A LASTING SPLENDOR by Elizabeth Bright

PUBLISHER: Paradise Press, 1/1981
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: England, 1910
TIMESPAN: Three months
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: C

FROM PUBLISHER: HER IMPERIAL BEAUTY STUNNED EDWARDIAN ENGLAND!

But Sylvia was no match for her scheming mother who plotted to use Sylvia's sensual green-eyed charms to her own devious ends.

Angry and rebellious, Sylvia disguised herself as her own maid and offered her love to a gentle stranger, the dark and handsome Parliamentarian Arthur Wicklow.

Caught in her own tale of deceptions, Sylvia threw herself into court society -- determined to forget the quiet young politician in a heady whirl of amorous escapades...

But Arthur had opened a new world of honor and duty and passion to a woman who, once awakened, could never forget...

MY THOUGHTS: The heroine is twenty year old Sylvia Hartley. She has honey colored hair and green eyes. She lives at home with her mother and stepfather. She’s out riding her horse when the horse throws her. The hero sees it happen and carries her into his cottage. That’s how they meet.

The hero is twenty-nine year old virgin Arthur Wicklow. He’s got brown hair and brown eyes. He’s described as being unattractive, very tall and very skinny. He’s a member of Parliament. He’s instantly smitten with Sylvia. They end up having sex in his cottage during that first meeting. Sylvia lies and gives him a false name, the name of her maid. They go their separate ways after that but Arthur never forgets her.

Sylvia is bored with life and is unsure what to do with it. She’s got a terrible relationship with her mother, Lady Constance. Her mother introduces her to Philip Waring. She wants Sylvia to have sex with him, for no apparent reason. Sylvia does, eventually. She ends up meeting another man, Charles. He stutters really bad. They end up deciding to get married but she changes her mind when she realizes he’s so against her being a suffragette or associating with them. She’s gotten involved in women’s rights since meeting with her old friend Kitty. Personally, I could have done without all the suffragette stuff. I didn’t find it interesting at all and wanted it to go away.

Arthur helps Sylvia out toward the end of the story. Some bad things happen to Sylvia’s ex-maid, Meg and her husband Brian. Arthur tells Sylvia that he loves her and she tells him the same. I don’t belive it at all. The barely know each other. During the drama with Meg and Brian, we get to see how cold and nasty both of Sylvia’s parents are. It’s hard to believe they could act that way. I don’t believe, in real life, someone would say the things that they did.

I didn’t really enjoy this story. Ignore the cover; I don’t think it’s a romance story at all. There wasn’t a bit of romance in it. I was excited to read it but was let down.

Elizabeth’s book list.