I love Judith Hale Everett’s work, which always has little quirks which make it different, and therefore out of the usual predictable way of Regencies. This one tackles one of the greatest challenges for any historical author, the case of the rake who falls in love. Can he reform? And just how believable is his redemption? So many authors think it’s enough to point him at a good woman and have him fall in love – bingo! Redemption ahoy. Everett doesn’t make that mistake, nor does she gloss over her hero’s defects so that he’s really not that bad. Francis really is a selfish so-and-so, and his transformation is painfully slow and, frankly, just painful. Yet it’s all utterly believable. Bravo.
Here’s the premise: Eliza Willoughby is the daughter of a wealthy English plantation owner and one of his freed slaves. She’s grown up in Jamaica, a much loved child, but when her father dies and settles all his wealth on her, telling her to go to England to find a husband, she discovers she has a half-brother there from her father’s first marriage. Nathan has the country estate to support him, but he’s a wastrel and ne’er-do-well who has neglected his land in favour of enjoying himself, in anticipation of inheriting the plantation wealth eventually. He’s shocked to find out that his unknown half-sister has all the money that should have been his, and it’s tied up so tight that he can’t even sponge off her to maintain his lifestyle.
Into this tense situation comes Francis Mantell, one of a group of wild friends of Nathan’s, who see Eliza as a bit of entertainment to liven their country sojourn. She is more than capable of dealing with them… most of the time. But when Nathan makes a deal with one of his friends (half Eliza’s fortune when the friend marries her, and Nathan doesn’t mind how he manages it), Francis finds himself in the unaccustomed position of wanting to defend Eliza from the predator. And with the awakening of his conscience he finds something else stirring in his mind. Is it possible that the hardened rake is actually falling in love?
This is definitely a slow-burn romance, so slow that even close to the end, Francis is still agonising over whether he’s truly in love or not. We see less of Eliza’s thoughts, but hers are more clear-cut. She’s far more self-aware than Francis and knows her own mind relatively swiftly.
One of the triumphs of the book is the way Nathan and his friends are portrayed as genuine creeps. Eliza realises they’re creeps, but she doesn’t want to be driven from her home by them, and for quite a long time she wants to get to know her brother better in the hope of turning him, however reluctantly, into the caring family she craves. But this does create a very real tension in all her interactions with his friends. Are they just harmless flirts, or will they pressure her into a less than ideal marriage? Or, worse, will they force her? She doesn’t know and neither does the reader, and the question of who to trust is tricky.
There are some implausibilities in the plot (some convenient illnesses), but eventually things come to a head and Eliza has to act quickly. And this leads to my only real grumble with the book. I’m a great believer in a resounding reunion of the lovers, but when one of them heads off to the other side of the country for months on end to (supposedly) make himself a better man, without telling his beloved what he’s doing, I do get a bit cross. Go and improve yourself if you must, but at least tell the poor girl what you’re up to so she doesn’t think you’ve abandoned her and marry someone else in a fit of pique.
But that’s my only complaint. This is (as usual) a beautifully written book, a little out of the common way, with an interesting and spirited heroine, a hero who eventually becomes worthy of her and some interesting discussion on Jamaican frogs, for those who have an interest in such things. This is a very successful reformed rake story, and only that separation at the end keeps it to four stars for me. Highly recommended.
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