The LodestoneReview of The Lodestone, by Kathryn Fairfax (AKA Charleen Keel)
Old England Inn, by artist Raymond Chow*
★★✰✰✰ This one just wasn’t my cuppa tea. I’m not even sure it could be called ‘erotica’ except that the hero, Drake Stoneham, sleeps around – on purpose and by accident. The main problem with this story is that it was all too disjointed; it is in need of a good – and patient – editor.
One minute the heroine, Cleome Parker, is walking with a basket of flowers, when her grandfather almost drowns himself in a watering trough from overindulging in drink. There are little asterisks to indicate a break; however, as the heroine is again carrying flowers in the next paragraph, is it a break in time or perspective? Alas, it is the next morning and her grandfather is suffering a hangover. It took me bit, and a double check of my reading, to figure that out. Actually, there were several sentences I had to re-read to see if they made sense, let alone maintained continuity.
Drake sets out to keep a deathbed promise to a fellow soldier. He is searching for his comrade’s wife, as he has the marriage certificate that shows Cleome is not illegitimate, but of ‘noble birth’. (Regardless of who her grandmother was, how can this be when her father was a tinsmith?) Cleome’s mother, Ramona, isn’t ‘right in the head’ and since Cleome’s birth, has been suffering from the loss of her true love. Ramona also talks like a country lass, though Cleome doesn’t because she was taught by her grandmother (though none of it rubbed off on Ramona). Of course, once Drake realizes that the little hamlet he has stumbled upon holds the very people he is looking for, does he tell them right away? Nope. Don’t want to rush things; it has only been 18 years. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me.
Then there is the whole question of which class everyone falls into? Is Young Samuel, the stable boy who lusts after the heroine, above Cleome’s station or below it? And this is not counting the question of Cleome’s illegitimate birth. Same with the hero, Drake. Though he is up from the streets, he is invited to spend the night with the local gentry, Lord and Lady Easton, mainly because they are aware he is building an elegant gaming establishment in London. (Gentry who do NOT offer him a bath, by the way. So, he is in desperate need of one by the time he makes it to Cleome’s grandfather’s Eagle’s Head Inn. Of course, this doesn’t deter the lady wife from wanting to sleep with him, though. Ugh.) The gentry’s son, Garnett Easton, lusts after Cleome also, and dialogues and private thoughts between these two switch back and forth between acceptable and unacceptable with regards to social standing. Is it appropriate he invite her to the Easton’s Harvest Ball or not? The author doesn’t seem to want to commit as to where her characters sit in the hierarchy of class distention, so she shuffles them around willy-nilly to suit her purposes. Granted, Cleome’s illegitimacy accounts for some of it, but certainly not all.
Then Drake wins Eagle’s Head Inn in a card game, though he really wants Cleome’s horse. WTH? Sure the grandfather was in his cups, but he is going to risk his livelihood and his family’s home instead of breaking his granddaughter’s heart over a horse? And she lets him? Ridiculous. She also has a propensity to feel faint – or outright pass out – at the most plot contrived times (i.e. when there is a bed and the hero nearby).
There are a lot of characters in this book, like the unattractive but wanton serving wench, Fanny, who takes advantage of Drake by giving him a blow job when he is intoxicated. She continues to pursue him, but only pops up now and then, if merely to be the fly in the ointment. There’s the lovely, talented pianist Edwina, the niece of the barrister that changes Cleome’s life. Edwina has a crush on Garnett. And I must not forget Paulo, who is known as a rake because of all the women he satisfies with his talented tongue. He marries Edwina, lusts after her, but can’t consummate the marriage because of a midwife’s careless handling of the knife used to cut the umbilical cord upon his birth. Paulo must meet the requirements of his twisted father’s will and produce an heir by his thirtieth birthday. So, guess who he approaches?
I won't even go into all the political intrigue that happens in Italy along with tons more characters. Oh, and the advent of the railroad. But, there is also another plot line of Drake trying to find his little sister, Mignon, left in a brothel, and the duke who mistreated her abominably. She escapes his clutches, when overdosed by him for his nefarious orgies, and ends up a nun – for a time... before, she too, finds true love. Needless to say, Cleome misinterprets Drake and Mignon’s relationship. In desperation, Drake kidnaps Cleome and takes her – literally – on a ship bound for America. Still, she won’t agree to marry him, but her giggles imply that she’ll soon cave.
You know, it was all just too much. It is as if the author was trying to cram too many things into one book, at the expense of in pacing and continuity. There is some real potential here for a better story next time from this author. But for this one, sorry, I’d have to say pass on it.
Special Note: I was given this e-Book free of charge in exchange for a fair and truthful review.
*artwork available at www.capuletart.com
