Another great historical romance from Ms. Goodman is set in the Regency era; Lily runs away from a French convent when an untrustworthy man hires her as a governess. She eventually makes her way to London, where she lives on the streets disguised as a boy. She saves Viscount Sheridan from a stabbing but is gravely hurt herself, so he moves her and the three boys she takes care of into his home.
The romance develops slowly as there is much mystery surrounding Lily. The plot fills some holes rather coincidentally but the characters and writing is so good, it doesn't much matter. Another fine book by Ms. Goodman. ( )

Described by some fans at AAR as Goodman's best. Very good. ( )

Another Goodreads author listed the third of Ms Goodman's "Grantham" series in her best-ten list so, not being acquainted with Ms Goodman's work, I decided to start at the beginning, with the first book in this series.

My initial reaction to [b:A Season to Be Sinful|323422|A Season to Be Sinful (Grantham, #1)|Jo Goodman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173752358s/323422.jpg|314127] was enthusiastic, even though this must be the third or fourth book I've read that uses the aristocrat-captures-female-thief motif. Despite the lack of originality, the development of the story was exemplary. I was particularly struck by the quality of the acerbic dialogues between Sherry (Alexander) and Lily. It's not often that a female character's personality is so graphically delineated by the sharp intelligence of her repartee.

Sherry adopts not only Lily but her brood of three criminal rascals, setting her up as their teacher and governess. The middle part of the story, set in Sherry's country home, manages to be idyllic, romantic, sugary, and grim at the same time.

Having at last extracted from Lily the history of her physical and sexual abuse at the hands of an apparently respectable gentleman with whom Sherry is acquainted, Sherry brushes it aside and decides to marry her, an act of which his fearsome godmother approves.

At this point the story could have segued into a happy ending, but Ms Goodman decides to bring Lily's rapist onto the scene and a confrontation seems inevitable.

This is where I suddenly lost all interest in the story. Lilly's confession of her humiliating abuse was disturbing enough. Cranking up the tension by bringing her face-to-face with her abuser seemed cheap, shoddy and unnecessary.

I put the book aside and did not finish it. I see from some of the other reviews of this book that I'm not the only one with reservations about the ending.

Did not finish; did not rate.

The first hundred pages weren't bad. The next three hundred were a little hard to get through. ( )

3.5 stars ( )