Review
Dear Annabelle, I’m in love with a man who doesn’t notice me. How do I get his attention?
That’s the gist of the game, except it’s not a random reader looking to attract the man of her dreams; it’s the writer of the column Annabelle. She’s adorable, naïve and sweet. The hijinks and antics Annabelle employs to win over the object of her desires, Mr. Knightly, are the stuff of bravery and courage. Annabelle is definitely no simpering miss after lowering bodices and practicing the fine art of swooning. I love her realization to be a bit more selfish and not so selfless, especially when it comes to future happiness.
Knightly is definitely a nodcock! He doesn’t have a clue that Annabelle is in love with him, in fact he never notices her. The sudden attention he sees in her thanks to a little lower bodice cracked me up. I thought it was hilarious, but as Knightly comes around he starts to realize that Annabelle is a person with dreams and aspirations just like anyone else. Some of my favorite moments are when Knightly becomes defensive of Annabelle and he doesn’t mean too. Like in this one scene where Knightly is interacting with his friends in the coffee house:
“You’re right. ‘Nodcock’ is not a strong enough word. You know, I wish I knew who he was only so I could plant a facer on him,” Drummond practically growled.
For years Knightly read the papers and drank coffee with these old friends, and in all that time he’d never heard Drummond react so bloody passionately to a single item in any newspaper…
“While you’re doing that, I’m going to whisk Dear Annabelle off to Gretna Green and along the way show her the love of a good man,” Gage said with a rakish grin that made Knightly want to plant a right facer on him.”
Some of the underlying internal conflict themes revolve around familial love and whether there is an importance to have love in one’s life versus security and stability. In addition, Rodale offers some amazing external conflict, which I love, based around the censorship of newspapers and the information they offered. I found this part of the story interesting and timely with all the publishing craziness and SOPA stuff from earlier this year.
The dialogue and interactions are fun and light; with the other girls from Rodale’s series stopping in throughout out the book to help Annabelle along. Plenty of conflict, romantic tension, and my only caveat was I didn’t enjoy the ending. This was a personal thing, and I feel that many will like it. To me Annabelle was the sweetest Cinderella who deserved her happily ever after, and if you like stories that have a hero who’s not a lord then this one should be on your purchase list.
Reviewed by Landra