Short and sweet, and pretty funny, this manages to squeeze quite a lot of plot into a novella. An enjoyable, light read.
Here’s the premise: Cassie Comfort is distressed to discover that her wastrel of a brother, Felix, has gambled away a marker promising the bearer a kiss from Cassie. The marker is held by a Mr Tavinstock, whom Cassie takes in instant dislike. But there’s someone who’ll help her. One of her admirers, a fellow soldier in Felix’s regiment, Mr Benson, is sympathetic when she tells him of the problem, and he offers to retrieve the marker from Mr Tavinstock for her. What Cassie doesn’t know is that it was Benson’s idea for Felix to wager the marker, and he hoped to win it himself. Now he’s hopeful of winning it from Tavinstock so that he can claim the kiss for himself.
There follow a series of challenges from Benson to Tavinstock which the latter (since he’s the hero) wins handily. The climax centres on the possibility of a duel between the two which various people conspire to stop or to modify so that no one risks dying. I have to say the light-hearted tone of the book jars somewhat at this point. A duel was a deadly serious meeting at which there was a real risk of death, and not always immediate, either, since infection after the event was a killer, too. No antibiotics in Regency times.
However, the duel is also very funny, so it would be churlish to grumble too much about it. A more irritating niggle is in the names. The Comfort family consists of two brothers, Cassius and Felix, and two sisters, Cassie and Felicity. Now, there may be some in-story reason for the similar names, but if so, it’s not revealed in this book, and I have to say I found it disproportionately annoying.
But these grumbles aside, the book is a pleasantly enjoyable read. Four stars.
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