Penelope
I love when I discover hidden gems among all the heavily touted releases each month. Sometimes the more quiet books can just capture your imagination with their unique stories and characters that break some of the traditional molds. Penelope takes its country girl heroine and spins her in a way that embraces her quirky side and makes us root for her success.Penelope Fairweather is given the opportunity of her lifetime when she is invited to London for her own season sponsored by her late mother’s friend. With no marriage prospects in her own community and a scheming step-mother manipulating her to succeed in a match or face an arraigned one to an unpleasant suitor, Penelope knows she has one chance to be a success. Unfortunately wherever Penelope seems to go trouble follows and her London debut gets off to a rather inauspicious start. In the course of an evening she manages to shock her benefactor with her more country mannerisms, but the worst is when she accidentally affronts her host the Duke of Blackthorne, Charles Radclyff.
Lacking the social polish necessary to navigate the ballrooms of London, Penelope seems to make all the wrong moves for the right reasons. It is only after she gains a fairy godmother of sorts that her eccentric country ways are remolded into the smash of the season. As her fortunes rise, Penelope also begins to shake up the routines of the Blackthorne household, endearing her to the duke’s sister and mother but further infuriating Charles himself. His schemes to get Penelope to leave on her own always seem to backfire on him, giving Penelope more purchase in his house and in the hearts of his family. What he fails to realize is that despite his resistance, Penelope is slowly having that same result within his heart.
For the full review, please go to http://www.thewindowseat13.com/2013/04/anya-wylde-penelope.html
