Rules for a Proper Governess (Mackenzies Series) Mass Market Paperback – October 7, 2014

RULES FOR A PROPER GOVERNESS is the story of a man who is only half living after the death of his beloved wife, his two ungovernable children, and the woman who comes and brings healing to their family.THE STORY: Roberta "Bertie" Frasier is a pickpocket and meets Barrister Sinclair McBride when she is ordered by her father to take something from him. Bertie becomes fascinated by Sinclair because of the pain she senses in him. Finding out where he lives, she ends up becoming the default governess for his unruly children. Despite Bertie's lower class background, she makes herself a proper governess by bringing back joy to the children and eventually to Sinclair as well. Their happiness is threatened by Sinclair's past and Bertie's present.OPINION: Sometimes you find a book where you can just love the heroine. Bertie is an amazing woman and I loved how she brings sunshine and light into the McBride family. Sinclair is a very sad fellow as the book begins and there is nothing artificial or false about the way that Bertie integrates into his life and that of his children. I loved the relationship between Sinclair and Bertie and the story moved in unexpected ways for me. I had expected that the class differences between Sinclair and Bertie would be a bigger part of the story but instead the conflict is more external and Sinclair doesn't spend much time worrying about Bertie's background. I had a great fondness for Ashley's books because they are intensely emotional journeys with her characters. Her characters are big and bold and definitely originals. I loved that there was really no doubt that Sinclair and Bertie will be together. Sinclair's children are also well defined characters here and extremely loveable and not at all annoying as some child characters can be. I very much got the sense that Bertie becomes the center of the family and brings to life all of the McBrides. There is a real sense of a family being created here which I very much appreciated. I especially enjoyed the continued sense of continuity and place that Ashley has created with this series. Sometimes an author worries so much about not having a story dependent upon reading other books in the series that the book feels like it is not truly connected to the others in the series. While RULES FOR A PROPER GOVERNESS can be read alone, fans of the series are rewarded for their continued reading.WORTH MENTIONING: There are plenty of cameos by favorites from the series. I was especially pleased with the appearance of Hart and Eleanor who remain my favorite couple of the series.FINAL DECISION: I absolutely fell in love with Bertie and Sinclair and was completely satisfied with this book. Not only did I get a great romance with a quirky original heroine, but I got to see many of my favorites from the series which made me smile again and again.CONNECTED BOOKS: RULES FOR A PROPER GOVERNESS is the seventh book in the MacKenzies and McBrides series but chronologically comes before THE WICKED DEEDS OF DANIEL MACKENZIE. This book can be read independently of the others in the series, but the series is so great that a reader should just start at the beginning and enjoy.STAR RATING: I give this one 4.5 stars. I loved it!

I have been struggling to get into historical romance, lately, which has left me feeling adrift because historicals were my introduction to the romance genre, and a lot of my favorite, auto-buy authors (including Jennifer Ashley) write historicals. But even the last few Jennifer Ashley books I've read have been disappointing, so it was nice to pick up and thoroughly enjoy Rules for a Proper Governess.Sinclair McBride is a barrister who prosecutes crimes in the London courts. Bertie (Roberta) is a daughter of a petty criminal from the East End. When one of her friends is accused of a murder she didn't commit, Bertie expects McBride to put his considerable legal skills to work crucifying her friend--that's his job, after all--but instead he tricks the main prosecution witness into all-but-confessing to the crime on the stand. Bertie is thrilled, until her father and fiance (one of her father's associates), force her to pick McBride's pockets. To her surprise, McBride gives chase. When he catches her, he convinces her to return his stolen pocketwatch (a treasured gift from his late wife) in exchange for freely-given coin.Yes, you have to willingly suspend your disbelief a little bit to accept that a prosecutor would give a pickpocket money rather than clapping her in irons, much less that he'd hire that same uneducated, unpolished, Cockney-accented guttersnipe as a governess to his children, but if you can make that leap, it's a fun story and an unusually compelling romance.I really, really enjoyed Bertie. She is so unflinchingly honest and self-possessed. Compared to the carefully calculated manners and behavior of so many of the husband-hunting ladies populating historical romance (who tend to be spunky or perky, sure, but only so far as propriety permits), Bertie is refreshingly relaxed. She is smart and savvy and strong -- she fights her own battles (literally), but also owns her flaws. She knows she's woefully unequipped for the job of educating McBride's children, so she sets out to read his entire library. She goes after what she wants--she's the one who initiates the first kiss with McBride, for example--but though she wants McBride, she doesn't need him. She doesn't expect McBride to marry her--(which is actually often a problem for me: I tend not to like historical romances where the lady takes the enormous risks to her reputation and possible pregnancy by becoming intimate with the hero, before he commits himself to the relationship--I think I was willing to forgive it here because 1) Bertie's reputation wasn't so pure it needed to be so well protected, 2) McBride's feelings for her were clear from the beginning, even before he spoke them out loud to Bertie, and 3) you know if anything did go wrong in the relationship, Bertie is strong and smart enough to look after herself)--but she loves him and doesn't play games with herself or with him about her feelings and her determination to experience and enjoy their relationship for as long as it lasts.Bertie also has a mindfulness that is very appealing, both to McBride and to the reader. McBride has gone numb, still in mourning over the death of his wife, overwhelmed by work and by the emotional needs of his unruly children, whom he loves but can't connect with. By contrast, Bertie feels everything, notices everything, appreciates everything. She loves McBride, loves the children, loves the books she reads, loves the fine soaps they use in the McBride house, loves the fine engineering of the train that takes her out of London for the first time. McBride shows her the world, but in exchange, she shows him how to see and appreciate it, how to be present in the world in a way he has not been since losing his wife.The plot moves right along and there's plenty of stuff that would make a stickler for historical verisimilitude purse her lips in dismay (I am not such a stickler, except when it comes to grammar), and if you're one of those people who hates plot moppets (cute but unrealistic child characters who do little to advance the plot), this is not the book for you, but I really enjoyed it.

I love the governess romance genre, and this one did not disappoint. Both the H/h are very likable, even lovable. They are people you would want as friends, or even members of your family. I loved the way Ms. Ashley handled the class differences between them. As I have read so many of these, I saw the different paths this could have taken, but she decided to take the "High road" (pun intended ;).Sinclair MacBride, our hero, is a barrister, and comes from money and an aristocratic family, while Birdie, our female protagonist (and hero in her own right), comes from London's East End, and a thief for a father. She falls into the governess position by accident, bringing light and cheer to the grieving father and his 2 children.What I love about this, is that Sinclair did not spend one minute on angst about their social difference, or suggest that she should be his mistress, like so many of them do. He was simply an honorable man. It was the same for Birdie. She never tried to hide anything from Sinclair, being always truthful. Amazingly, without all the contrived angst, it still turned out to be a fun, adventurous, romantic and well written story.