No Occupation For A Lady (The Gryphon, #1) by Gail Whitiker

No Occupation For A Lady (The Gryphon, #1) Reviews

• 
  Laura Bagnall

  read this in june 2021 whilst at hmlr from mansf library she is a secret playwright at the gryphone theatre whose plays are wowing the TON but because she needs a suitable marriage she cannot tell anyone so her brother laurence takes the mantle of playwright and then she meets the love of her life and has to lie to him but he has a secret of his own his fortune is being spent on helping young waif and stays with a new orphange and she finds out fab of course they fall in love and its a happy ending but not before a very stormy adventure with scandal good book i loved it
• 
  Mary - Buried Under Romance

  "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players" - Shakespeare, As You Like It
  
  The premise of this story is interesting, and I fully anticipated being engaged to the story, but I'm afraid its delivery is rather mediocre, mainly due to problems in characterization.
  
  Victoria Bretton is ostracized by the ton due to her close and frequent association with her aunt and uncle, who, despite possessing great wealth, are shunned by the high sticklers of society for being owners of the Gryphon Theatre. Nothing in their past had helped their reputation either, since her uncle Theodore used to be an actor, and her aunt an actress who abandoned her husband for the love of her life. Victoria, however, shares a love of the theater unlike her mother and sister, who are the typical marriage-minded mother and chit seeking to make a good match. So instead of devoting herself to attracting suitors, Victoria indulges in her love of writing plays under the pseudonym Valentine Lawe, who had become one of London's foremost playwrights. On the opening night of her new play, she unexpectedly catches the eye of Alistair Devin, whose family despises the theatre due to his brother's scandalous marriage to an actress. And thus, as Alistair becomes more intrigued by the opinionated and unique Victoria, she has to take greater measure to prevent the exposure of her alter ego.
  
  As heroines go, I rather liked Victoria. Despite being forthright and outspoken, traits not often condoned by society, she is sensible and intelligent and knows to shows the responsibility of writing plays in secret to maintain her family's reputation. Each additional chance meeting with Alistair confuses her, as she had put aside marriage for the freedom and joy of writing, but is now questioning her growing attraction to a man unsuitable as a match for us. From their first conversation, Victoria is shown to have a great deal of loyalty and honor, as she pushes away Alistair for his own good, knowing their respective station and reputation can never match. In response, Alistair grows fonder of this mysterious beauty, and more actively pursues her. Up until this point, the story had a nice flow and pacing, with pleasant interactions between the characters.
  
  Unfortunately, Alistair turns out to be quite the jerk despite Mrs. Whitiker's attempt to add a depth to him by giving him philanthropic ideals as the founder of an orphanage. His insistence on not being lied to gets annoying as Victoria's self-conflicts waver between loyalty to her family and telling Alistair her other identity. But when she bares her heart and tells him the truth, he stubbornly won't believe it! For a quarter of the book he suffers under self-imposed guilt and anger, unable to decide whether to forgive Victoria (when he cannot even view things from her perspective) or to forget his feelings entirely. All the while, Victoria continues to suffer from his callous treatment of her feelings, and thinking fondly of him no less.
  Finally, Alistair believe Victoria in the last pages of the book, after her fourth attempt to clarify the identity of Valentine Lawe.
  
  Frankly, a near quarter of the book could be spared if Alistair just believed in the woman he claimed to love. After everything he's seen of her personality, it confounds me why he couldn't let go of his own bruised ego and mend their relationship. Ultimately, my frustrations at the hero ruined the initial pleasure I had in reading this, but I am eager to read the sequel No Role For A Gentleman if just to see how the continued story plays out.
• 
  Mnms

  Strong characters and an original plot, but the romance seems more like a plot device than part of the story.
• 
  Natasha Hagen

  Occasionally it's nice to read a story from past centuries. It's interesting to read about how people behaved and acted. Ladies where only seen in the company of strong standing men of society and were never left alone with any man unless they were married. Maids and chaperones were normal everyday things.
  
  Victoria had a very deep secret to keep and her family was gaurding the secret and fair that she would be found out. One night she meets Alitair a very eligible bachelor and her life seems to the in turmoil from then on out. She tries to keep him at a distance but somehow she cannot forget him. He was not really intersted in love or gettting married in the least but Victoria had some kind of effect on him.
  
  Things do not go as planned and Victoria's secret gets exposed and things take a few turns for the worst. If their love for each seems strong enough they might be able to make this work.
  
  When reading books from the past I always think about what those people would think of us and our current living arrangements. The book was fun and easy to read.
  
• 
  Tasneem

  An interesting book that deals with the trials of trying to have a profession in the regency period. Victoria's well-bred background prevents her from openly accepting the praise and acclaim she deserves for being a playwright. There is so much sensor and hypocrisy. Anyone in the theatre profession are deemed to be liars and cheats, the women no better than light-skirts. Thus, Alistair seems to assume that she is beyond the pale for trying to hide her profession. I liked what her uncle Theo said the most - she may have been dishonest, but she was loyal, and sometimes to be loyal to those that matter [like her mother and sister] there is a need to be dishonest. I liked Laurence the most. He was such a wonderful brother.
• 
  A.

  Catchy but I kind of abhor the ending. Around the 4th to the last chapter I kind of felt disappointed (?) because let's face it the got is hot and then cold and then they both decide to keep the whole thing a secret and allow her brother to live a lie. Can they just not ? It was so good, they had it all mysterious advances, rakish men and the diva-actress-bit**-queen- that-needs-a-whoopin' but then the ending just makes it feel like it was all for naught. I even thought at first this would be a book about female empowerment and that love conquers all obstacles even society itself.
• 
  Kathy

  This story not only provides a glimpse of Victorian life for women but centers around truth, trust, and loyalty. Both Victoria and Alistair are keeping secrets from each other, in part because of how society would react to the truth. The story does a good job of portraying the double standard of the period. It was interesting and entertaining, but the emotional connection to the characters wasn't there for me.
• 
  Usagi Tsukino

  Unbelievable, for once a book in which I like the heroine but not the main male protagonist.
  I really despised him, he was not a good character, and worse of all he was named Alistair-- how dare he?!
• 
  Allison Vrolijk

  Read this in a day. Fluff indeed. Your typical Victorian-England-woman-bucking-conventions-oh-will-she-ever-find-a-man-of-course-she-nabs-a-noble.