The Affair
Grade : B-

The first book by Sandy Hingston I read was The Lover's Charm, and I really liked it. So I was looking forward to reading The Affair. While parts of it left me cold, it does have its moments, and I can offer a qualified recommendation.

In the wake of a family tragedy, Gannon Finn, Lord Carew, has brought his niece Claire to Mrs. Treadwell's Academy for the Elevation of Young Women, hoping that being in the company of girls her age will help Claire overcome her grief. But if he'd known who was really running the school, he'd have taken her elsewhere. The "silent partner" in the academy is none other than Christiane, Countess d'Oliveri, whom Gannon knew in Paris years before as the notorious Miss Roxell. What's more, as a young and callow youth, Gannon carried a tendre for Christiane; even though she was the mistress of another man, she succumbed to the young Irishman's charms and they shared one night of passion, a night that neither of them has managed to forget.

Christiane realizes that Claire's problem is far, far greater than mere grief over recent events, but the child refuses to speak about what's bothering her: indeed, she seems not to know what's really the problem. At a dance, Claire becomes the object of unwanted attention from a group of bored young bloods, and her rescuer turns out to be a Quaker named David Wrede. David seems to understand Claire as no one else does, including her uncle, but even he is at a loss when she suffers from blackout spells. Between trying to deal with Claire's crises and wanting to alternately strangle Gannon and jump his bones, Christiane's got more on her hands than she'd bargained for.

I admire Hingston's willingness to create characters that don't fit romance-genre stereotypes. Christiane is a woman who only rarely suffers pangs of guilt or regret about her past and her life choices; she enjoys the freedom of not having children, and quite frankly misses the pleasures of sex. While she's not overjoyed about discovering gray hair on her head, she doesn't go into a fit of the vapors over it, either. She's about as far from a blushing virgin as you can get.

Gannon's okay - there's nothing either overly terrific or egregiously offensive about him. He's never gotten over Christiane, and in the intervening years has entered into a series of broken engagements, mostly to brainless beauties; he always breaks it off at the last minute. I didn't get the impression that he was commitment-phobic, just that he knew he'd never want to marry anyone but Christiane.

I found Claire and David far more riveting than their elders, and being more interested in the secondary couple than the primary one is something of a problem for me. Claire's carrying a secret that's buried so deeply that she's managed to forget it on a conscious level, but it causes her to act strangely and say things that don't seem to make sense. Getting to the bottom of what happened in her past kept me reading right along. David demonstrates patience and steadfastness, and is a thoroughly admirable and likable character.

The book is far from perfect, however. The opening scene takes place in a parlor at the academy, and it reads more like a modern sit-com than anything else. Two of Claire's prospective classmates are summoned to welcome her to the school; they come off as smart-mouthed and abrasive. Teens from today would be verbally chastised for speaking to adults as they do; a Regency-era lass probably would have had the spit smacked out of her. Point of view boomerangs all over the place; I had to re-read some sections to ensure I understood from whose perspective I was seeing the action.

As for Gannon and Christiane's romance, I found that the mystery of Claire completely eclipsed it. They have one of those "I hate you, I want you, let's do it, I hate you for doing it" relationships. Their first encounter takes place on the floor in a darkened room, with people just down the hall; maybe the threat of somebody walking in was supposed to add a certain edge to the scene, but all I could think of was carpet burns. And the way they set up housekeeping together later in the book struck me as implausible and beyond the pale even for a couple who said they didn't care about society (at the least, Gannon might have thought about what such an arrangement would do to his niece's social standing).

Overall, if you like Hingston's recent works you'll probably like this one too. If you're looking for an unconventional heroine, Christiane is the woman for you. For me, I've read worse - but I've read better, and from this author, too.

Reviewed by Nora Armstrong
Grade : B-

Sensuality: Hot

Review Date : March 21, 2003

Publication Date: 2003

Review Tags: 

Recent Comments …

Nora Armstrong

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

1 Comment
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
1
0
What's your opinion?x
()
x