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    A Radical Arrangement
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    A Radical Arrangement
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    A Radical Arrangement
    Ebook281 pages4 hours

    A Radical Arrangement

    By Jane Ashford

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Classic Regency romance from beloved author Jane Ashford

    Brash and Handsome

    Sir Justin Keighley is all wrong for a proper young lady like Margaret Mayfield. Everyone knows he is shocking in his opinions, arrogant in his manner, and completely without respect for the common decencies of civilized society. Margaret absolutely will not marry him—no matter what her parents say.

    Beautiful and Shy

    Margaret was everything Sir Justin detested in a woman—timid, sheltered, and obedient to a fault. It's not until she runs away from him that he finds he must give chase. Margaret is discovering she can be bold and rebellious—intrepid enough to do what she must, and more exciting than Justin ever imagined possible. She's the last woman he would have expected to lead them both into uncharted territory…

    Praise for The Bride Insists:

    "Perfectly delightful Regency romance." —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

    "Deft writing. An engaging cast of characters… a charming plot. " —RT Book Reviews

    "Marvelously engaging…richly nuanced, impeccably crafted." —Booklist

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSourcebooks
    Release dateAug 4, 2015
    ISBN9781402276972
    Unavailable
    A Radical Arrangement
    Author

    Jane Ashford

    Jane Ashford discovered Georgette Heyer in junior high school and was captivated by the glittering world and witty language of Regency England. That delight was part of what led her to study English literature and travel widely. She’s written historical and contemporary romances, and her books have been published all over Europe as well as in the United States. Jane has been nominated for a Career Achievement Award. Find her on the web at www.janeashford.com and facebook.com/janeashfordwriter. If you’d like to receive her monthly newsletter, you can sign up at either of those sites.

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    Reviews for A Radical Arrangement

