Friday, March 1, 2013

Book Review: An Unlikely Match by Sarah M. Eden

Title: An Unlikely Match: A Regency Novel
Author: Sarah M. Eden
Enjoyment Rating: ****
Source: Library Copy
This book would be rated: PG (for ghosts and curses)

In 1805, Nikolas Pritchard, a penniless but well-connected London gentleman, inherits a castle in Wales. When he arrives at his new home, he discovers that the castle is inhabited by the ghost of Gwen, who has been roaming the halls, scaring house staff and guests, and protecting the sanctity of her bedchamber for 400 years. When Nikolas arrives, he's skeptical about Gwen's existence, but after they become acquainted, he starts to realize she might be the love of his life. But how can a man have a future with a ghost?

An Unlikely Match requires a reader to suspend disbelief. I've heard of ghosts haunting castles, but never ghosts that interact with people to the point of sitting down on the grass with them and joining their picnics. But somehow Eden gets the other details of the story done well enough (the Welsh language, the Regency phrases, the description of the place), that a reader is able to go there with her. I think that some readers may call the ending of the novel unbelievable, but the whole novel is unbelievable, so I didn't have a problem with Eden taking readers to another level of unbelievability. I had fun reading An Unlikely Match-- Eden does a great job with the bones of the novel, and she really made me root for Nikolas and Gwen, however unlikely their match.

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