Book Review: "As You Are" by Sarah M. Eden

I really like Sarah M. Eden. I like her enough that whenever she comes out with a new book, I almost always buy it immediately.

I first heard about Ms. Eden through a good friend after she read Eden's first published novel Seeking Persephone. That book is still, by far, my favorite of all her books, because it is a sort of Beauty and the Beast retelling, and for some reason, I am a total sucker for that fairy tale.  Really. My husband buys me little Belle trinkets whenever we're at Disneyland, because, after having believed a I was a tomboy all growing up, he discovered I have a soft spot for that particular Disney Princess. ;-)

Anyway, As You Are runs a close second or third in my favorite of Eden's books.  It takes place in the same circle as all of her other books with the Jonquil family.  But there's something about this one that really settled well with me. The hero of the story is the quite confident sort, who doesn't realize how great he is. I liked Corbin Jonquil quite a bit. I also liked Eden's heavy themes of proper treatment of women. She deals with heavy women's issues in all of her books, but she does it in such a way that you aren't completely depressed by the end. Because let's face it, to be a woman back in the Regency Era would've been really crappy. I express this fact to my husband every time I finish a Regency novel, and yet for some reason I can't get enough of the genre.  It's a peculiar love-hate relationship. 

So, all in all, I liked the book a lot. It was a fun, quick, escape read, that left me happy at the end: exactly what I'm looking for when I turn to Eden's books.  

 

And now, without further ado, here is the cover blurb:   

Life has taught Clara Bentford that men are not to be trusted. She keeps her distance from everyone, finding security in isolation. But she can't seem to keep herself from noticing her handsome and baffling neighbor, Corbin Jonquil. Could he really be so different from every other man she's known?   

By far the quietest of the Jonquil Brothers, Corbin has tended to go unnoticed, content to fade into the background. But when he falls for Clara Bentford, a lovely young widow who doesn't even realize he exists, Corbin has to learn to stand out. Soon his family decides to help him win his fair lady, and Corbin has a Jonquil-sized disaster on his hands.

Here is a list of Eden's other books in order of my most to least favorite:

Seeking Persephone

Drops of Gold

As You Are

Courting Miss Lancaster

Friends and Foes

Kiss of a Stranger

A Glimmer of Hope

Books by Eden that I haven't read yet:

Longing for Home: A Proper Romance (Part 1)

Longing for Home: A Proper Romance (Part 2)

I liked them all, although A Glimmer of Hope was a little too heavy for me.