Review: The Difficult Life of a Regency Spinster: Kate by Susan Speers (2024)

Posted February 9, 2025 by Mary Kingswood in Review / 0 Comments

Another fascinating and refreshingly different tale from this author, who never fails to surprise. Not for her the well-worn tracks of Regency tropes leading to the predictable conclusions. Every book is a unique read, and while some are more absorbing than others, I’ll read anything she writes.

Here’s the premise: Kate Carteret has been left in an awkward position by the untimely death of her sister and brother-in-law, leaving behind four small children. A kindly (but not that kindly) relation lets them have a cottage on his Sussex estate at a peppercorn rent, but Kate must earn a living to support them. Her cousin Bella is left in charge on the domestic front, while Kate goes to London, initially as a companion to an elderly lady, but when that falls through, as a singer on stage, since she has a magnificent singing voice. But then Bella elopes with a naval officer, and Kate has to return to the village of Fairlea to take charge of the children. Conveniently, her theatre is closing for the summer anyway, so she has several months to rescue the situation and decide how to look after the children in the future.

I have to confess, this is one of the more implausible openings I’ve come across. Kate’s musical talent is unsuspected, even by her family, since she was never allowed to sing ‘forcefully’, and her identity was successfully concealed on stage by make-up and a wig. This leaves her able to return to Fairlea as just another impoverished spinster. Meanwhile, two of the admirers of her operatic persona in London now appear in the neighbourhood, Sir Anthony Chiswick and Lord Maule. Sir Anthony merely gave her flowers, but Lord Maule has been pressing her to become his mistress. Yet somehow neither of them recognise her.

There’s a lot of potential here for conflict, especially with Lord Maule, but somehow the author shies away from that. Instead, she throws an enormous cast of peripheral characters into the mix. Sir Anthony’s unhappy sister-in-law. The vicar’s pushy and spiteful daughter. Lady Plum and her five unmarriageable daughters, together with an appropriate number of potential suitors. And one couple I was delighted to see – Hervey and ‘Fliss’ from ‘Felicity’, now happily married with a brood of their own.

All of this generates a surprisingly conventional Regency, with invitations for Kate to al fresco breakfasts, dinners and even a ball, with the usual romantic interludes. The main romance, between Kate and Sir Anthony, proceeds slowly but inexorably to its rather low-key conclusion. Although Kate dithers about whether she’s suitable marriage material, or whether he’ll walk away when he hears about her stage performances, somehow none of it ever comes to much more than her own inner thoughts. I would have liked at least one confrontation between them, at least. As it is, the road seems a little too smooth.

The real interest in the book for me is with some of the peripheral characters. The unhappy Lady Sybil is one whose story could have been a little deeper, and less easily resolved. The friend Iris, another respectable gentlewoman reduced to earning her living, was another I’d like to have seen more of. And then there were the two most fascinating characters in the book, the livewire youngest of the Plum brood, Gracie, and the seemingly unreformed rake with the surprisingly complex back story, Lord Maule. A whole book on those two wouldn’t go amiss. Lord Maule’s actions at the very end took me completely by surprise (and that’s a good thing – I love to be surprised!).

Overall, this isn’t one of Speers’ best outings, and the romance was far too flat to be interesting, but the glimpses of more intriguing stories amongst the walk-on parts brings this up to four stars. And now on to L.

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Review: Lady Whilton’s Wedding by Barbara Metzger (1995)

Posted February 9, 2025 by Mary Kingswood in Review / 0 Comments

This is probably the silliest book I’ve ever read. It starts well with an interesting premise well handled, then veers sharply into extreme farce from which it never really recovers, the romance being shoved aside in the scampering round after dead bodies (yes, really! If you’ve ever wondered what a Regency version of Weekend At Bernie’s looked like, this is as close as you’ll get).

This is how it starts:

‘It was an arranged marriage. Unlike most such marriages of convenience, this one was arranged by the bride-to-be herself. Miss Daphne Whilton of Woodhill Manor, Hampshire, left the crowded lawn of her birthday party and approached Lord Graydon Howell, heir to the Earl of Hollister, where he stood apart from the other guests under a shading elm tree. She kicked him on the shin to get his attention and said, “All of the other boys are toads. You’ll have to marry me, Gray.’’

