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Title: A Precious Jewel (Signet Regency Romance)
ISBN: 0451176197
Author:
Mary Balogh
Publicate Date: 1993-06-01
Publish: 1993-06-01
List Price: $3.99
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest Used Price: $23.49
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1: Don't pass this one up.......
As I sit at my computer writing this review, I am a mess. I read this book in one sitting and I am a complete emotional wreck....I love it! This feeling is how I feel after I've read something special, something "other", something unique, something unforgettable! This is how I feel after reading A Precious Jewel.
Priscilla Wentworth is precisely what that titles says...she is a precious jewel. Resorting to prostitution after her father/brother leave her penniless, she encounters Sir Gerald Stapleton at the brothel in which she works/lives. He is a paying customer and she completely dazzles him, not because of her beauty, but because of her sweetness and willingness to be and act exactly as he wants her to. Finally, not being able to bear watching her be abused by other men, he asks her to come under his protection by becoming his mistress. The relationship develops from this point. Let me warn you...it is slow to develop. Sir Gerald is a man with lots of baggage and it takes time for him to trust.
Sir Gerald is in many ways a more tragic character than Priscilla is. The love scenes between these two are some of the most uncomfortable that I have ever read because they are so emotionally unattached and mechanical. The reader soon comes to realize that Gerald is not capable of anything else. He is incapable of giving anything of himself to another human being because he fears rejection and protects himself against pain. He has incredible baggage from his parents and stepmother and it takes him a great deal of the book to come to terms with the ghosts of his past in order to be able to give himself to "Prissy".
This is not a light romance...if your looking for that check out "The Famous Heroine". This is an extremely complex and emotional read that will have you hooked in no time. The book evolves as do the characters within it and by the end you will be cheering and crying.....because it had to end.
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2: Shorter but still great historical romance
Mary Balogh, who is by far my favourite modern writer of historical romances, has definitely refined her writing skills over her long career; however it's always good to read some of her earlier books as there are some great reads in them.
'A Precious Jewel' feels in some ways like a prototype for 'More Than A Mistress', one of my favourite Balogh books. In this story Priscilla Wentworth is a gentleman's daughter whose father and brother have died and who is now at the mercy of her nasty cousin who has inherited everything. When he starts making improper advances she leaves his house and travels to London to see her former governess who has set up a finishing school in the hopes that she can gain employment with her. Unfortunately when she arrives at Miss Blythe's establishment she finds out that the finishing school is actually an extremely high-class brothel. In due course Prissy realises the only way for her to survive financially until her thirtieth birthday (when she inherits some money from her dead mother) is to become a whore, and thus she does. After two months she gets a new client, Sir Gerald Stapleton, who likes her so much that he asks her to be his mistress.
Prissy and Gerald get to know each other much better once she is his mistress. She is still doing a 'job', of course, although she is in love with him, but Gerald is beginning to learn about real life through her. Gerald is an unusual hero for this kind of book - he isn't tall, handsome, witty, but instead is a man of average looks, average intelligence and rather alarming naïveté. He finds the time he spends with Prissy as comfortable, she does what he wants, looks after him and isn't demanding in any way. Gerald has little experience of love, having been failed by his parents and his stepmother and having sworn off marriage and long-term women.
But spending time with Prissy makes them both begin to reconsider their lives, but when something untoward happens and Prissy breaks it off, both she and Gerald have to find their new places in the world and how to live apart from each other.
Sir Gerald reminded me very much of Freddie Standen in Georgette Heyer's 'Cotillion', the 'nice but dim' man who isn't particularly good at anything but who bumbles through life. Prissy is very much more the stronger character with intelligence, talent and skill but she is able to hide all this so that she can carry out her job. Part of the charm of the story is the way in which these two rather different people bring out the best in each other. Not much is made of Prissy's job as a prostitute in Miss Blythe's brothel and I think the repercussions of this might have been rather more significant in the long term than they are shown in this book but it is still a charming and romantic read.
