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Lessons in French

by Laura Kinsale

reviewed by Cybil Solyn

February 2010, 480 pages, Publisher: Sourcebooks, ISBN: 1402237014

So....I don't like Laura Kinsale novels. Well, actually, scratch that. I didn't like Laura Kinsale novels. Okay everyone stop freaking out! Dark, twisted, and tormented isn't for everyone you know. I never doubted her talent. Her dark tormented heroes are the stuff of legends in the romance writing biz. I mean this is a woman who has die hard fans that will wait years and years between books. This is an author so talented that she can write a love story about sado-masochists and get rave reviews. This is a novelist who Knows how to capture readers and write only Keepers. I just wasn't one of her fans - until I read Lessons in French and fell in love with Callie, Trev, and a bull named Hubert.

Lady Callista Taillefaire has been having a rough time of it. Since her father passed away a year ago she's been uncomfortable with the new lady of the house changing everything. Callie's no beauty, rather shy, very smart, and loves raising cattle. She knows the best thing would be to marry and start a life of her own, but having been jilted three times she thinks it highly unlikely that even her vast fortune can find her a worthy mate. No, her heart belongs only to her sister Hermione and her prize bull Hubert. At least that's what she thought until her childhood friend and sweetheart, Trevelyn, sweeps back into town filling her life with secrets and adventures again.

Nine years ago Trev was forced to leave town by Callista's father because he was caught with his hand literally up her skirt. Now he's come back to see his ill mother and set thing right. Unfortunately for a man like Trevelyn de Monceaux nothing is so simple. He isn't the young man he once was, but he isn't the man he's been pretending to be either. He has secrets and trouble following him. But when he sees Callie alone at a ball his heart remembers all too well what she meant to him, and he longs to be with her once more.

Callie and Trev's characters unfold slowly with every turn of the page. It's wonderful watching their emotions move from the passion of young adulthood to a more mature and deeply accepting love. Trev is that kind of hero who we all want in our life. He sees Callie for everything she truly is and loves every aspect of her. In his eyes there is no good or bad stuff with Callie - it's all just her and he loves every part. The same is true for Callie. She loves Trev and accepts him fully. She trusts Trev with all of herself. She lets him see her - the real her, which is why it's so hard for her to deal with Trev's secrets.

Kinsale knows how to write fully developed and realized characters. We don't have any over the top heroines or heroes here. Both Trev and Callie are 100% believable as real people. They have flaws and weaknesses. They do stupid things. They have moments of sheer genius. And they are often funny as hell.

There is a ton of humor in this book. I often found myself LOL at the antics of bulls, and goats, and boxers, and even a sturgeon. Kinsale proves that she can write cute and witty with bulls in kitchens, drunk chef's, and bar fights. But all of this doesn't make this a "funny" book. The undertones of Lessons in French are often bittersweet. Loss is a running theme in this novel. Lost love. Lost family. Lost dreams. Lost hope. Lost time. As a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down, a dose of humor helps keep the bleakness at bay, but I still found myself feeling sorrow for most of the characters. Callie who must live under the thumb of a man, and can have her most beloved prize bull gambled away at his whim. Trev who wants to give his mother back a lost era. Hermione who wants to marry, but is afraid to leave her sister all alone. Trev's mother who lost her husband and son because of a hopeless dream. Etc. Etc. No matter how light the read appeared to be, not once did I forget I was reading a Kinsale book.

But unlike other Kinsale books, the darker undertones didn't bother me. What did was the length. This book could have easily been 100 or so pages shorter. There were too many twists, and red herrings in the plot for my liking. I loved the length to get to know Callie and Trev and watch their relationship grown and change, but there came a point where I was just waiting for the two to shut up and overcome the next, and the next, and the NEXT obstacle to their relationship so I could get my HEA.

Bottom Line: Read this book.