Recent Reads - Fair As a Star

Fair As A Star (A Victorian Romance) by Mimi Matthews - Beryl returns home to the village of Shepton Worthy after a stay in Paris, and begins preparation for her marriage to Sir Henry Rivenhall. Her abrupt departure and her stay in Paris has been the subject of gossip and speculation, but Beryl hopes that has died down and she won't have to face questions. She is warmly welcomed home by her mother and sister, and by her old friend Mark Rivenhall, Henry's younger brother. Mark is now the village curate and his friendship and understanding mean a great deal to Beryl, especially when he discovers her secret and the reason she had been whisked away to Paris.

Mark will do anything he can to support and help Beryl, but he knows the risk to his own heart. He has loved Beryl for years, but she is promised to his older brother. Yet what can he do, even when he begins to suspect that Beryl doesn't have feelings for Henry, and that Henry views the marriage as a wise business decision rather than a love match.

Beryl devotes herself to charitable work in the village and does her best to keep her own melancholy at bay, but when she begins to realize the depth of her own feelings for Mark and that her marriage to Henry will not bring her happiness, she starts to wonder whether she can change the course of her decisions.

This novel started out slowly, in my opinion, and the conflict is all based in relationship dynamics rather than physical threats and dangers to the characters. It was very interesting to get a glimpse into how "melancholy"―or what we would call depression―was viewed in Victorian England. The characters are all very likeable, even Sir Henry with his cool and detached demeanor is not a mean-spirited villain. A gentle and sweet romance develops, based on friendship and compassion, and I kept turning pages to see how it would all be resolved, hoping that Beryl would find hope and happiness without any of the characters being wounded in the process. I felt vaguely as though something was missing in the wrap-up as the story closed, and I remained puzzled about how the title related to the story, which I realize is an odd complaint. There is an author's note at the end which included an explanation of the title, but it still didn't really connect for me.

As an aside, I chose to consider this a book with a body-positive message for the reading challenge, because the underlying theme for Beryl was that she did not need to feel that she was broken or wrong because she struggled with depression. During a time when this condition was not particularly well understood, she could have been shamed or treated unkindly, but thanks to a couple of thoughtful characters who viewed her as a worthy person rather than a shameful problem, she was able to find positive ways to cope.

This is a book with a body-positive message (#22) for The 52 Book Club's 2023 Reading Challenge

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