Will's True Wish
Grade : B-

Whatever stories I read, I like to find a character I can relate to. It could be the smallest trait that will resonate with me and from that point they are the character I read the book for. In Grace Burrowes’ latest Will’s True Wish I very quickly found common ground with Lady Susannah Haddonfield. “Why,” you ask? Because just like me she is not a dog person.

Dogs are a major component of the storyline, so as Lady Susannah does throughout the book, I had to become comfortable with canines and the idea of their being characters in their own right. No, there wasn’t the fanciful notion of the animals talking; however each dog introduced does have its own personality and their presence or lack thereof is what drives the story.

Lady Susannah is in London to serve as chaperone to her youngest sister Lady Della during the latter’s first season. More content with Shakespeare’s sonnets than socializing, Susannah has embraced the idea of being the spinster of her family but is very uncomfortable returning to town and memories of her own disastrous season years earlier. An older and wiser Susannah cannot let her charge make similar mistakes during her début, as the ton gossips have already started whispering about Della’s dissimilar appearance to the rest of the Haddonfield family. This threat of scandal and uncovering old secrets leads Susannah to push for a match between Della and Viscount Effington who has been quite ardent in courting her.

All seems to be going according to Susannah’s plan until a disastrous outing at a park. A chance meeting with Mr. Cam Dorning walking his brother’s mastiff becomes an uncomfortable situation for all when the dog gets overly excited and ruins Susannah’s parasol. Susannah is certain that the embarrassment will scare off Effington and her sister’s best prospect for a good marriage. The only positive thing to come from the encounter is when Willow Dorning, a good friend from her youth, calls on Susannah to replace the parasol and apologize for the behavior of his dog.

Making his living as a breeder of herding dogs, Will has a reputation as something of a dog-whisperer. His skills at training even the most stubborn animals have made him welcome in many society ballrooms so he and Lady Susannah keep meeting one another as she watches over Della. Their reunion brings back many warm feelings for Will and his own memories of her troubled season in London. When they were younger, Will was her protector against the mean-spirited girls who teased Susannah to the point of cruelty. As adults they had drifted apart since the poor state of the Dorning family’s finances kept Will from even entertaining the idea of courting Susannah for himself. Getting close to her again seven years later is both pleasurable and painful as his financial circumstances have not changed much in the interim; yet she is the only woman he can conceive of as being the one for him.

Will is reluctant to help Susannah when she begs for his assistance in helping her to become more comfortable around dogs in order to smooth over the comments she made that offended Lord Effington. Watching Susannah promote the relationship for Della and Effington raises red flags for Will as he has seen the man treat his own dogs harshly, a behavior that could easily transfer to the treatment of a wife. He is also put in a difficult situation when his brother Cam mentions the disappearance of several large breed dogs from wealthy families. Will’s skills make him the perfect candidate to solve the case and collect the rewards which would make it possible to court Susannah; however his livelihood depends on the favorable opinion of others and as a gentleman he would have to decline such a payment.

One of the strengths of Ms. Burrowes’ storytelling is the realistic way she introduces problems for her characters to overcome. Will and Susannah’s emotions for one another are fairly straightforward from the beginning so what keeps them apart are real life concerns such as money and family obligations. In Will’s mind, his desire for Susannah is constantly being weighed against what kind of future they would have with his finances being too strapped to support a household. I appreciate that Will and Susannah actually discuss their relationship rather than dancing around it as so many romantic couples tend to do. There is a maturity to their love that goes beyond just their being older than the typical leads in a romance novel.

The challenge to reading Ms Burrowes’ stories is trying to keep all of the extended characters and events in mind as the new plot unfolds. She writes with an assumption that her readers just intrinsically know where things fit within the ever growing history of the Windham, Lonely Lords and now the True Gentleman series. It can make your head spin trying to remember which earlier books Will and Susannah appeared in and what details were important for their own story. I vaguely remembered Susannah having a major secondary role and an unsuccessful courtship in Tremaine’s True Love. In reading Will’s True Wish I’m not sure Ms. Burrowes does the best job of reminding readers about those events or how Susannah’s character has changed as a result.

Unfortunately it did bother me just how frequently dogs, in general or a specific few, kept getting rolled back into the story. I had a similar issue while reading Tremaine’s True Love where I was beaten over the head with information on sheep and the hero was more interested in livestock than his lovely heroine. It became ridiculous when Will fails to understand the unsaid cues of human behavior when talking to Susannah, yet he can very easily interpret the actions of a scared dog when he finds it in the street. There are pages of conversations where Will and his brothers or Will and another character will just talk about the intelligence or importance of dogs. I understand why the animals were important, yet I hoped for more discussions on human husbandry not the canine variety.

Overall, Will’s True Wish is a well-written and sweet story of friends becoming lovers but perhaps it’s not quite as engaging a read as I was hoping for.

Reviewed by Sara Elliott
Grade : B-

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : January 31, 2016

Publication Date: 2016/02

Recent Comments …

Sara Elliott

I am a Fan-girl extraordinaire and romance addict. When I’m not obsessing over a fictional hero from a book I’m probably obsessing over a fictional Super-hero from the movies! I have long appreciated Romance stories and the escape they provide from all the dramas in real life. Historical Romances are my favorite (who wouldn’t want to be swept away by a handsome, rich English nobleman); however I love discovering new authors and stories in any romantic genre as long as the description sounds interesting. I’m living my own happy-ever-after in Phoenix, AZ (yes, it’s a dry heat!) with my two kids and my real-life hero.
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