Miss Draytons Downfall (The Corinthians, #3) By Patricia Oliver

And licentious as well Cassandra had even fewer illusions about his marriage proposal that she was in no position to refuse He was simply settling a debt of honor even he could not ignore Cassandra had one comfort only Surely as unfashionable and inexperienced a young lady as she would not stir Mansfield s passions Surely he would continue to take his pick of the most stunningly sensual sirens of the ton Surely he would respect his pledge to leave her untouched But Cassandra had no notion of how strong the earl s passions were and how weak were her defenses Miss Draytons Downfall The Corinthians.

Haughty duke really comes through for her Paperback I enjoyed all of Patricia Oliver s books This is one of my favorites Cassandra becomes pregnant by a younger son. Stephens brother feels honor bound to carry out his brothers dieing wish to marry her She is sad and angry Stephens reserved top loffty brother is pressuring her to marry to give the baby a name Cassandra is very naive and his seduction after their marriage is well done Patricia writes under the name Olivia Fontayne also I have all her books on my keeper shelf Paperback I had a hard time with this book I really wanted to like it because the setup was so interesting The Earl of Mansfield marries his dead brother Stephen s fiance.

The Earl of Infamy Though Miss Cassandra Drayton was a sheltered vicar s daughter she knew enough of the world to have no illusions about the Earl of Mansfield Handsome he might be but he was arrogant cynical cold hearted 3 Patricia Oliver is a pen name of Patricia De La Fuente Between 1993 and 2002 she wrote for the Signet Regency Romance imprint and for Jove under her other pseudonym Olivia Fontayne. Cassandra is such a raw untutored girl her husband s slow seduction is sensational Don t be fooled by the usual simplistic Signet cover art this is a very sensual and grown up story Cassandra is a girl in trouble thanks to the hero s younger brother and she s very jumpy and angsty for the first few chapters But the wonderful thing is that the dark Miss Cassandra Drayton because Stephen and Cassandra have anticipated their wedding vows and she finds herself in an interesting condition after his death but IMO the H and h were both so unlikeable that I really couldn t make myself develop much interest in their HEA I can t figure out exactly when or how they fell in love or what they even liked about each other The little time they spent together was used mostly for the exchange of insults The only pleasant conversations I remember them having before the last chapter of the book were when Mansfield was giving Cassandra gifts her engagement ring and later the fur cloak so she made an effort to be pleasant and thank him for his generosity. Even though Mansfield allowed Cassandra to stay with him in London for a few weeks after the wedding they spent virtually no time getting to know each other because he was constantly out with his friends and or mistress es while she spent all of her time with Lady Hart in an effort to avoid running into Mansfield when he did come home Then when he took her to his country estate to stay with his mother they still didn t spend much time together because Mansfield took off for his friend Gresham s estate to hunt despite the fact that he told Cassandra they needed to act like happy newlyweds to convince his family that their marriage was real If that was really what he wanted then why did he leave her behind to go hunting Even importantly why didn t he come back when his mother sent him a note to inform him of Cassandra s pregnancy That is not the behavior of a doting new husband Cassandra herself acted like the complete opposite of a happy new bride She continually berated Mansfield for his disgusting behavior and could barely tolerate him touching her in private let alone in public How his family could possibly have believed that they were happy or later on that Cassandra had reformed Mansfield and prompted him to leave behind his rakish ways is beyond me. This pattern of behavior continued for most of the book right up until Cassandra s miscarriage At that point I guess Mansfield s guilt drove him to try and cheer Cassandra up by remaining by her side and that was when he started to notice his growing feelings for her For whatever reason she had already convinced herself that she was in love with Mansfield but she spent the next month refusing to leave her room so that she could mourn the loss of both Stephen and the baby At the same time she was busy convincing herself that Mansfield would never love her back because she was too plain and he was in love with his mistress Honestly it was a relief when she finally decided to go spend a month with her father and sister because I don t think I could have taken much of Cassandra s poor lovesick me attitude If she wanted Mansfield why didn t she try right then to make her marriage a real one Instead she did nothing and waited to see if Mansfield would come to her Eventually he did but IMO his pursuit was prompted by his desire to best Gresham than by his love for Cassandra Overall I m generously giving this book 2 stars because it was mostly well written though the author did overuse the word disgusting which was quite annoying by the end of the book and because I liked several of the secondary characters I believe some of them have their own stories in separate books but the series may not have been completed before the author passed away I d be interested in checking out the remaining books to see if they are any better than this one Paperback I saw that there were no substantive reviews for this book so I figured I d take a crack at it This book is after all one of my favorite traditional Regencies. Cassandra Drayton is in a pickle She and her young fiance Stephen have anticipated their vows and now she s pregnant without a ring on her finger To add to her being out of sorts she enters her father s vicarage only to find Phineas Ravenville Earl of Mansfield and Stephen s older brother waiting for her Stephen is dead Phineas a. a Raven tells her and he is there to fulfill his brother s dying wish of providing respectability for Cassandra and a father for their baby One marriage of convenience later conveniently performed by Cassandra s father and they re heading to the glittering world of London and all the temptations that its society has to offer. This story portrays two people who are an unlikely match but who come to recognize that unlikely though they may be they are indeed a match Cassandra navigates the waters of London society and we see Raven and Cassandra getting to know each other and at the same time denying their growing attraction for each other Raven s friends are the creme de la creme of the ton and it s refreshing that they don t alienate or shun Cassandra Instead they take her under their collective wing however unrealistic that may be and Raven s fellow Corinthians do their part to fuel a little jealousy from Raven The book takes place both in London and at Raven s country seat to which they adjourn for the holidays. I really liked Cassandra Even though she could at times be shrewish I thought it was a realistic portrayal of a country miss thrown into the shark infested waters of London society Based on her narrative I liked how she thought about Raven s feelings like at the jewelers shop and she didn t blame him for the situation in which they found themselves Raven was enigmatic and a little cruel You have to keep in mind though that he d been a hedonistic bachelor all of his life and it definitely took some time for him to adjust to the fact that he now had someone under his care His love for and interactions with his mother revealed a softer side to his hard edged nature Raven s friends were delightful and fun but the villainess who was the chief rival for Raven s affections was a little cardboard She served her purpose though and she was suitably catty for one of these shorter traditional Regency novels. This book is one of the earlier installments of the Seven Corinthians series by Patricia Oliver Unfortunately it s my understanding that she passed away before all of their stories could be told Nonetheless we can enjoy the ones she did give us and Miss Drayton s Downfall is very enjoyable indeed Paperback