Splendid

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Synopsis

American heiress Emma Dunster desperately wants to take over her father's shipping business someday, but even though she's a smart young woman, a lady running a business in her era just isn't something that's done. Disheartened but not quite ready to give up on her dream, Emma is persuaded by her father to travel to England to visit family, and although she doesn't really want the fuss, her aunt is determined to give her a London season. Feeling overwhelmed by the whirlwind of preparations for her come-out ball, she escapes the confines of the house in a maid's costume, and after rescuing a little boy from nearly being run over by a carriage, she gains the attentions of none other than the handsome Duke of Ashbourne. When he attends Emma's ball the next evening and discovers that she's no mere maid, he begins to pursue her. Although Emma finds Alex to be rather arrogant, she's confident enough to hold her own against his stubborn nature and finds him very attractive. As he begins courting her in earnest, she starts to think that he might just be worth giving up her dreams of being a businesswoman. But a misunderstanding about her reasons for wanting to marry him may leave her heartbroken.

After being pursued by women of the ton who were only interested in his title and money ever since entering the social whirl a decade earlier, Alexander Ridgely has sworn off marriage... at least until he absolutely has to wed in order to produce an heir. However, from the moment Emma saves his nephew from being killed, Alex can't seem to get her off his mind. He's a bit peeved when he discovers her masquerade but gets over it pretty quickly, and after that, he can't seem to resist going to every ball and party where he knows Emma will also be in attendance. His mother and sister decide to play matchmakers as well, but he continues to stubbornly cling to his plan not to marry. Just as Alex is beginning to realize that he's fallen in love with Emma, though, and starts to come around, she expresses her own desire to marry him and a misunderstanding about her motives ensues that could ruin everything.

Review

Splendid is the first book in Julia Quinn's Splendid Trilogy and her first published novel. Emma is an American heiress who has dreams of one day running her father's shipping company. She travels to England to visit family, and while she's there, her aunt insists on throwing her a come-out ball even though she has no designs on marriage. Wanting to escape the flurry of preparations, she borrows a maid's costume and goes out to purchase eggs for the cook. As she's heading home, a little boy darts into the street and is about to be run over by a carriage, but Emma manages to save him. In the process, though, she's knocked unconscious and awakens to the boy's uncle, a handsome duke, tending her. Alex is deeply grateful to the lovely redheaded maid and instantly taken with her. After delivering her safely back to her place of employment, he can't stop thinking about her. He's so eager to see her again that he reluctantly attends the ball just to check on her, only to be shocked by the discovery that Emma isn't a maid at all, but the honoree. After being pursued by many women who only wanted his title and wealth, Alex has no interest in marrying for at least another decade, but Emma holds a unique draw for him. Seeing the attraction between them, Alex's mother and sister host a country house party, inviting Emma and her family, in hopes that Alex might either come to his senses and propose or compromise Emma, forcing a marriage. As the two get to know each other, they begin to wonder if they're falling in love and whether they might each be able to put aside their aversion to marriage to create a successful union. But a misunderstanding when Emma finally expresses her desire to marry Alex could destroy their chance for a happy future.

Emma is an only child and the apple of her father's eye. She's the sole heir to his shipping business and has learned it from the ground up at his side. Emma desperately wants to someday run the company, but her pragmatic father reminds her that few people would want to do business with a woman. Although she feels it's unfair, she also knows that it's probably true, so when her father encourages her to travel to England to visit his sister's family, she reluctantly goes. Emma still doesn't really have any interest in marrying, so when her aunt decides to throw a come-out ball for her, she's not very excited about it. That's why she decides to escape the house in a maid's clothing, which leads to her meeting Alex when she rescues his nephew from certain death. Not wanting her family to know where she's been, she tells him little white lies about her identity. Then she meets him again at the ball, when he dares to follow her to her bedroom, looking for answers. Emma thinks Alex is pretty arrogant, but she's also deeply attracted to him. She enjoys getting to know him better at his family's house party, and eventually realizes she's falling in love, but she struggles a bit in coming to terms with marrying instead of ever being able to take over her father's company. Then when she's finally ready to let Alex know that she wants to wed him, a misunderstanding over her reasons could leave her heartbroken. I think Alex needed someone who could go toe-to-toe with him and not let him get too high-handed, and a combination of her American sensibilities and her father treating her with equality gave Emma the necessary confidence to be just such a person. Although she did become pretty besotted at one point, overall, I like that she didn't let Alex intimidate her like he sometimes did with other people.

