Was I the only one who was really bothered by the miraculous recovery of the duchesse? Or that she was the one who had, for Callie’s own good, taken the extreme and humiliating step of causing her to be jilted? Three times!? I feel really cheated that that particular revelation was just thrown in and barely discussed, given how much we are shown the jiltings affected so many aspects of Callie’s life and emotional health.

Also, I have to agree with the posters who call the book melancholy. I found it incredibly melancholy. Yes, there were moments of humor (though, to be honest, I found the bull in the kitchen bit forced rather than light-hearted). In fact, I found this book more melancholy than so many of the angsty Kinsale titles–the unacknowledged sadness the hero and heroine demonstrate, the heroine’s retreat into daydreams, made it difficult, for me, at least, to view this as a light romp or farce. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, and I think Ms. Kinsale has a lovely voice and style, but light and fluffy it was not. At least not to me.

LiF succeeded better, for me, in maintaining the balance such that the humor did not, IMO, diminish the deeper emotional resonance of the bad stuff that happens. But I would also not apply the comparison to the entire Kinsale oeuvre.

I definitely agree with you about the “unfolding” of Trev’s character, though. It’s a difficult thing in Romance to make the reader suspend the knowledge that these two will be together, so the problems between them must be — to some degree, at least — resolved by the end of the book. And we certainly can’t believe that a shy, wonderful girl like Callie should end up with a jerk. Thinking back, months later now, I feel Callie’s naivete regarding Trev’s real feelings was a little contrived and drawn out, but I did so enjoy every opportunity Trev had to be the romantic that it’s ultimately okay. ;D

I agree with most of this. I just adored Callie and Trev, I loved the mix of sadness and humor. While I understand how some of the plot points might be problematic to some readers, with this book I could just go with it, no problem. And, yes, I liked the epilogue and the final reveal quite a bit. I also enjoyed the way Trev’s backstory unfolded, like layers being peeled back. I feel like if I’d known more about Trev right away it would have been harder to accept Callie’s doubts about his feelings for her.

An aside: I don’t really see much in common in Kinsale’s and Chase’s writing and I’m always surprised when they’re considered similar!

(1) I received a working link for my download, as well as an additional email from your editor. It was very nice and I truly appreciate the prompt response.

(2) I loved your book. Though I am quite familiar with your name, I admit I never read your work before. I am already making a wishlist to catch up with your previous releases.

I found the book to be charming, engaging, and poignant without being sappy at all. I found it very well balanced as to that respect. The comedy elements were fun to read. The characters were extremely likable and they caught my interest off the bat, which for me, makes the book a winner from the get go. This book is definitely a “lift me up” type of read in every respect.

LOL you are right, Ros, it’s Cornish. Mea culpa I did say the captain was Welsh.

Maybe his family came from Cornwall but moved to Wales? ;) I’ll admit I just like “Trev” as a hero nickname.

Totally agree w/your comments Robin and understand what you mean. It’s one thing I did realize well AFTER finishing LiF, that the one thing all my books have in common, light or dark, is they are “emotional” reads. And generally with a high level of emotion, you are going to be dealing with heart-tugging of some sort.

I think Shakespeare in Love is a good comparison. It’s a real romp, but there is genuine sadness in the characters’ lives.

LiF is the opposite, in that you know Trev and Callie will have a happy ending, but the sadness comes from the things they have suffered in the past and are still suffering from, even if they are moving toward happiness with each other.

One of my favorite scenes in the book illustrates this for me. It’s the one where Callie is feeding the orphan calf in her beautiful dress, with muck boots and apron and hat.

On the one hand you have a relatively absurd picture Callie paints in this get up, combined with the more humorous aspects around her relationship to the animals (feeding Hubert Bath buns, for example). But then you have the fact that she’s crying over the imminent loss of Hubert by someone who has total control over the estate and her tears over that loss. I mean, she really, really loves Hubert and it’s just one more thing she loves being taken away from her (Trev, her father, Hubert, promises for a respectable marriage). And then you have Trev witnessing this whole scene, and feeling that stirring love for Callie as well as that desire to be a hero and get Hubert back for her.

