Review: Sketches by the Serpentine by Rosanne E Lortz (2024)

This follows directly from the previous book in the series, and although it’s a little silly in places, it doesn’t have quite the same farcical feel to it.

Here’s the premise: Felicity Comfort’s older sister Cassie is now married, her brothers are away with their regiments and she’s at a loose end. Happily, her impoverished parents are happy for her to come out a little early, on her eighteenth birthday. That way she can finish her sister’s season and reuse her expensive clothes, thus saving a little money. She just has to wait a few weeks until her birthday. To amuse herself in the meantime, she’s acquired an unruly little dog, which she walks in Hyde Park.

There the dog has an unfortunate encounter with an artist busy sketching the waters of the Serpentine lake. Felicity’s vivacious charm soothes his spirits, and the meetings become a regular event. She discovers his name – Magnus Blackstone – but it means nothing to her. At first, Magnus doesn’t tell her the tragic story that has driven him to become a recluse, but when he does, she is sympathetic, not horrified.

Of course, we can see where this is going, but there are complications, naturally. Magnus’s guilt from the past is a big one, which leads him to see himself as unmarriageable, even though in normal circumstances he would be highly eligible. Then there’s some confusion in his mind about Felicity’s affections, and whether, given the parlous state of her family’s finances, she will choose to marry a lecherous elderly duke instead.

Happily Magnus’s mother is a sensible woman who sees the potential in Felicity straight away, and Felicity is not someone who sits quietly at home instead of reaching out to grab her own happiness by the scruff of its neck. Between the two of them, and a little heroism from Magnus and the dog, the lecherous duke is seen off, the misunderstanding is cleared up and all’s well that ends well.

There are a few Americanisms in the grammar, and I was very confused by one character being presented with bunches of snowdrops and roses on the same day, but on the whole, there was nothing to frighten the (pedantic) horses. Four stars.