The Lady's Companion

By Carla Kelly

Book Overview

Fleeing poverty and the tyranny of being an unpaid servant to her odious aunt, Susan Hampton finds a job as a companion to the Dowager Lady Bushnell, but her new life is threatened by her attraction... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451186842
• ISBN13: 9780451186843
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Signet
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.0" x 0.8" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

A lovely romance, with excellent secondary characters

Susan's father has bankrupted them with his compulsive gambling, and she decides she would rather work for her living than be a poor relation, even though it scares her to death. She goes to work as a companion to a lonely but very proper and reserved old lady, where she meets and is intrigued instantly by the lady's bailiff. Not only is this a refreshing change from the usual poor-girl-rich-lord story, but it is extremely well-written and the emotions all seem honest. I like best the books where I feel as though I would want to know the people in it, and I definitely would have wanted to meet these people.

I Didn't Listen To My Friends & Now I'm Scrambling!

My friends told me Carla Kelly was a terrific writer. I didn't listen. For a long time I just ignored all regencies because their covers are so hideous. Finally, a few Carla Kelly books came my way and I was astonished to discover a present day writer who is the next best thing to getting a reincarnation of Jane Austen herself! So I've hunted down some of her books but have a long way to go before I have them all. I should have listened because these books are much harder to find nowadays. "The Lady's Companion" is at the top of my list of Kelly's books. It is because she effectively deals with the British system of class. The British tend to drive me crazy over their class distinctions so Kelly had her ideal reader with me on this novel. A writer who can at one and the same time find humor in the class situation yet also write a love story around it--well, no one but Kelly has done it so well since Austen herself, IMHO! In this novel, the "lady" in question, is reduced by her father's gambling to become a lady's companion of an elderly, difficult woman. She also starts thinking about marrying the bailiff of the estate where she works. This is a really radical notion because the two are not of the same class! You would think an interracial marriage was being broached with the reactions this couple encounter. Don't miss this book. In 2nd place with me is "Reforming Lord Ragsdale" by Kelly.

I loved this book!

This book made a Kelly fan out of me. I admit to a weakness for when an author can take a formula and tweak it. Having a Regency heroine fall for a servant and the author actually leave him a servant is a twist that I adored. The hero and heroine fall into an easy and natural relationship despite the social barriers between them. This is a plot easy on the melodrama but full of heart. For me it was a definite keeper.

absorbing, well-researched and sweet

This book made me a fan of Ms. Kelly's writings. The conflict is true to the period (no overly melodramatic murders or abductions) and believable. The characters are personable, except, naturally, when they are intentionally contemptible. I enjoyed this book the first time I read it and have re-read it many times. If all Regencies were as successful as this one, perhaps the genre would have higher standing within the literary community.