Gwendolyn Grows Up
Release Date: March 28, 2025
GL Robinson is the godchild of Georgette Heyer. She writes Regency Romances in a very proper English style with a good dash of humor. As the product of a convent boarding school in the south of England in the 1950’s and early 60’s, she has a very proper English style herself, which you will be able to tell if you listen to the recordings of the first chapters of her novels on her website, where you can also sign up for a free short story.
She met her American husband in Brussels where she was working at the time the UK joined the European Union (or Common Market, as it was then called). After retiring from a career as a French professor in upstate New York, she happily swapped Existentialism for Romance and since 2018 has written 11 Regency novels. They all feature feisty heroines against a real historical background.
MY REVIEW
Poor Gwendolyn–cast adrift after the death of her parents without any fortune or skills to earn her living. A kind lady takes her in as a governess, but after two years the lord of the house discovers that his children have learned nothing in Gwendolyn’s care. The sweet, endearing girl is packed off to London to be a companion for Lady Wendover where she learns that she ought to have some ambition to understand the world around her. She also discovers that Lady Wendover’s son, the Earl of Kendal, is very charming and handsome. If only he were not nearly engaged to the inflexible Miss Framingham.
As the earl begins to take note of Gwendolyn’s beauty, it provokes her rival to jealousy. Schemes and shenanigans ensue. Poor Gwendolyn is forced to run away, discovering the seamier side of London as she tries to fend for herself. The earl, of course, exercises all his powers to find her, and thus we see why the subtitle of the book calls it a “Cinderella” story.
This is one of the most Heyer-esque modern romances that I have ever read. The naive Gwendolyn, the eccentric Lady Wendover, the scheming Miss Framingham are straight out of a Heyer novel. The story is told in winsome style, however, and avoids Heyer’s occasional rambling with a succinct plot. The more I read modern books, the more I have come to love ye olde third person omniscient narration. The ability to reveal what is going on in so many heads is delightful, and GL Robinson handles this style deftly. Recommended.
“What one must do with men, my dear, is to listen very politely, say nothing and then do exactly what one wants. Of course, there’s an argument afterwards, but it saves you the bore of having one before as well.”
-Gwendolyn Grows Up by GL Robinson
Romance with Humor and Heart 
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