“Sir Philip’s Folly” is the fourth book in “The Poor Relation” series. However, it can still be read as a standalone book as most of the gist from the prior titles are highlighted here. Check out my reviews on the other three titles by clicking “Book Reviews” the homepage of this blog.
Sir Philip is smitten with the vulgar and fat Mrs. Budge and his fellow co-owners of the Poor Relation hotel are not happy at all as her presence may have a negative effect on the image of their hotel which will be bad for business. Therefore, they swing into action with a plan to dislodge Mrs. Budge from the hotel and from Sir Philip’s life. At the same time, the recently widowed Lady Carruthers who is desperately looking for a new husband is lodged at the Poor Relation hotel with her nineteen year old daughter whom she deliberately dresses up as a school girl to make people believe she is much younger as having a grown up daughter is a disadvantage to her plans. Lady Carruthers has eyes for the dashing Lord Denby but the Poor Relations have something else in mind and as usual spring into action to bring out the beautiful Arrabella who is usually locked up in her room by her mother.
Filled with the usual drama, action, suspense and wit, the author continues to humor us with the escapades of the “odd lot” who own the Poor Relation hotel on Bond street, London. I enjoyed this book thoroughly and was glad that for once, the others were able to beat the ever cunning and crafty Sir Philip to his game.
I highly recommend this book to all romance lover. It also a very clean read quite suitable for teenagers. Now on to the next book……
Rating: 4 Stars
Published: August 15, 2013 by Canvas (First published in 1993)
Pages: 192
Genre: Historical Romance
Purchase @ www.amazon.com/misstonks
The Author: Marion Chesney was born on 1936 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, and started her first job as a bookseller in charge of the fiction department in John Smith & Sons Ltd. While bookselling, by chance, she got an offer from the Scottish Daily Mail to review variety shows and quickly rose to be their theatre critic. She left Smith’s to join Scottish Field magazine as a secretary in the advertising department, without any shorthand or typing, but quickly got the job of fashion editor instead. She then moved to the Scottish Daily Express where she reported mostly on crime. This was followed by a move to Fleet Street to the Daily Express where she became chief woman reporter. After marrying Harry Scott Gibbons and having a son, Charles, Marion went to the United States where Harry had been offered the job of editor of the Oyster Bay Guardian. When that didn’t work out, they went to Virginia and Marion worked as a waitress in a greasy spoon on the Jefferson Davies in Alexandria while Harry washed the dishes. Both then got jobs on Rupert Murdoch’s new tabloid, The Star, and moved to New York.
Anxious to spend more time at home with her small son, Marion, urged by her husband, started to write historical romances in 1977. After she had written over 100 of them under her maiden name, Marion Chesney, and under the pseudonyms: Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, Helen Crampton, Charlotte Ward, and Sarah Chester, she getting fed up with 1714 to 1910, she began to write detectives stories in 1985 under the pseudonym of M. C. Beaton. On a trip from the States to Sutherland on holiday, a course at a fishing school inspired the first Constable Hamish Macbeth story. They returned to Britain and bought a croft house and croft in Sutherland where Harry reared a flock of black sheep. But Charles was at school, in London so when he finished and both tired of the long commute to the north of Scotland, they moved to the Cotswolds where Agatha Raisin was created.
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