I admit it. I'm usually a spoiled New Release girl. I like fresh-off-the-press books. I like reading things as they come out. But, occasionally, I like to reread a favorite author. It usually has to be a fabulous book for me to keep or pick up again. It definitely has to be light-hearted (I don't keep the sad books). Lynsay Sands is a favorite author, and Love is Blind is one of my all time favorite books.
Sands writes in numerous romance subgenres. She's probably best known for her Argeneau vampire/paranormal series, but she's equally at home in medieval, highland, or Regency historicals. Love is Blind is a solid Regency historical. It is also one of the few books to add a word to my romance vocabulary: piffle. As in 'burnt piffle.'
What makes this story terrific is that the humor is largely slapstick. It is laugh out loud outrageous. Who else would write an historical novel where the heroine--deprived of her MUCH needed spectacles by her evil stepmother--mistakes a suitor's lap for a table and spills scalding hot tea on his---well, piffle? In a subgenre where grace and elegance reign supreme, this clumsiness of the heroine is so endearing.
What also makes this book is the hero. A quasi-Beta hero, he brings a Beauty and the Beast quality to the story. A war veteran whose facial injuries caused polite society to shrink in horror, he's uncommonly understanding, thoughtful and kind. He's also decisive, passionate, and a touch arrogant (which is why he's only quasi-Beta).
It had been a few years (and several hundred books) since my last reading of this novel. I do believe I enjoyed this reading MORE than my initial one.
Every girl who has ever worn glasses knows how Lady Clarissa feels as this story opens as if no man will ever look twice at you again because you are four-eyed. Clarissa could cope with that, however. She can barely cope with not seeing and the inherent clutziness that comes with her dim view on the world, but her stepmother has forbidden her to wear her spectacles. This works out well for Adrian Montfort, Earl of Mowbray as the war has left a scar on his face that repels all women who see him clearly. He seeks Clarissa out, and soon begins to court her and to fall in love.
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