She needs a champion. He needs one less person to worry about.
Selena Lockhart comes with neither fortune nor connections, and she knows better than to expect Society to give her a welcome—especially after her father gambled away his fortune, precipitating the family’s sudden fall from grace and Selena’s betrothed to break off the engagement. It therefore comes as no surprise that her new … new neighbor, Sir Lucius, treats her with disdain. Why should he look beyond appearances when her own promises so little?
Sir Lucius Clavering is not married, but he may as well be, considering he is expected to escort his widowed mother to watering holes, round out the numbers at his married sister’s dinners, and come to the aid of his scapegrace younger siblings. It doesn’t help that single women and matchmaking mamas jostle each other for his face, fortune, and title so that he’s left without a moment’s peace.
When Selena shows up at Lucius’s doorstep looking for help, he is sure it’s another ploy aimed at cutting up his prized bachelor existence. Although his prejudice does not last long, Lucius fears his first reaction might have ruined his chances with her. How can he save her from Society’s teeth when she continues to hold him at arm’s length?
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Story: 5 stars
*spoiler alert*
I loved this story and the flawed, relatable characters. The secondary characters were as flawed and as human as the primary characters. Then there is the story. The plot is only too believable: cruel society rejects a family of women who have fallen on difficult times because of the mistakes of the head of the family, who is now dead. Reluctant, selfish hero eventually grows in character and falls in love with the heroine. She is proud, tenaciously so, and has been cruelly abused by society. She has only her pride left. She must overcome her pride, if she is to find true happiness with the hero.
A wonderful love story and I was sorry when it ended!
Narration: 5 stars
Wonderful voice actress, Stevie Zimmerman, brings life and an authentic accent to the characters. She has a number of ‘voices’ at her disposal and her male voices are believable. She reads at a good pace, not too slowly, and has excellent expression. I would gladly listen to her again!
*poor, **ok, ***good, ****very good, *****something special
A Fall from Grace is a sweet and clean historical romance with an interesting storyline that captured and held my attention. The characters are well developed, with the heroine being my favorite. She shows strength under duress and grace to those who treat her badly. The narrator gave a pleasant performance of this enjoyable book.
I got lost in the pages of this book. That isn’t something that I can always say about modern historical fiction. The wonder of Selina and Lucious’s tale is that it was smooth. At no point did there seem to be a modern disconnect.
Selina’s father has gambled their family’s fortune away and took his life through drink. Now destitute, Selina hires herself out as a companion to her second cousin, in order to make money to help her mother (and to give her mother one less mouth to feed).
Since funds don’t stretch far enough for a traveling companion, she travels alone by stage. When the stage breaks down, she seeks help at what appears to be a cottage belonging to what will hopefully be gentlefolk. A rude bachelor meets her instead.
This is no pride and prejudice retelling, but pride and prejudice definitely act as the catalyst for a very unique love story!
The narrator did a lovely job of giving voice to the characters.
I received a review copy of this audiobook and I am leaving a voluntary review.
Loved this book! It had such fun characters even the “bad” ones were fun to get to know. I liked seeing the characters grow and change their lives to be better people (most of them anyway). I absolutely loved Lucius’s youngest sister and brother- I’m hoping they will get stories as well. I got to listen to this book on audiobook and thought the narrator did an excellent job. She had a great voice for each of the characters that made it so fun to listen to- even her male voice was great.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It is very well written. I immediately fell into Ms Goutet’s wonderful writing style. Loved the characters especially Selena and Lucius. I empathized with the hardships Ms Goutet put Selena through and rejoiced when Lucius finally came around. Loved their banter when they became more assured of their relationship. I wanted to shake some sense into some of the characters which to me is an indication of how well they were created by Ms Goutet. I’m very glad our modern day society has progressed giving women more rights. And aren’t we women all looking for our own Lucius? Someone to support who we are as a person? Jolly good job Jennie Goutet!
A Fall From Grace by Jennie Goutet is a wonderful story!
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Note: this review contains Spoilers!
I love Selena Lockhart and think that we could have been good friends. She is intelligent, respectful, honest, and a hard worker. Through no fault of her own, she, her mother, and her sisters have been reduced to dire straits. So she is to become a companion to an old, distant relative. She has few options
Then there is Sir Lucius Clavering. Titled, rich, good looking, he can do anything. What he really wants is peace and quiet.
It is the difference in station between these two people and the other people who inhabit their world that makes this book so good. Selena has fallen so far from the world that she used to know, that she sees no way out of it. She doesn’t wish for a fairy godmother or a knight in shining armor to save her. She knows being a companion or a governess are her only ways of making a living. And she must have a recommendation or she’ll never get another job. In her view of the world she will never be able to wed someone like Lucius because she now is so far below him. She can’t imagine someone having so much power and money that he could marry her.
Lucius on the other hand, has never had to worry about any of that. He has fully embraced the “with great power comes great responsibility” way of thinking. He is responsible for his family and estates and therefore will take care of them. He cannot conceive of a world where he would ask Selena to marry him and then not protect her. And he has the money and power to do so.
It was a great read and I haven’t even told you about the spoiled brat!
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
I adored this book. With mulit-faceted characters and a unique plot. I honestly wouldn’t have picked up this book based on the book blurb alone, it sounds like an everyday regency romance. I however kept hearing praise about the book and author and taking advise of others I jumped right in. I was so pleasantly surprised. The details of each character and the turns in the story made for a wonderfully engaging story. I may have found a new favorite author.
A Fall From Grace was such a beautiful read! By reading the blurb I honestly thought their first encounter would end up much more “strong” than it actually did, but otherwise, I simply enjoyed the ride of getting to know both Miss Selena Lockhart and Sir Lucius Clavering, and see each one of them figure out their developing feelings for each other. Of course, the story is not quite simple as that, since Selena is serving as Lady Harrowden’s companion, and later on, as a governess too, thanks to her family’s fall from Society’s grace. Still, and I think especially for that reason, I loved every interaction between Selena and Lucius, started rooting for them early on and looked forward to the next time they’d be together.
