Review: An Untamed Governess for the Rogue

An Untamed Governess for the Rogue by Olivia Bennet
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 60% (Chapter 21)

I almost never DNF a book, but I just could not make myself finish Olivia Bennet's "An Untamed Governess for the Rogue." I should have known from the first chapter that this book would not be for me, but I kept reading because I hoped things would get better. Unfortunately, the book did not improve after that first chapter; if anything, it seemed to get worse.

The reason the book did not start off well for me is that the heroine, governess Miss Teresa Dowels, immediately came across to me as TSTL. After being attacked by highwaymen who gave her a pretty significant head wound and would have succeeded in raping her if not for the hero, Lord Luke Morton's, timely intervention, she tries to go after them to get her stolen necklace back. Yes, it was originally her mother's necklace and the only thing of hers Teresa had left, but was it really worth the risk to her safety? Of course not! She didn't seem very smart to me to begin with when she refused to just hand over the necklace when they were first threatening her with pistols, but trying to go after them was even more ridiculous. I guess this series of events was supposed to demonstrate that Teresa was "brave" or "spirited" or something, but it did not work out that way for me.

Luke didn't seem to be especially bright either. After the highwaymen attack another carriage near his family's estate, he decides to go after them. By himself and in the darkness of pre-dawn, he follows one of the men into a wooded area, where there is almost no light and Luke can only hear the highwayman's voice taunting him. Luke decides to shoot randomly in the direction of the voice and appears to think he actually has a chance of hitting him, but (shockingly!) misses with both of his (single shot) pistols. Of course, while Luke is reloading, the highwayman shoots Luke instead (because he could see out from his hiding place, which Luke, if he had any common sense at all, would have realized was a possibility).

Meanwhile, back at Luke's family estate where she is employed, Miss Dowels learns that Luke has gone off in search of the highwaymen and is "sad" because Luke is putting his life in danger for her, but thinks that she is too "humble" to deserve such consideration. Teresa decides to steal a horse from the stables and rides off to try and save Luke from himself. (Obviously, this is a wonderful idea because she was so successful at fighting the highwaymen during her first encounter with them!) Teresa arrives just after Luke has been shot and jumps in to take care of his wound. In the meantime, Luke, in his infinite "wisdom," has decided that he's going to tell his family that he fell from his horse onto a tree branch to explain his gunshot wound, so they won't worry so much about it. (I'm sure those two types of wounds look exactly the same and no one will be able to tell the difference!)

Over the next few days/weeks, Teresa continues to nurse Luke because apparently she used to help her (now-deceased) father, who had some kind of medical training, with his patients, so Luke's mother, the duchess, decides that Teresa is the most qualified person to do it. While he's convalescing, Luke tells Teresa that he will continue to pursue the highwaymen, and will absolutely get her precious necklace back for her! (Obviously, her necklace is the only thing that matters here. It's not like these guys are out there robbing and threatening to rape other young women or anything.) Because, despite his family's objections and his mother's outright threats against it, Luke really cares for Teresa. I'm not sure why since there has been basically zero relationship development between them up to this point, but I guess he thinks she's pretty and is grateful because she nursed him back to health? He still knows nothing concrete about her or her background. Teresa is also "strangely drawn" to Luke, but again, I'm not really sure why. She herself has told him that he's "silly," but I guess now that she's seen his "muscular" chest she wants to jump him?

The story only deteriorates from there, with Luke's brother Edmund getting involved to try and prevent Luke and Teresa's relationship, at least in part because of the brothers' ongoing sibling rivalry (which, BTW, includes not one but two "duels" that were actually horse races because each is determined to prove that he is the better rider); Luke taking increasingly stupid risks to try and track down the highwaymen and get Teresa's necklace back so that she will think he is worthy of her; and so on. As for Teresa, far from being "untamed" as she's described in the book's title, she just seems like a sad, pathetic young woman who alternates between being scared of her own shadow and making stupid decisions that may seem brave but are actually of no apparent benefit to herself or anyone else. Neither she nor Luke were particularly likeable or sympathetic lead characters, and when I was more than halfway through the story and found that I didn't care what happened to them (plus found myself rolling my eyes at their actions in nearly every chapter), I finally gave up on this book.

I've read previous books by this author, and for the most part they were decent reads. However, I did not find the quality of the writing or the plot of this book to be anywhere close to the quality of the author's previous books. I have to question whether this book was even written by the same person given how dramatically different it was from those previous books. If it was written by the same person, it might be time to take a break from releasing a new book every single month and focus on quality over quantity. The one thing I can say for certain is that if the next book released by this author is as poorly written as this one, she will have lost me as a reader.

*ARC provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

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