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A Matter of Class
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$ 5.80
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| Retail Value |
$ 6.99 |
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$ 1.19 (17%) |
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| Item Number |
2685090 |
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Item Description...
Overview
After his father forces him to become engaged to Lady Annabelle Ashton, a woman who has been disgraced by a scandal, swinging bachelor Reginald Mason finds that his new fiance shares his resentment toward the impending marriage, in a Regency romance by the best-selling author of Slightly Wicked. Reprint.
Publishers Description
Reginald Mason has exhausted his father's last iota of good will with his spoiled attitude, exorbitant shopping tabs, and excessive gambling debt. Annabelle Ashton has just embarrassed her family by trying to run off with the coachman. Their fathers, who are life-long rivals, finally come to an agreement in which they decide that their children should marry, which would propel Reginald up the social ladder and save Annabelle from disgrace. Having no choice, the two consent, entering into a hostile engagement in which they are openly antagonistic, each one resenting the other for their current state of affairs, while their respective fathers revel in their suffering. So begins an intoxicating tale rife with dark secrets, deception, and the trials of love—a story in which very little is as it seems. |
Item Specifications...
Pages 205
Dimensions: Length: 0.75" Width: 4.5" Height: 7"
Weight: 0.25 lbs.
Binding Softcover
Release Date Dec 7, 2010
ISBN 1593155891
EAN 9781593155896
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Availability 1 units.
Availability accurate as of May 30, 2012 05:14.
Usually ships within one to two business days from Reno, NV.
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Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | A romantic twist Mar 8, 2010 |
A Matter of Class is another book about an arranged marriage where money is traded for class. This one has a twist and you will not discover it until the end of the book. It is very slick!
Lady Annabelle Ashton is to be married to a fat, balding, titled man in order to replenish her father's declining funds. She elopes with the carriage boy but is thwarted and shamed. The family's neighbor and enemy uses this opportunity to force his wild, irresponsible son to propose marriage in order to climb the social ladder. Annabelle's father is more than happy to marry her off to anyone who is willing to pay to have her.
This is a story of two very different families who live side by side and have never socialized or even talked because of the class difference. One family is titled and slightly impoverished, the other is wealthy but descended from coal miners. They are all good people but are separated by the social rules of the Regency period.
I like the presentation of the family relationships in this book. The two families are opposite in every way. However, the mothers and fathers are very similar. The mothers are sweet, nurturing women who love their children and their husbands. The fathers are gruff men who do not like each because of the class difference. The men will allow no contact or socializing between the two families until the engagement occurs. The engagement changes everything and eventually brings the two families together. At first the engagement between Annabelle and Reginald is extremely hostile and the fathers enjoy the suffering of their children. The mothers unite, welcome each other and their families, and hope for the best.
A Matter of Class is a short, sweet love story where enemies become lovers, similar to Romeo and Juliet but in revers
| | |  | Charming Mar 6, 2010 |
| I thought this was charming and so lovely in the telling. Although it was easy to figure out what was happening, I still enjoyed the outcome. The characters were reality based and very likeable; no cartoonish evil doers and no really far fetched story lines, no devilish lords or whimpering virgins. Just a delightful story, and an easy easy read. | | | | Another Balogh Hit Mar 3, 2010 |
| I was surprised by the brevity of this book. It was more a novella than a true novel. I found the episodic nature of the narrative a bit off-putting halfway through,especially since the episodes were mostly flashbacks when kept wanting the action to move forward. The end though was a great surprise, well worth the read. | | |  | An enjoyable read & improvement on last series Feb 21, 2010 |
| Mary Balogh's Slighty & Simply series set the bar high for her other work. Her Huxtable series cannot compare, and I worried that my favorite romance author was off her game. This enjoyable little book (very quick read), while not in the style or quality of the Bedwyn books, was definitely better than her last. | | |  | A Rip-Off Feb 20, 2010 |
The unforgivable fault of this book (for me at least) is that it is not a novel; it barely qualifies as a novella. Basically it's a slightly padded short story. I had been looking forward to a new Balogh, as she is one of my favorite authors, but was apalled when I saw that "A Matter of Class" is only 189 pages of large font with extra space between the lines, being sold as a very small and thin hardcover for $15.95. My copy wasn't even properly bound, the inside edges are wavy and the pages don't lie flat at the center. I bought it only because I got it for half-price.
It isn't just the added cost of publishing the book as a hardcover which annoys me, the story definitely impressed me as something that was whipped out quickly for a paycheck and didn't have the depth of characterization and plot development that Balogh's best books do. There are positives--the main characters (Annabelle and Reggie) are appealing, it's nice to have a book that features some class difference rather than one where every character has a title, and there is a twist to the story which is fairly fresh. But the relationships are not nuanced or developed and the scene where Annalee gives her virginity to Reggie is totally unbelievable and totally lacking, as far as I'm concerned, in the romance that Balogh can convey so beautifully.
If you want to read a far superior Balogh story with a similar theme--marriage between the son of a wealthy social-climber and the daughter of an impoverished but proud titled family--read "Under the Mistletoe" from a 2008 (I think)Christmas anthology. Although it is only one of four stories published in a mass market paperback, it has far more depth of character and a far more complex and extensive cast of characters which provide a real context for the main characters. It's a lovely story that makes you care about characters that seem like real people. | | | Write your own review about A Matter of Class
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