Reviews for A love affair for Lizzie

The average rating for A love affair for Lizzie based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-10-18 00:00:00 Lawrence Reiman Lizzie Lancaster has always had an understanding with her childhood friend Matthew Webster. The two formally pledged their love when Lizzie was 16 and promised to marry. Then Matthew went off to fight Napoleon while Lizzie stayed home. Lizzie has no desire to leave her home or her family and she faithfully waits for Matthew to return to her. When he writes breaking off their engagement in favor of a more worldly lady, Lizzie is heartbroken. She then cooks up a scheme to show him exactly how worldly she can be. She enlists the aid of a neighbor, Lady Thalia, to take Lizzie to Vienna where she can be reunited with Matthew and convince him to marry her. Along the way to Vienna they meet Mr. Daniel Thoreau, an American traveling in Europe and Mr. Mansfield, a well-connected young man headed to Vienna for the social life. Mr. Thoreau helps Lizzie learn to enjoy her adventure and joins her in her plan to make Matthew realize just what he's missing. This story was OK. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it. It's not what I would call a love story, let alone a romance. Lizzie doesn't even encounter Matthew until almost halfway through the book. Almost the whole story is told from Lizzie's POV with some from Mr. Thoreau and none at all from Matthew. The plot moves along very slowly and comes to a quick resolution. I found the ending a bit too sudden for my enjoyment. The Epilogue didn't really add to the story. I really enjoyed the descriptions of Paris and Vienna and the social life Lizzie experiences. She does things that I haven't read about in any other novel that I found incredibly interesting and charming. The characters in this novel consist of Lizzie, a strong-minded young lady who is determined to win over the love of her life. I liked her and wanted her to be happy but I wasn't rooting for her to find happiness with Matthew. He was a real idiot and a complete jerk to her. He fell for a flirtatious *itch which made me automatically not like him, then he treated Lizzie abominably. I hated his behavior and though he was correct, he had no right to scold Lizzie about her behavior. That is Lady Thalia's job! I preferred Mr. Thoreau to Matthew. Daniel is kind, considerate, thoughtful and intelligent. Plus, he's American! He helps guide Lizzie and helps her become an adult with a purely unselfish motive. I thought he was a much better catch than Matthew! I wanted to like Lady Thalia for being a man-hating spinster but I found her irritating. I hated how she always talked in italics and selfish she was. She couldn't be bothered to hang out with Lizzie and chaperon the girl when she didn't feel like it. Mr. Mansfield is hardly in the novel and I wondered what his purpose was. He advances the plot on occasion. The final character to note is George Andronikos. Like Lizzie I found him charming and delightful. He isn't husband material but he's a fun escort and I wanted to know a little more about his activities. I found this book for 50 cents at the library book sale. I wouldn't rush out and try to find it but if you can get it for free, it's not a terrible read.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-05-10 00:00:00 Markus Kirschner I picked this up at a used book store in the Outer Banks, because it was reasonably short and set in the Regency period and sometimes I just want a little taste of that era. What I didn't do was read the back. That would have told me the basics of this "romance" are pretty timeless: Guy gets out in world and dumps girl he's practically engaged to for another woman who is more "worldly". Girl goes after guy, crossing a good deal of Europe in a carriage. Girl meets the NEW girl and realizes she's a terrible person. Guy apparently realizes he made a mistake? Maybe? Or in messenger rant format to my best friend: Morgan: he writes her like oh btdubs i met this chick and we're getting married sewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww​wwwwwwwwww Morgan: and she's like what??? and also did he call me a country bumpkin basically? Morgan: and she and this older lady and her maid BEAVERS head to France and then Vienna Morgan: like OH I WILL SHOW HIM WORLDLY Timeless isn't necessarily a good thing. Sometimes we don't learn from the past, when we really, really, really should. (Also did you catch the maid's name is BEAVERS? I just kept imagining a group of beavers--apparently you call a group of beavers a colony--doing everything that was attributed to the maid. That's worth a star all it's own. :P "WHEN BEAVERS ANNOUNCED HIS ARRIVAL TO HER..." "BEAVERS HAD BEEN UNPACKING HER TRUNKS..." "BEAVERS, ARE YOU ATTENDING TO WHAT SHE IS SAYING??") This is one of those times when the "nice guy" who isn't really a nice guy, but keeps insisting he is, is not the one who should remain the object of your affections. In addition to horrible "romance" plots, there were quite a few lazy sorts of typographical errors that really should have been caught by a copy editor. Definitely the sorts of things that pop out at you while you read: "No. Not I don't really wish to see him at all--" The whole thing wrapped up rather unsatisfactorily, but it was short and parts were entertaining. "OK" seems about right.