"Some Brief Folly" - Patricia Veryan - 1981


When the latest AAR Top 100 came out, many long-time romance readers on the message boards complained about the relative newness of the books and authors.  It seems newer readers did most of the voting or just out-voted some older favorites.  One reader posted about the dearth of iconic romance authors on the list and also mentioned a few names I'd never read - Julia Ross, Patricia Veryan, and Eva Ibbotson.  The library had no titles by Ross, but quite a few by Veryan and Ibbotson - I grabbed at random.

Though it took me weeks to finish "Some Brief Folly" by Patricia Veryan was pleasantly surprising.  It's one of those stories  that isn't so much a mystery as a snowglobe.  The answers are shaken up and trapped, and seem really obvious when they settle down.  Veryan was known for her Regencies, especially the "Golden Chronicles" a series of five novels which was given a DIK review.  While I wouldn't just grab any Veryan again, (she has two "F" grades as well as that "A") As for "SBF" I found the hero pompous in a bad way, but I did enjoy the intelligent heroine and cast of kooky characters, even if the story did tie itself up too neatly in the end.