The Imaginary Gentleman by Helen Halstead

The Imaginary Gentleman Reviews

• 
  Cass

  I enjoyed this book, the second book written by Helen Halstead. The writing is very easy to read. I particularly enjoyed the description of the heroine Laura on the opening page. The author has a talent for describing events artistically without going into unnecessary detail.
  
  Halstead's first book was a Jane Austen sequel and Halstead's affection for Austen is obvious in her writing. The plot and characters bear many similiarities to those in Austen's stories, particularly Persuasion, ie. The setting of Lyme, the heroine Laura is very similiar to Anne in personality and circumstance. The heroine from both books having to deal with languid married sisters. There is also a paragraph describing a toothpick case purchased by a young man that is very similar in style to the toothpick case purchased by Robert Ferrars in Sense and Sensebility. I am not sure if it is a homage to Austen or an accident, I suspect the latter.
  
  The author has a talent for delivering witty lines that require a certain cleverness to understand. She cleverly weaves in some reflection about the double standards of the Victorian society. While a woman can become the brunt of severe gossip for an enquiry about a man, the man can do what he likes and is expected to do much more in pursuit of the woman he loves. The author continually left me smiling with her clever lines, and yet seemed to feel the need to tell describe the height of every character as soon as they entered the scene.
  
  The book becomes boring for a period in the middle of the book. The author seems to spend too long setting the scene without giving the reader cause to actually love the characters. Once the party left Lyme the book became much more engaging. I would like to again note the similarities between this book and Persuasion, the Evalina Woodruff and the Musgroves daughters.
  
  I think Halstead could do a better job of developing the personality of her heroine. I found that I like her, but on reflection I could not picture her, she was just the standard heroine found in just about half the novels ever written. She is pretty but not stunning, her female family members do not understand her, her male family members do, she is always kind, she likes the outdoors, she is clever, she is educated, she is charming which seems to surprise some people. This is just the standard box-model heroine, I would have like to see this molded more into something that Halstead owned.
  
  Overall I did enjoy this book, I enjoyed reading a non-Austen related book in an Austen style setting. I became very involved in the mystery of the imaginary man. The author does a good job of mimicing Jane Austen and I will be seeking our more of her books.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Barb

  "Seeing the light depends upon the angle of our vision."
  
  Billed as a Regency Intrigue this story was taut with suspense. Set in England during the Napoleonic wars. Laura Morrison is thirty years old, the unmarried middle daughter who's parents died when she and her brother and sister were young. Her younger sister Elspeth, is still in morning for her poor octogenarian husband. Their older brother Edward returned from the war near death, Laura nursed him back to health, she and Edward have a close relationship.
  
  Laura feels she's a burden to her family, she lives in a time when society dictates that an unmarried woman couldn't live alone. She doesn't have any prospects for marriage and when she finally meets someone she believes she has an affinity for scandal results.
  
  I thought the characters were well drawn, the period richly portrayed and the mystery interesting. The story was suspenseful and the relationships realistic. Helen Halstead offers a study in contrast between the respect offered to men versus women. Laura Morrison is a strong heroine who reminds me to a certain degree of Jane Eyre. This story also brings to mind Deanna Raybourn's 'Silent in the Sanctuary' trilogy.
  
  I really enjoyed this story, I hope Ms. Halstead will write more like it soon.
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  Kagama-the Literaturevixen

  The heroine meets a very amiable man while she is out walking by the pier.They chat for a while then parts,and the heroine goes back to the cottage she is renting with her crippled brother who recently returned from the war and her vain and fashionable sister.
  
  She tries to find out the mans adress...but...
  
  It turns out no one knows of him or have seen him.Of course she wants to find out the truth of it so she enlists her brother in helping to inquire in the whereabouts of the man.
  
  
  Her brother and sister thinks she is going insane because she keeps persisting in seeing this mysterious man.
  
  Soon even the heroine begins to think she might have imagined this gentleman.Conjured up a suitable suitor to avoid dealing with her reality as a spinster without too many prospects.
  
  At times I started to suspect the heroine was one of those
  unreliable narrators
  
  And even that she had actually gone mad.
  
  The author has this way of writing that makes one uneasy at times and she offsets this beautifully by showing the mundane side of life in the regency era.It heightens the suspense when others also begin to see the heroine as a little bit odd.
  
  A suspenseful read. I wouldnt call it a gothic precisely but it has shades of it. I would recommend reading it through to the end to find out the truth.
• 
  Tallulah

  I ended up enjoying this a lot more than I thought. It all started off pretty badly, with the hurdy-durdiness of a modern author trying to write in Austen style really irritating me.
  
  But I kept going and soon realised I needed to know what happened to that damned gentleman.
  
  There were also a few lovely nuggets of nice characterisations and descriptions that made it worthwhile. The ending wasn't the best payoff ever, but it wasn't a disappointment either; I found it had a distinct Midsomer Murders type ring to it.
  
  A good holiday read.
• 
  Sarah (sarahknowsthestory)

  I really, really enjoyed this book. So may Regency romances are focused almost entirely on the characters themselves, and whilst Halstead does this, she also opens a window to society at the time. I'm interested in the clothes, the food, the travel and houses and all the domestic details! Will definately be seeking out other works by this author.
• 
  Donna

  I was suprised that I actually enjoyed the book. I loved it all the way until the end, where I was a little disappointed with the reasoning behind everything. I would recommend it though.
• 
  Jan

  Part romance, part mystery, I found this book frustrating at times due to the way the main character was treated by her siblings, but I'm glad I persevered as it turned out to be an enjoyable read.