The review site for lovers of traditional Regency Romance books from Heyer to Smith and beyond
Ok, I absolutely love this book. I adore Gabriel, and his attempts to make Verity fall in love with him and I love how Verity just gets on with her life with absolutely no clue as to why he’s so nice to her.
I also like the fact that Verity is both an older heroine and a sensible heroine, two things which always make me feel kindly towards a book.
Hmm where to start? Well I guess there’s the fact that the book’s first chapter is written from two male points of view – only one of whom is the hero – which is slightly unusual. Then there’s the older heroine (yay!) who has found it possible to “read and appear the perfect hostess at the same time.” As a bookworm myself, that really appeals to me!
Ok, this book gets right into it – the hero and heroine meet on the very first page and we’re off and flying from there with witty conversation and action (has a Regency Romance hero ever been run down by a sheep before??). And it doesn’t let up from there – looking back I realised all the action takes place in one week which is just crazy!
The picture of innocence, Miss Mabel Anderson, and the sister of a cleric. But many people in her port town of Salford lived in poverty, their only chance at making a decent living being the smuggling trade. Mab inadvertently found herself the leader of this group, but a government agent, Sir Stamford Wicklow, was come to town specifically to discover the leader’s identity—and imprison the villain.
This book reminds me (in a good way) of the classic Faro’s Daughter by Georgette Heyer.
From the book blurb:
Daphne Ingleside’s visit to her Aunt Effie in London was meant to add a little spark to her placid country life. And it did—once the two women decided to write Effie’s memoirs. For Effie, a faded divorcée, had been the beauty of London in her day, and many of the ton feared their misbehavior would be disclosed. The Duke of St. Felix, misinterpreting their project as a means of blackmailing his family, antagonized the sharp-witted, beautiful Daphne to his peril.