When Alex meets Emma after she awakens from her brush with death, he's instantly attracted to her. Her brashness is a bit of a surprise to a man who expects people to do as he says, which I think was part of her allure. Shocked when he attends the ball and finds out that Emma isn't a mere servant, he immediately wants answers, so he brazenly follows her to her bedroom, seeking them, and can't resist stealing a passionate kiss as well. In the weeks that come, he can't seem to stop thinking of her and wanting to be with her, so even though it's not in his nature to do so, he begins attending all the balls and parties she does just to be near her. When his mother and sister invite Emma's family to their country estate for a visit, he knows they're matchmaking, but after being pursued by women who only want his wealth and title, he has no interest in marrying. He does, however, want to bed Emma, even though he doesn't seem to have a plan for what he might do afterward or if his honor would compel him to offer for her. Throughout the house party and beyond, Alex continues to resist the lure of marriage even though Emma is very sweet bait. Eventually, though, he thinks he might be falling for her and decides to propose, but when Emma expresses her desire to be married, he misunderstands her motives and sends her away heartbroken.

I really couldn't help feeling that Alex was a pretty underdeveloped character. We learn very little about his background. There's nothing about his father, but he does seems to have a healthy love and respect for his mother and sister. In fact, they appear to be the only women in his life that he actually trusts. Otherwise, he has little respect or faith in the female gender at all, believing them all to be gold-diggers. This is where I think his characterization would have been so much more interesting if there had been one or more specific instances of women betraying him or of women merely pursuing him for money and prestige. Merely having a blanket generalization about untrustworthy women driving him wasn't very compelling and it made his rejection of Emma after their misunderstanding seem to come from out of left field. He knew that Emma was wealthy in her own right, so for him to have such a visceral reaction to one thing she said without giving her a chance to explain further, just felt like an extreme over-reaction. I really needed more information about him to understand where he was coming from. I did think it was rather cute and slightly humorous that he became so besotted with Emma and didn't understand his own feelings for a while, but otherwise, there just wasn't a lot for me grasp onto with his character. As a result of that and his arrogance, which is not an endearing trait for me, I never fell for him like I want to with my romance heroes.

As I mentioned earlier, according to the note at the beginning of the book, Splendid was Julia Quinn's first published novel, and I'm afraid it rather showed her greenness as a writer. First, the pacing of the story is very uneven. It started out pretty well with the meet-cute, but once Alex finds out the truth about Emma and they move on to the getting-to-know-you phase, it slowed down considerably. I'd noticed in the couple of other Julia Quinn books I've read that her writing can become rather dialog-heavy in places, and yet it doesn't really add much to the characterizations or plot like it should. Another issue was how Alex and Emma both stubbornly cling to their desire to not get married with pretty weak reasoning, which felt repetitive. Then we get to the point where they've finally come to terms with their feeling for one another, which piqued my interest again, but then they almost immediately have a big misunderstanding that drives them apart for a short time. I've never been a fan of misunderstandings or miscommunications as conflict in romance, and that was no exception here. It really annoyed me. I suppose the one positive thing I can say is that it didn't drag on for long before Alex realized his mistake, but I felt like he expected a little too much from Emma too quickly after hurting her so badly and that she capitulated a bit too easily. She really should have made him grovel.

All's well that ends well, though, and it seemed like they'd gotten their HEA a couple of chapters before the end, making me wonder what else there was for them to do. At first, it was a little dull with them going through their daily newlywed lives, but then it ramped up with a little excitement involving Emma's cousin being abducted. This added some welcome intrigue to the finale. However, I couldn't help feeling that the scene was misplaced and would have been better if it had occurred before the wedding so that Alex could prove his love by riding to the rescue, so to speak. Bottom line: There were parts of Splendid that I found enjoyable, but it had too many flaws to rise above the okay range for me. There are three more stories in the series for Emma's cousins, Belle and Ned, and for Alex's best friend, William, all of whom I found to be rather interesting characters, especially the bookish Belle, so I may check out the rest of the series at some point.

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Julia Quinn