    3/5

    15 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      ...delightfully engaging!Miss Margaret Mayfield--beautiful and shy? More like inept. When I started to read this I was appalled as Margaret seemed to bumble from one inane set of circumstances to another. How I thought could this be the heroine?I was definitely seeing things through Sir Justin Keighley's eyes. Having been found in a ludicrously compromised position with Margaret, confirmed bachelor and rumoured rake, Sir Justin finds himself fending off Margaret's father's declaration that they must marry and her mother's snide attempts to bring this 'coup' about.Margaret gathering some courage from somewhere decides to solve the problem by running away. And from there the story develops in a star crossed, misunderstood sort of way as Margaret grows into herself, becomes surer and more confident, and Sir Justin fights his attractions for her. Along the way Margaret is helped by a fairy godmother archetype in the form of the local midwife, Mrs Dowling. However, as we all know, the road to a happy life and true love is not a smoothly golden pathway. For Margaret and Sir Justin it is paved with painful gravel bumps, with good intentions and failed opportunities.When finally discovered by her father, Margaret's put on weight, gained energy and awareness, has embraced decidedly politically radical leanings and has grown towards becoming her own person. The timid, mindless Cinderella becomes more politically informed, composed and adult, in charge of her own destiny.Jem Appleby, ten year old son of the inn owners is an absolutely delightful character and almost stole the show, with his easy acquiescence and mad keen love of sailing. Very enjoyable all round!A NetGalley ARC
    • 4/5
      I liked this quick, clean, romance. I was a nice story about a young, shy, innocent woman who is so terrified of an older, man about town, rake, that she scares herself silly when she finds herself in his company and injures herself when she tries to escape, which puts them both in a compromising situation. She then decides to runaway which causes more trouble.This was a great little story with lots going on. I liked it very much!
    • 2/5
      I received a copy of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.19 year-old Margaret is engaged to Philip, who shares her parents' Conservative political views. Margaret is very naive and timid and largely ignorant of the world. At a dinner to which they feel obliged to invite their Radical neighbour, Sir Justin Keighley, an incident occurs (largely through Margaret's stupidity) and Justin arguably compromises Margaret. Arguably as in Justin points out that he has done nothing wrong and refuses to marry Margaret, Philip breaks off the engagement and Margaret refuses to marry Justin (whom her parents have always portrayed to her as the devil incarnate). Margaret decides to run away so she won't have to marry Justin, her mother tells Justin that she has done so because he won't marry her and that she and her husband wash their hands of her and intend to do nothing. Justin feels obliged to go after Margaret, whereupon she accidentally shoots him with the pistol she brought from home. For most of the rest of the story she and Justin are staying at an inn while he recovers from his wound and Margaret is attempting to pass him off as her brother.I note from the blurb at the back that the author loves Georgette Heyer; so do I. Sadly this novel is nowhere near as well-plotted as a Heyer and contains no trace of humour. I found it pretty dull and the characters flat and unlikeable. Margaret's parents were such baddies it was incredible. Justin (allegedly a gambling womanizer) spent the novel patronizing Margaret and making her read political text books. Exactly how old was he supposed to be? (As in how much older than Margaret?) Margaret herself was supposed to develop in a sort of coming of age way during the story and this seemed to mean becoming more curvy and having dull conversations with the midwife where they danced around the subject of sex (repeatedly). Then there was Jem and the boring boat sections and the part where Justin took Margaret to see some "real poor people" (shades of Elizabeth Gaskell here) and Margaret become politicized and decided to devote her life to the poor, despite having no money of her own and no relevant skills. Justin just couldn't make up his mind about how he felt about Margaret and at one point seemed to have decided to let her go off on her own and make her way in the world (really?) I just wanted some one to knock their heads together. Justin would have been more fun if he had indeed been a gambling womanizer and what was he doing that was so helpful to the poor anyway, apart from voting on half-hearted Acts of Parliament?
    • 3/5
      This is the first time I have read from Jane Ashford, I have noticed her books around lately, as she is getting them republished and the covers redone. This book I found on Netgalley and I was so thrilled to get a chance to try her out. This book was shorter than I expect, only about 200 pages, which for how long it was this story had a depth to it I wasn’t expecting to find. This is a story that I honestly wasn’t sure if I would like or not. The reviews and ratings aren’t super high, and so I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I ended up enjoying it. The Hero was enchanting and I loved his character. He knows what he wants and he fights for it and isn’t ashamed of who he is, even if others may be. The heroine I had a bit of struggle with at first, but we really see how much she grows through the whole book, and the focus is really on her character and personality and how much we see the change in her the more she and Justin get to know each other. Margaret has been shielded and has never had a real chance to become anyone except from what her parents wanted from her. But then she ends up in a room with Justin and she begins to learn that she has a brain and she can use it. Even though I wanted to shake some sense into her, I also realized that Margaret is learning certain facts about herself, that we all learn as children. So I had to give her room and allow her to become more before I judged her too harshly. I loved the relationship between Justin and Margaret. There isn’t much heat except for some kissing in this book, which was a bit refreshing. I wasn’t excepting that at all, and I liked having something different. The entire focus was the building of the relationship on an emotional and intellectual levels and the physical just seemed to come naturally for them after they had developed a deeper connection to each other. And the ending was dang good, and seeing Margaret stand up to her folks was brilliant and this is what the book leads up to and fighting for the one you love!!
    • 3/5