Lord Graydon rubbed his leg and looked back toward the others. The boys were tearing around, trying to lift the girls’ skirts. The girls were shrieking or giggling or crying for their mamas, who were inside taking tea with Lady Whilton. At least Daffy never carried on like that. And she could bait her own hook. He nodded. “I s’pose,” he said, and they shook hands to seal the contract.’

Isn’t that glorious? Of course, they’re children, so inevitably as they grow up they change somewhat, but they’re still best friends, and the marriage is still an understood thing. And then Daphne reaches an age to make her debut, comes up to London and is incensed to see Graydon entertaining his mistress in a box at the theatre directly opposite her. There’s a huge dust-up, the engagement is off and he removes himself from her orbit by joining the army. So far, so very promising, and when her mother and his father decide to get married and Graydon is scheduled to be home in time for the wedding, I had the highest hopes of a slow and steady rapprochement.

And then everything went off the rails in spectacular fashion, devolving in double quick time into a morass of disappearing dead bodies, incompetent thieves, a wicked baron, a similarly wicked valet, a pickpocketing dog and a whole heap of equally implausible stuff. And in the background, one of those hugely overplanned, flower-bedecked, inviting the entire extended family weddings that never actually happened in the Regency. And that’s without mentioning the dull but respectable rival suitor and the rejected mistress. I plodded dutifully through it, in the hope that the romantic denouement would redeem the book, but it really didn’t.

In a book of this age, I don’t expect the deep character-driven romance that modern readers enjoy. I can accept that the Heyer ideal of a ‘Regency romp’ was still holding sway. That’s all fine. I can even accept that the hero might have had a mistress in the past. But what I can’t accept is a hero who professes himself chastened by his lady-love’s admonishments and determined to be worthy of her and win her back, yet the first thing he does when he returns to Blighty from his army stint – the very first thing! – is to set up a mistress again. I get that the ex-mistress turning up to the wedding is intended as comedy relief AND an obstacle for the reinstatement of the hero with the heroine, but please, this man is not hero material.

So for that alone this only rates two stars for me. If you really love the old-style comedic romp, and you don’t mind the implausibility of it or the constant trickle of Americanisms, you might well enjoy this, but it wasn’t for me, sadly.

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Review: Surrender to the Earl by Gayle Callen (2013)

Posted February 9, 2025 by Mary Kingswood in Review / 0 Comments

A chance encounter via Bookbub for 99p, but this looked unusually interesting. It turned out to be a good read, the Americanisms weren’t too annoying and the sex, while somewhat implausible, was an integral part of the plot. Victorian, rather than Regency, but none the worse for that. Apart from a few references to copious petticoats, one would never guess this was set in 1843.

Here’s the premise: Audrey Blake is a widow, abandoned by her fortune-hunting husband after one night of marriage so that he could join the army, where he promptly gets himself killed. Blind since a childhood illness, Audrey isn’t thought capable of managing her husband’s estate on her own, so she stays at home managing the household, taken for granted by her father, ignored by her brother and resented by her sister. All she wants is to escape, but it doesn’t seem as if there’s any way.

But then Robert, the Earl of Knightsbridge, a former soldier who knew her husband, comes to pay his condolences. Guilty because he feels his actions got her husband killed, he wants to find some way to be of service to her. What could be more fortuitous? Get me out of here, she implores him. But how to get her away from her father? Robert suggests a fake engagement. His own estate is not far from Audrey’s and as her pretend fiance, he can help her settle in. Later, she can break off the engagement. What could possibly go wrong?

Actually, less than you might think. The two successfully make their escape from Audrey’s home, although the journey isn’t without difficulties. A thief breaking into Audrey’s room at the inn provides an opportunity for a semi-naked Robert to rescue her. Now, Audrey can’t see all that well-honed manly flesh, but she can certainly feel it, and compare it with her husband’s less well-proportioned form. And so we’re well away with the beginnings of lustful thoughts on both sides.

