One Perfect Rose, by Mary Jo Putney, was a completely enjoyable read. As I mentioned on my teaser post from yesterday, I've had this book on my shelf for at least ten years. I went through a romance novel phase in my twenties and just stopped reading them at one point. I still hoped to get back to read a few so I kept a shelf of them. I was in need of an "O" book since both of my previous attempts turned out to be books that I didn't like from the start. I picked this off my shelf and was quickly absorbed into the story.
The story revolves around Stephen, a duke who receives life changing news and Rosalind, the daughter of traveling actors, who works as their stage manager. It is a romance with a lot of heart, a lot of humor, and a lot of wonderful characters.
One of my biggest problems with standard issue historical romance novels is the formula plot. Boy and girl meet. They immediately despise each other, despite their obvious chemistry. They finally fall in love and some misunderstanding/kidnapping/war tears them apart. The end of course is happy with the promise of lots of babies and long years of love. It's not bad overall but it does get boring.
One Perfect Rose didn't fit that formula at all. Stephen and Rosalind were smitten from the start. Both felt that they couldn't pursue a relationship because of separate issues, but they couldn't deny their attraction and while they wouldn't admit they were in love, they admitted their affection quite easily. There were moments when something would be revealed and I figured that the big break up scene would occur, but it wouldn't. That was nice. Yes, they had obstacles to overcome, but they did it together.
I highly recommend this book to fans of romance and to people who want to read a sweet story. It was great, one of my favorite books this year.
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