In one sense the scene is an opportunity for Trev and Callie to establish that old intimacy, a step toward their romantic reuniting, in another it’s a funny scenario and is connected to other funny elements in the novel involving Hubert and black henna, and then you have Callie’s sadness and the reality of all she and Trev have endured and lost over the last ten years.

As a reader I felt all those things acutely and at once, not just in that scene but throughout the novel. It didn’t mean that I didn’t laugh out loud at many points or relish the happiness in Callie and Trev’s relationship, but I also didn’t feel like these two people were unscathed by life, and so there was more poignancy in their relationship than there would have been for me if they had never suffered or lost anything important.

Does that make sense?

ETA: the whole notion of Trev recapturing the family properties, and thus the family name/history/dignity/prominence, etc. also lingers for me as one of the more poignant aspects of the novel, especially at the beginning when his mother is very ill and she is so happy at the idea that Trev succeeded in getting his grandfather’s legacy back. That I know a bit about this historical moment in France and England adds to my reactions, too. Again, things end very happily, but let’s face it, the Terror was no picnic. ;)

(N.) and (L.) worked together this morning to identify all of the customers having issues with their ebook downloads. They identified seven customers, and (L.) has responded to each one of them with a new link for their ebook download or to confirm that the original link should now be working…

We also let these seven customers know they would be receiving free copies of the print versions of Lessons in French and the three backlist titles. (L.) and (E.) shipped those out today along with another letter from (L.) that mentioned the release of Uncertain Magic later this year and with a coupon for 10% off any future web order at sourcebooks.com.

@Ros: Oh and I had wanted to explain to Ros my reasoning about the character names. I totally agree that Trevelyan isn’t French! I mentioned in the book that he was named for the Welsh sea captain who smuggled his mother out of France just before T was born.

Taillefaire is “Tolliver” in English. I tend to think a lot of the old aristocracy was proud of their Norman roots and kept the French spelling, so that was my reasoning there.

I was thinking more about this discussion, and for some reason the movie Shakespeare in Love came to me–that’s a pretty slapstick movie which also has a sort of sadness about it, so if that’s the sort of thing you mean, I get it! And I love that movie–probably one of the only movies w/o a happy ending that I love.

With LiF you get the happy ending! Win all around. ;)

Just reporting back that this morning, Sourcebooks fixed the issue with the link and I was able to download the books (RELIEF!) and received a very nice email from Laura at Sourcebooks explaining what happened. They have also kindly refunded my money (NOT at my request). This is wonderful customer service! I’ll likely go out when the Great Southern SnowPocalypse is over and purchase a paper copy to gift to a friend.

And yes, the review was fun to write; I don’t think the style works for every book, but in this case I think it worked well.

I know we’ve kind of winnowed things down to one word here, but I do think the review and comments have done a good job at detailing the many aspects of the novel, from its wit, humor, and farcical elements to the longing and love and emotional depth of Callie and Trev’s romance.

In fact, one of the things I’ve always loved about Kinsale’s books, and one of the reasons I think they appeal to a diversity of readers, is that they’re truly multidimensional, making different connections with different readers. I’ve even found that on re-reads I’ve had different responses. And having already read LiF twice, that’s been my experience with this book, too.

I’m Dominique Raccah, the publisher of Sourcebooks. First, I love Laura’s books and loved Lessons in French! And this was such a cool way to read a review. A Conversational Review. Way GREAT! Really could hear people’s voices.

Also, really sorry to anyone (Mireya, Troutqueen) who had problems downloading the ebook off of our site. Please personally write to me (dominique.raccah@sourcebooks.com) if you need anything. I’m also sending all of this over to everyone on our team.

We worked diligently with EVERY e-book site to get them Lessons in French early. EVERY one. In the end, the two where it’s easy to find are: All Romance e-books (who are seriously great people…met them for the first time at dbw this week) and amazon kindle.

Last thought, I didn’t really experience the novel as melancholy, more filled with longing and beautiful. Loved the characters. Loved getting to know them, loved their angles. And could really see why they would love each other. And laughed a lot…you know, in that joyful way when good things happen to people you really like.