All in all, a beautiful read by Jennie Goutet, that is filled both with humor and laugh out loud moments, as well as the swoony romance. ~ 5 stars and completely recommended!!
Loved it! This was one of those that tucked me in so nicely at night. I felt so happy with the world as I fell asleep. Once, when I was at the hospital to get my tonsils out (I was maybe 8 or 9), I fell asleep literally smiling, the anesthesiologist explained to me. After finishing this delightful novel, I felt a much more energetic, peppy kind of happy, but I’m pretty sure I had a smile on my face even as I nodded off. I’m so excited to read the next one! (Great plot, characters, scenery, dialogue, climax resolution)
This was really a wonderful story by Jennie Goutet. A Fall From Grace, true to its title, gave a well thought-out view of what it would be like to be scorned and mistreated by society’s upper class through no fault of your own. I really enjoyed the strength and courage of the heroine and the kindness of the hero. I think their love story was sweet, lovely, wonderfully clean, and deserving of their happily ever after. I can definitely recommend this book!
I think that Jennie Goutet is one of the best Regency writers being published today. Her historical details are accurate and add an authentic atmosphere to her books. The dialogue between characters fit the time period; and her storylines are always page-turners. I’ve enjoyed her other Regency stories, but I think this one is now my favorite.
From the every beginning, Selena had my complete sympathy. Although she’s strong and compassionate, Selena can’t escape the sins of her father. Polite society has rejected her, and she finds herself in an unpleasant situation as a companion/governess. Sir Lucius Clavering sees Serena for who she is and falls in love with her. However, both his family and society stand against their relationship, and Serena’s road to happiness seems to be leading to only more misery. But Serena still harbors hope in her heart for a true relationship, and I kept reading to see if her dream would come true.
I also loved the younger members of the Clavering family. They had spunk and personality. I’m hoping we’ll be seeing more of them later in this series.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.
This is a well written book that holds your attention from beginning to end! If you like regency romance you will love this sweet fun romance. The author brings the book to life with her words, you can see all the scenery and feel all the emotions. This book was an absolute joy to read!
In one of those situations of an unlikely match, Jennie Goutet has perfected this story. Selena comes from a background of scandal as her father gambled away the family’s fortune and she is forced to find work as a companion. What she is not expecting to find is love.
I was delighted with this story and could scarcely put it down. The characters did not always behave as one would expect in this kind of story. This added a sense of realism and humanity for me. There were varying degrees of personalities and they were well developed in each character. I felt as if I was watching the scenes unfold rather than reading them.
This was a great start to a new series. For Selena, she was being judged for her Father’s mistakes (how often do we do that still today?). She had been shunned by all that surrounded her and then was put into a situation that she would never win at. But she never gave up! she kept going, even when all the forces around her made her question her strength and ability.
I enjoyed the relationship between the two main characters, I appreciated how Selena was able to show Lucius that he could be a better man. I had trouble putting this down, so I know that I am excited for the next installment.
So often, in today’s world, we are told that we cannot be better than our past, that the past trauma that we have faced will never allow us to be “normal”. And, while I know that isn’t true, I love when authors show us that in fiction form.
I am looking forward to hopefully learning more about Phillipa and George! Thank you for a great read!
I really enjoyed this story. The characters are what really drew me into the story. I really liked the main characters, as well as some of the minor characters. Of course, other character varied from somewhat likable to unlikable to downright dastardly fellows. I liked that the characters were real, that they had strengths and flaws.
At times this book was hard to put down. I would love future stories about Lucius’s siblings.
Content: Clean
Source: Review copy
Wonderful characters, witty dialog, great storyline!
I like that we see how the characters feel about each other even though they don’t realize it until much later. Leave it to the kids to see it, too!
I absolutely loved this book. I read it in 2 days & had a hard time putting it down. I think this book 1 in a series. That has me hopeful since I grew to like the H’s brother George & a younger sister. I’m a huge Georgette Heyer fan & I very much enjoyed that this was written in similar style. I don’t find this too often so when I do it’s a treat. (I don’t mean to imply this to be a copycat of Heyer. Not at all. Jennie Goutet has her own great writing style all her own as well.)
Throughout the story I was able to feel the emotions the characters felt & could imagine myself there. I really felt the despair & sadness the h felt. The story had a nice natural flow to it. The romance felt genuine, natural and was clean. The story had good dramatic tension & twists to keep the story interesting and me turning the pages. I was wondering “how will it end!?”, “will they come together?” “how Will the author wrap it up!?” It made for a very satisfying read. The story showed the tough situation women had at the time with their few options given to them by society. Also, a good representation of the “ton” & the damage they could inflict. (There was no preaching. Everything is woven into a good story being told) The story had good characters you could love & hate!
I had an ARC copy of this book, but this is my voluntary and honest opinion I thoroughly enjoyed this latest book by Jennie Goutet. The characters are wonderful and I enjoyed the way they reacted in both the hardships and good times in their lives. This is a great regency romance book!
I so enjoyed this sweet and satisfying Regency romance with such likable main characters who had to climb their own self-made walls to achieve the love and happiness they desired. Looking forward to future books in this new Clavering Chronicles series. Well-done! 4.5 stars!
This Regency era romance is a bright start to a new series. Jennie Goutet has done a lovely job with strong character development for both her main and secondary characters, descriptive writing, and strong plot movement. Although Selena has fallen from society’s graces, this story of her subsequent redemption is sweet and has an uplifting reminder to follow your heart no matter what others’ opinions may say.