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Title: The Homecoming
WonderClub
Item Number: 9780783889825
Number: 1
Product Description: The Homecoming
Universal Product Code (UPC): 9780783889825
WonderClub Stock Keeping Unit (WSKU): 9780783889825
Rating: 4/5 based on 2 Reviews
Image Location: https://wonderclub.com/images/covers/98/25/9780783889825.jpg
Weight: 0.200 kg (0.44 lbs)
Width: 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Heigh : 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Depth: 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Date Added: August 25, 2020, Added By: Ross
Date Last Edited: August 25, 2020, Edited By: Ross
Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
$99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub (9296 total ratings) |
Vincent Madrigal
reviewed The Homecoming on June 30, 2018This final installment in the series was fantastic ! I'd been tempted to discontinue the series during a couple of the earlier novels but I'm glad I decided to read the story about the final sister Lizzie. She's the youngest Beverley sister and her bitchy mother always bullies her and calls her the runt of the litter because Lizzie's a tiny, pretty redhead; Lady Beverley doesn't think that red hair is fashionable so she's resigned herself to thinking that her youngest daughter will remain a spinster. I hated how Lady B tried to destroy Lizzie's self esteem but luckily, the governess Miss Trumble was able to build up the heroine's confidence and prove to her that she's just as beautiful as her older sisters. This novel also starts with drama galore because it's finally revealed that Miss Trumble is not just an impoverished governess; in fact, she's the aunt of the Duke of Sevenshire. He's the hero and his first name is Gervase but he's mainly referred to as the duke in the novel. I enjoyed this novel a lot more than its predecessors because Lady Beverley didn't have any significant page space. Miss Trumble orchestrated a situation that allowed Lady B to go off to Bath with her social climbing friend Mary while everyone else is invited to a house party at the H's new house. The H just happens to be the newest owner of the old Beverley mansion Mannerling, but Lady B thinks that her redhead daughter will be unable to attract his interest so for the first time she actually resigns herself to not ever regaining Mannerling.
It was a huge relief not to have Lady B act as a pimp, just to sell her daughters off to whoever owns Mannerling. In the previous novels she had made 5 aggressively embarrassing attempts to pimp match her daughters to the then owners of the old family mansion. Lizzie is the only sister who decides, from the very beginning, that she is not going to chase after a guy just because he owns Mannerling and that's why she's my favourite among the Beverley sisters. In fact, Lizzie starts off the novel by totally hating the H and it's a bit warranted because he had found her trespassing inside the old mansion and the resulting altercation made them totally dislike each other. The H is also wary of Lizzie since she's the last unwed Beverley daughter. Lady Beverley's greed and shameless schemes to regain Mannerling have made her ( and by extension her daughters ) a bit infamous and most eligible men are unwilling to court the pretty Lizzie. I felt sorry for the heroine because she's in this unpopular position due to the schemes of her mother and her 5 sisters. Her sisters are all happily married but she has to live with the negative consequences of all the drama that they had caused in the 5 preceding years.
The H sets up a house party at Mannerling because he wants to find himself a wife. He invites 2 young ladies from his list and includes Lizzie since she's a neighbour. He doesn't intend for Lizzie to be a prospective wife candidate but merely invites her because his aunt Miss Trumble had inveigled invitations for herself and the heroine. Lizzie is supposed to be a guest who is present to help make up numbers for the house party. Lizzie also makes him invite a young lady called Sarah because his secretary Peter is in love with that woman. Unfortunately, things go haywire because Sarah thinks that the H has included her on his shortlist of potential wife candidates. This novel then becomes a bit addled with these 3 delusional and wannabe other women:
1. Crazy Sarah who spends all her time fantasizing about marrying the H, being a duchess and having fancy parties.
2. Giggly, plump but pretty bimbo Celia who cannot hold an intelligent conversation with anybody but is focused mainly on gazing adoringly at the H and batting her eyelashes.
3. Prudish, snobbish and average looking Verity, who sticks her nose up in the air because she thinks that she's the only candidate that's suitable for the position of duchess.
In the midst of these women's duke hunting schemes, there's a lecherous male guest who keeps trying and failing to seduce Lizzie. Then, there's poor Peter who is sad because crazy Sarah is ignoring him since he's a mere secretary. Things get even crazier when Lizzie tries to help Peter by telling Sarah that she has not been invited as a potential wife candidate for the duke. Sarah starts to go a bit insane after this conversation with Lizzie and the evil atmosphere at the spooky Mannerling mansion seems to add fuel to this woman's crazy delusions. Sarah starts to hatch evil plans to kill Lizzie when it becomes obvious that the H is only interested in the heroine. Celia and Verity also get together to scheme and plot against the heroine when they realize that the H is not interested in either of them. All 3 women are mad because they don't think the tiny redhead deserves to be a duchess since she's unfashionable. The drama intensifies when another young lady is to the house party; this time she's an uninvited guest whose carriage got involved in an accident right outside Mannerling. The lecherous guy Gerald decides to pursue this girl Tiffin but she falls in love with the duke's secretary Peter. This storyline is complicated when Tiffin's farmer father decides that his daughter ought to be in the running as a candidate for the role of duchess !
Everything comes to a head after crazy Sarah tries to kill Lizzie and has to be carted off back home. Her abusive father ends up falling to his death from one of Mannerling's balconies. It is kinda creepy that crazy Sarah starts to become sane again as soon as she is away from the spooky mansion. Gerald is punished for trying to assault Lizzie and for conspiring to elope with Tiffin. Finally, mean old Lady Beverley reads about Lizzie's engagement to the H and immediately jumps in her carriage to return home. She's ecstatic because her youngest daughter has finally managed to do what the other 5 failed to do. I was a bit disappointed when I read the epilogue and realized that the H and Lizzie decided to leave Lady Beverley to live at Mannerling. I hated that woman and she didn't deserve to become the grand mistress of that house again. The good news, however, was that Lizzie herself realized that the house itself was evil and wanted nothing to do with it:
TEN YEARS HAD passed since the wedding of Lizzie Beverley to the Duke of Severnshire. Lady Beverley and Mary Judd were resident at Mannerling. The duke had given them permission to live there for as long as Lady Beverley lived. Lizzie was now the proud mother of four children, three boys and one girl. The girl, Isabella, was nine years old and had her mother’s elfin looks and green eyes. Lizzie, the duke and their children were just completing their first visit to Mannerling since their wedding, both Lizzie and the duke having previously refused to return there, and saying that if Lady Beverley wanted to see them, then she should travel to the duke’s palace.
M. C. Beaton; Marion Chesney. The Homecoming (Kindle Locations 2445-2450). Ivy Books. Kindle Edition.
This novel was the best in the series because it was packed full of drama and intrigue. The chemistry between these MC's was also stronger than in the previous 5 installments. I was also happy to see that Lizzie, the so called runt of the Beverley family, ended up getting the richest and most prestigious husband - a duke ! Miss Trumble also got her happy ending because she was able to spend her senior years travelling through Europe with her best friend/boyfriend Barry. At the end of the epilogue, Lizzie notices that her daughter Isabella is developing a strange and familiar fixation with Mannerling so the MC's take their kids and depart, after deciding to never again visit that spooky old mansion:
This is Lizzie:
This is the hero Gervase:
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