orphaned and severely traumatized in Indian riots as a small child. Raised by caring elderly relatives on an isolated, large British estate, she doesn't speak until Dominic (masquerading as Kyle) patiently brings her out of her shell. The young man is recovering from the horrors of Waterloo. A shorter subplot shows Kyle taking his true love, his dying mistress, to her home in Spain for burial. Putney depicts high society, the problems of women, and the insane of Regency England. She is at her best with characterization: readers watch many people grow and relationships change in a relatively short time. With lots of romance, some comic touches, a villain, and a touch of mystery, this novel provides good entertainment.-Claudia Moore, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|Kathe Robin
With many deep emotions and a powerful story, Mary Jo Putney spins a tale worthy of her Fallen Angels series. The brothers' conflict and its resolution, and the secret of Meriel's silence and "madness," are deeply moving and completely capture the reader. Ms. Putney delves far into the reaches of the heart to thrill her fans. Sensual.— Romantic Times
Kirkus Reviews
Twins seem to be the newest romance fashion. Here, in bestselling Putney's hardcover debut, they're Dominic and Kyle Renbourne, sons of the Earl of Wrexham. In need of a favor from his estranged twin, Kyle (the heir) offers Dominic (the spare) the deed to an estate if he will woo an heiress in his place. Kyle is taking his dying mistress back to her homeland, Spain, and the courtship must be a fait accompli before he returns. Dominic agrees simply because, as the second son, he isn't entitled to inherit a home of his own. The proposed bride, daughter of another earl, is Lady Meriel Grahame, who lives cloistered on a beautiful estate she never leaves. Watched over by her friend, mentor, and protector Kamal (wrongly believed to be a eunuch), Lady Meriel appears to be not quite all there—presumably as a result of having survived the murder of her parents and her own capture by bandits in India. She speaks to anyone. She discerns the people around her by seeing the colors of their auras. She spends her days drawing henna-colored mehndi on her friends, watching over an assortment of sweet animals, and maintaining a large, complicated set of gardens. Dominic, who's good (naturally) with children, animals, and strange, frightened women, slowly develops a relationship with Meriel, serving as a cross between suitor and therapist. But when he realizes he's fallen in love with her, he's in a pickle: he has no fortune, he's supposed to be a surrogate for his brother, and she's threatened with incarceration in an asylum. Putney provides a lot of detail about psychiatric hospitals of the Regency period as she manipulates the plot toward its inevitable happy ending. The working-out offamily and emotional problems doesn't seem enough to give this story needed spice, and the sudden, melodramatic addition of a villain is a bit slapdash.Book Details
Published
July 1, 2000
Publisher
Random House Publishing Group
Pages
384
Format
Mass Market Paperback
ISBN
9780449005842