      This book has to have one of the most ludicrous setups I've ever encountered. Margaret Mayfield, the shy and unassuming (and very pale) daughter of the local gentry family attends a dinner party one July evening at her family's country home in Cornwall. This is an annual event, and they invite all of the local notables - including Sir Justin Keighley, who is too important to be snubbed. He is massively disliked by the Mayfields, however, because they consider him a political radical. They have warned Margaret about him to the point where she's afraid of his very presence.After this dinner, the local squire insists on tromping down to Lord Mayfield's barn to inspect his new cow, and Sir Justin suggests they all go, because he enjoys the scandal his words stir up. Margaret doesn't want to go, so she basically slips behind the group and decides not to ruin her dress by going all the way down to the muck of the barn; she'll just wait for the others to come back and slip back into their party. Sir Justin notices her, though, and stays behind as well, and teases her for being so reticent. She doesn't respond, and just when he figures that it's not worth even trying to draw her out, she basically goes insane, beating him away without provocation and launching herself into a locked summerhouse on the property. She's in such a rage that she knocks herself out, and of course the party troops back from the barn to find him kneeling over her.Lord and Lady Mayfield go beserk (obvs Margaret comes by it honestly) and insist that he's completely and totally ruined her and thus, must marry her. He refuses. When she comes around, Margaret is horrified by the idea of marrying him, and she refuses as well. Her protestations fall on deaf ears, so she decides to run away. She has to get out of town, but she doesn't dare go to London, knowing the scandal it will create. The only other place she knows is Penzance, in Cornwall, so she sets off by herself.Meanwhile, Lady Mayfield has marched herself over to Justin's property to bend him to her will. Margaret's sudden disappearance is her trump card; she plays like she and her husband have disowned their daughter, leaving her to her fate. She's guessed Margaret's direction, and tells Justin that his refusal of her has driven her away, and if he cares an ounce for her, he'll go after her himself, because they aren't going to.Justin hesitates; he sees the trap Lady Mayfield has set for him, but staunchly refuses to find himself boxed into a marriage he doesn't want. He decides to go after Margaret, figuring she couldn't have gotten too far; he'll bring her back to her parents' door and make it clear to one and all he'll have nothing to do with her.So, yes - ridiculous. I got this far into the book and was just kinda rolling my eyes. Margaret truly was too stupid to live. She'd never done anything for herself and was terrified at the idea of striking off on her own, but she was even more terrified of going home and being forced into a union with a man she believed was a monster, thanks to her mother's ridiculous tales. She'd described as being very blonde and pale and malleable, and indeed, she has no personality to speak of.But obviously I am such a sucker for Cornwall that I carried on, wondering if we'd get any scenery porn as we did in The Bride Insists and The Marriage Wager.So Justin catches up with Margaret and starts berating her - so she turns around and shoots him in the shoulder, and suddenly things get interesting.She didn't mean to shoot him, she only wanted to scare him, but he immediately collapses in the middle of the road, and she panics. She manages to pull herself together, and tells the approaching villager that Justin is her brother and that they were robbed by highwaymen. She's astounded at how easy it is to lie to these people, because she's never lied in her life, but they take her at her word and help her bring Justin to their village to recover.They set up house at the Red Fern inn, with the Appleby family. The local midwife, Mrs. Dowling, removes the bullet from Justin's shoulder, and Margaret feels so guilty about shooting him (not to mention she'd told everyone that he's her brother) that she stays and nurses him. She alternates dealing with him and walking along the shores of the sea in the village, and she slowly turns into her own person, realizing that she can make decisions and deal with things without anyone's help.Justin is furious when he wakes up, but he's also constrained by his wounded shoulder, so he eventually makes nice with Margaret, basically because he has nothing better to do. He's noticed the color in her cheeks and the fullness of her figure, and is impressed when she talks back to him. Turns out a Margaret Mayfield with a personality is rather pleasant to be around.She discovers that he's not a monster, and that her parents have greatly overstated his foibles. They eventually start talking politics and family, and he tells her about how he grew up, and why he's as passionate about his causes as he is. He even takes her into the village and shows her that yes, poverty is a real thing, and it's really, really terrible, and she is duly affected by this realization.They are becoming attached to one another, but they each fight it. We follow Margaret as she struggles to come to terms with her new assertiveness, and the stirrings this man is causing in her heart and in her mind. Mrs. Dowling is the one who basically tells her that it's obvious to one and all that they're in love with each other, and that Margaret needs to bring it to a head. If she wants to marry Justin, she's the one who's going to have to speak up - which is exactly what she does one evening, only to have her father burst in - again, at just the wrong moment - and basically ruin everything.Everyone's irate, and Justin blurts out that he'd never marry Margaret no matter how much her father wishes he could make him. This breaks Margaret's heart, but she is not suddenly cowed by her father's appearance. She takes Justin's rejection in stride, but will not be bullied into leaving just to save face. Only when Justin disappears does Lord Mayfield finally convince his daughter to go home with him, after making sure that any word she leaves with the Applebys is swiftly destroyed, so that Keighley will not be able to find her if he ever comes back.Justin was in a boating accident, re-injures his shoulder, and is truly on the brink of death by the time the Applebys find him again. Mrs. Dowling sends the youngest Appleby in search of Margaret; upon learning that nobody knows who she really is or where she went, she basically tells him to just ask along the way to discover her route. Margaret returns home, but she stands up to her family and forces them to leave her be. She'll tell whatever story they want to tell to chase away the scandal, but she truly doesn't care what the neighbors think. She knows herself, and what happened with Justin in Cornwall, and all that matters to her are her own thoughts and feelings on the matter.It takes the Appleby boy a week to find her, but she immediately sets off to return with him to his village, walking away even when her parents threaten to disown her. She returns to Cornwall and sits with Justin until his fever breaks and he comes out of his delirium, and is more than happy to accept the proposal he freely offers her.The was a really sweet book. Once the pair made it to Cornwall, and realized they were stuck together (a bit of forced proximity), they started to really get to know each other, past their preconceived notions. Both love the Cornish countryside and have an inescapable pull with the sea, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and their time together is very sweet and gentle. Margaret basically grows up once she realizes there is a world beyond the one her parents have carefully curated for her, and grows a backbone. She faces up to both Justin and her father, and in the end discovers what is truly important to her.Justin doesn't have quite as far to go, but his deepening regard for Margaret is written quite nicely. Mrs. Dowling was a hoot, and the Applebys were the sort of warm and friendly family Margaret never had.This is a straight up traditional Regency romance, so the romantic relationship is written very opaquely. It basically takes these two 200 pages to kiss (in a 247-page novel), and they celebrate their engagement in the final chapter with even more kisses. It's very sweet and gentle and a sort of comfort read, exactly what I needed right now. If you can get past the ridiculous setup, it'd definitely worth reading. I'd recommend reading in one sitting, though, because stopping and starting with a plot that doesn't really move very quickly would probably be incredibly frustrating.