There are a few awkwardnesses in the plot that had to just be glossed over by the reader. I wondered how someone suitable to be governess to a lady might within a few years be running a brothel and who appears very good at it - did she have previous brothel experience, and consequently why on earth was she considered suitable as a lady's governess? Gerald's naïveté is also rather strong in places - I wondered how someone so dim at times still had his fortune - but his protective feelings of Prissy showed what a pleasant man he is. He came across as younger perhaps than his 27 years and far from the usual hero but still a man with whom the reader knows Prissy can be happy.
Like pretty much every book Mary Balogh has written, this is a great read and much better than most other books out there in this genre. It's an earlier work and that shows with less of a plot (for example, in 'More Than A Mistress' which has some similarities the heroine is hiding a murderous past and the hero in that book is a much stronger character with his own demons) but the characterisation is still good and the overall experience of reading it one of great enjoyment.
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3: Sweet and Touching!
This is a wonderful book! It actually made me cry and that is really saying something because I *never* cry over books or movies. Bravo to Mary Balogh for being brave enough to write a story set in Regency times with a *working* prostitute for a heroine! I confess that I hate the more typical prostitute-but-still-a-virgin historical romance plotline.
Priscilla Wentworth is an impoverished gentlewoman who has been working in an uppercrust brothel for two months when she first meets the hero, Sir Gerald Stapleton, as one of her clients. Priscilla is a beautiful literary creation--a woman who is able to make lemonade out of the lemons that life has dealt her. She is a strong, intelligent, very sweet woman who has managed to retain her sense of self and dignity despite her sordid profession. Gerald is a less heroic but still incredibly sympathetic character. Not very adventurous, average in looks and intelligence, and feeling betrayed by all the important women in his life, he deliberately avoids any meaningful relationships with women until he meets Prissy. She is so sweet, warm and accommodating that he finds himself drawn to her and eventually sets her up as his mistress. Both Gerald and Prissy are so afraid of getting hurt that they deny their growing affection and try to treat their relationship as a business arrangement.
The love that develops between Gerald and Prissy is very believable, as are the issues that keep them apart. Gerald feels inadequate and cannot bring himself to trust any woman's love, particularly one like Prissy who has been trained to please and deceive men. Prissy realizes that even if Gerald could ever bring himself to trust and commit--gentlemen do *not* marry women who have been prostitutes (especially known prostitutes with other clients who are members of his own social circle.)
In summary, this is a really unique and heart-wrenching story! Highly recommended!
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4: Captivated by the Script.
Oh, this is good. This is very good. A PRECIOUS JEWEL is simply a wonderful novel filled with gentle sex, yearning, and poignancy. Yet, it is a painful story which beckons two disheartened people to break free from lifeless serenity. Mary Balogh THANK YOU!
Destitute and alone Miss Priscilla Wentworth earns her living in a brothel. She accepts the condition of her life by shoving all the ugliness into dark corners. Instinctively, Prissy reflects on spring days, warm sunshine, and quiet walks. Only through these gentle reflections can Priscilla Wentworth escape.
Sir Gerald Stapleton endures his cynicism and wariness of women. However, Gerald Stapleton is a man, with male needs. When he seeks pleasure, he seeks out the girls in the brothel and his favorite is the pleasing Prissy. She is the only working girl who can effectively attend to his requirements. Suddenly, Sir Gerald Stapleton no longer wants to share her and makes Prissy an offer. She accepts it and becomes his exclusive mistress.
Mary Balogh writes a brilliant story, provoking her reader's emotions. A fresh uniqueness flows throughout, as Balogh gives her reader a view from a Regency mistress' life. The reader experiences the enduring submissiveness and availability the mistress is forced to give and the mocking disdain and ridicule she must suffer. A PRECIOUS JEWEL is very good!
Grade: A+
MaryGrace Meloche.
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5: When the hero is not a hero...
The story is interesting. The heroine is quite all right....
but the hero. ! ! !
if you read the book's resumé, you know what the story is all about. an interesting story as Mme Balogh knows how to write. She keeps us reading.
But what does the heroine do with this hero? it's a M. less the average man, no interest, non even gentle to the heroine. Not a person you'd like to meet, even less dream about. The heroine has no choice in this story but I just can't understand why she's in love with him... appreciate him for what he bring her as an upgrade to her life style but love him? no way!
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