Interview with author Stephanie Laurens and a review of her new novel about true love found through a magic necklace
Rating: Three Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“Where other ladies, the chaperons and the mamas, foster matches, Henrietta disrupts them, or more specifically, disrupts those not based on love,” says And then She Fell author Stephanie Laurens in an interview published on her website.
The book introduces us to Henrietta Cynster, 29, and someone who always imagined she would be the one in the family to not get married. Known as the matchbreaker, she’s broken up many potential marriages. And she’s never worn the ‘magic’ necklace, a family heirloom, which is supposed to draw one’s true love and has been passed down to the unmarried females in the Cynster family to help them find a match.
Mary, Henrietta’s younger sister, demands Henrietta wear the necklace as it must be worn by the elder Cynster woman before it can be passed down. Henrietta wears the necklace, and on that day she ruins James Glossup’s life. To make amends, she decides to help James find a wife. Will she find him a wife or fall for him herself?
“Henrietta firmly believes that love is the best basis for a marriage, and the only acceptable basis for her. She nevertheless does not believe that love will come to her, will find her. She’s now twenty-nine, and love hasn’t found her yet. Henrietta has no faith in the necklace…but to keep the peace with (her sister) Mary, Henrietta agrees to wear the necklace that evening. And everything changes,” says author Laurens.
And then She Fell presents Henrietta as a strong woman, one with little room for growth. She has no time for the necklace’s alleged properties, while Mary is a staunch believer. Written from Henrietta’s point of view, it would have been fun to know what James is thinking. The two are so well matched there is no roller coaster of emotion for the characters, or the reader.
Laurens’ Cynster novels are a series, starting with the men of the Cynster family in a work called Bar Cynster. Fans of previous novels may note that Laurens writes her men with more verve, that her female characters represent a pleasant read rather than gripping storytelling. There is sex in this novel and also a murder mystery. This novel picks up from where The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae ended.
“In many respects this book, Henrietta and James’s story is an outcome of the action of (her earlier book) The Perfect Lover, in which Simon and Portia finally realized they were meant for each other,” says Laurens. “Through the subsequent events surrounding Simon’s engagement and wedding, James and Henrietta naturally spent more time together; they had met before and were aware of the other’s existence, but had not before had occasion to spend any real time in each other’s company. So the events of Simon’s engagement and wedding provide the essential groundwork that allows James to react very directly to Henrietta’s disruption of his matrimonial plans.”
Unlike the previous three books, The Cynster Sisters Trilogy, which took place in the countryside, the story of And Then She Fell is set entirely in London. “The story, which is largely dictated by the characters, defines the setting,” says Laurens. “Henrietta’s story is about James finding his necessary bride, and quickly, so the action will clearly take place during the Season…which means in the ballrooms, drawing rooms and country houses in and around London.”
Stephanie Laurens lives outside Melbourne, Australia with her husband and two cats. A historical romance novelist for more than 20 years, she is a New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller. She was born in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, not long after the British colony became independent. At age 5, she moved with her family to Melbourne, Australia.
And Then She Fell (Cynster Sisters Duo) by Stephanie Laurens . Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages, Publisher: Avon (March 26, 2013. Language: English, ISBN: 9780062068644 $7.99
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