Reviews for Cousin Kate

The average rating for Cousin Kate based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-05-12 00:00:00 Steven Dong In Cousin Kate, one of Georgette Heyer's later books (written in 1968, 46 years after her first book, The Black Moth, was published), Georgette tried a Gothic spin on one of her historical romances, with distinctly mixed results. Kate Malvern, alone in the world at age 23, has just lost her governess job because the wrong guy made a pass at her, can't get another job, and has no money and nowhere to go except her old nanny's home, which isn't a good permanent solution for her. Her devoted and loving nanny, Sarah Nidd, secretly writes a letter to Kate's one relative that seems likely to be of help: Kate's aunt, Lady Minerva Broome. Minerva, a extremely determined and managing type, swoops in to carry the startled Kate off to Staplewood, Minerva's manor, where she lives with her elderly ailing husband, Sir Timothy, and her also ailing son, 19 year old Torquil, who is drop-dead gorgeous but also sulky, spoiled and ... strange. At first all seems reasonably good: Sir Timothy is kind although distant, Torquil seems to enjoy Kate's company, and Lady Broome is overwhelmingly generous with new clothing and presents for Kate. Torquil's older cousin Philip soon shows up, and sparks fly between him and Kate even though she resents him, because of Reasons. But odd incidents keep occurring at Staplewood, Torquil's erratic behavior is becoming more of a problem, and Minerva Broome's generosity to Kate starts to feel suffocating ... especially since people keep hinting that Minerva has ulterior motives. And for some reason Kate's letters to Sarah Nidd are never answered, and she starts to feel isolated and uncomfortable. Philip wants to be there for Kate, but Kate isn't sure that that's the right solution. The marriage between Heyer's lighthearted Regency romance sensibilities and darker Gothic suspense never quite fell into place for me. Heyer takes on the problem of mental illness in this plot, and writes about it with sympathy, but I don't think she really understood it well enough to do it justice, which is a problem when almost the entire plot is focused on this one issue. Heyer takes the easy way out of this one in the end, and the very ending is one of those odd, abrupt ones that occasionally pop up in her novels. I thought that the romance, although it was a secondary plotline, was rather charming. Both the heroine and hero were appealing ... well, aside from Kate's penchant for second-guessing herself and others, dithering around unnecessarily, and feeling like she owes more to Lady Broome than she should. For a heroine who was otherwise fairly mature and strong-minded, this was frustrating behavior. But other than this, Kate is excellent in a crisis and has a good sense of humor, and some of the secondary characters, especially her old nurse Sarah Nidd and her father-in-law, old Mr. Nidd, were original and delightful. I would have enjoyed this book more if it had been more about the Nidds than the unfortunate Broome family. Buddy read with the Georgette Heyer group.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-04-21 00:00:00 Michelle Dudley [Mr Nidd the elder (hide spoiler)]