Mrs. Bertrice Martin—a widow, some seventy-three years young—has kept her youthful-ish appearance with the most powerful of home remedies: daily doses of spite, regular baths in man-tears, and refusing to give so much as a single damn about her Terrible Nephew.Then proper, correct Miss Violetta Beauchamps, a sprightly young thing of nine and sixty, crashes into her life. The Terrible Nephew is … Nephew is living in her rooming house, and Violetta wants him gone.
Mrs. Martin isn’t about to start giving damns, not even for someone as intriguing as Miss Violetta. But she hatches another plan—to make her nephew sorry, to make Miss Violetta smile, and to have the finest adventure of all time.
If she makes Terrible Men angry and wins the hand of a lovely lady in the process? Those are just added bonuses.
Author’s Note: Sometimes I write villains who are subtle and nuanced. This is not one of those times. The Terrible Nephew is terrible, and terrible things happen to him. Sometime villains really are bad and wrong, and sometimes, we want them to suffer a lot of consequences.
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“Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure (The Worth Saga)” by Courtney Milan
A Fun Victorian Age read
I just thoroughly enjoyed my time within this story. The elements of ‘surplus women’, self-protection, vengeance (maybe), and love are present and accounted for. I didn’t get my heart broken, but I did empathize, and laugh. Happy Reading ! !
NOTE: I purchased this story over 2 years ago and it had gotten lost in my TBR stash. I cannot help but wonder if I would have empathized with the feeling ‘surplus’ then as I do now.
IDK
A really delightful romance featuring two women of a certain age – characters written in loving detail – discovering one more chance at love. So charming and so refreshing! And the plot dealing with Mrs Martin’s Terrible Nephew is rollicking good fun, despite being all too scarily realistic in terms of the male-female power imbalance.
In short, as tasty as toasted cheese. Happily recommended.
P.S. I dislike the cover intensely, though. It’s too shiny and too modern. I guess they were aiming at a mainstream audience, which is fine, but please don’t let it put you off! Something quaint and 19thC would have been far more the ticket.
This is a very entertaining and unique book! Buy this book if you like original well written books!!
Who says you can only fall in love when you are 20? In this newest novel by Courtney Milan, we fall in love with 2 women who have experienced life and know what they want out of it. They take the bull by the horns and live. It’s a beautifully written romance with a dose of mischief.
“You’re not surplus,” Bertrice said. “No woman has ever needed a man to be enough.”
Although I could quote from half of the book, this one sums it up. You are doing yourself a disservice if you don’t one-click this novel!
I love Courtney Milan. Her books are always so much fun! Oh I loved Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure! I hope I am half as awesome as Mrs. Martin when I am her age. It would be so much fun!
Miss Violetta Beauchamps is in a bit of a bind. She has never married and has worked hard her whole life thinking that she will be able to survive in her old age, only something happens to shake up her plans. So makes a new one even if she is not happy about having to lie to Mrs. Martin to make it work. Only her plan doesn’t work out the way she had anticipated and oh she was in for an adventure.
Mrs. Martin is so much fun. She sees Violetta in the way no one thus far has. She doesn’t want to get close to her and risk losing someone else, but how can she not. When Violetta comes to her about her Mrs. Martin’s Terrible Nephew she jumps into action enlisting Violetta’s help in taking him down. Her nephew really is terrible and I loved how these two ladies dealt with the situation. How Mrs. Martin does what she wants because she has the money to do so, but also the money to help those in need. She speaks her mind and comes up with the craziest of plans and it was awesome. How she makes people bend to her will because she can. She has the power that she didn’t feel like she had for so long. I hope I am just like her – even if she was afraid she didn’t want to be so she didn’t let that stop her.
These two were super sweet together. I love that they both brought out the best in each other and helped each other grow stronger even if they didn’t realize it. Violetta is used to being silent and screaming on the inside, but Bertrice helps her figure out how to let it out and do something about it. She is that cranky old lady who speaks her mind, which usually made me laugh because she was hilarious. The things they got up to, the ways they tried to make the Terrible Nephew’s life terrible were great. And I loved how everything worked out in the end. Such a fun read!
*Note: I received a free copy of this book for voluntary review consideration