This early part of the book, before things really hot up sexually, is beautifully done, and the spiky exchanges between the two are incredibly realistic. She’s fiercely determined to be independent and not be pitied or patronised, so she quite rightly gets cross when he jumps in to smooth the way. He, on the other hand, is an earl and an officer, used to being in charge, and finds it difficult to step aside and let her do things her own way. As he explains to her, she’s his fiancee and that makes him protective of her. ‘It’s what men do,’ he says. The adjustments they both have to make are fascinating.

At Audrey’s small estate, she finds the servants behaving rather oddly, and things happening that seem designed to make her leave. She’s determined to stay, and is smart enough to bring the servants in line and (eventually) to find out just what is going on. Meanwhile, Robert is visiting frequently, helping her meet her tenants and the locals, and generally making himself useful. And (needless to say) the two are slowly falling in love.

And if that were all, this would be a fairly standard traditional romance. But right from the start, even though the engagement is fake, Robert is all over Audrey, first with kisses (and perhaps some of that is necessary to convince everyone that the engagement is real) but later with more passionate interludes, and he tries to persuade her to have an affair with him, even if she doesn’t want to marry. I have to say that I can’t quite approve of Robert’s actions, and there’s a point near the end when he basically seduces her, even though he’s well aware that if she ends up pregnant, she will have to marry him, whether she wants to or not. Not nice, especially when he’s talked so much about patience. A little restraint wouldn’t go amiss, but then she collapses into a puddle of lust at the first kiss, so perhaps it’s not too surprising.

The end of the book tips into a maelstrom of revelations on both sides and multiple changing of minds back and forth, only resolved when Audrey’s sister, who started off as something of a nasty piece of work and magically transformed into a heroine mid-book, bangs their heads together, and they all lived happily ever after, no doubt (including the servants and the rosy-cheeked yokels). Well, one doesn’t look for too much realism in a work like this.

A few Americanisms, but nothing too outrageous, and otherwise very well written and enjoyable from start to finish. The sex scenes are well done if not always plausible (the dining table? Really?). Audrey is perhaps a shade too quick to find her way around a new house, but it’s so nice to see a properly disabled heroine that I’m not going to quibble. Five stars.

I would have bought the other books in the series, but the price was outside my comfort zone, and book 1 hinged on a marriage by proxy (a complete no-no in English law) so I decided to pass. Shame.

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Review: Miss Lockharte’s Letters by Barbara Metzger (1998)

Posted January 31, 2025 by Mary Kingswood in Review / 1 Comment

A seriously peculiar book, wildly implausible and with a veritable tsunami of anachronisms but very, very funny, for all that.

Here’s the premise: Miss Rosellen Lockharte has fallen on hard times. Her clergyman father has died, leaving her penniless, and although her uncle tried, rather half-heartedly, to introduce her into London society, his daughter’s machinations got Rosellen compromised and banished in disgrace. Since then she’s been eking out a poor living teaching penmanship to the daughters of the aristocracy at a rather shady girls’ school. An outbreak of influenza at the school makes her so ill that she’s convinced she’s going to die. As a last act before death, she decides to write to all the people who, in one way or another, set her on this road to poverty and illness, to tell them (after listing all their transgressions) that she forgives them. Except for one, Wynn, Viscount Stanford – his crime is too heinous for forgiveness.

Rosellen survives the influenza, but several mysterious accidents leave her even worse off than before. But help is on its way, in the shape of most of the people she wrote to, but particularly Viscount Stanley, who is the first to actually reach her in her paltry attic room. He’s brought flowers and is ready to beat a hasty retreat, but a single tear as he’s about to leave makes him decide to help her. He whisks her away from the school, thinking he’ll send her to one of his more distant estates to recover and be looked after, but after various mishaps, he gradually develops a new plan – he’ll take her to London, to the care of his mother and sister, and introduce her into society and… well, we can see where this is going. This is one of the pleasures of the story, Wynn’s gradual realisation that, however prickly and spirited and independent Rosellen is, she’s exactly right for him.

I’m going to be honest, and say that credibility isn’t this book’s strongest suit. The ‘accidents’ that befall Rosellen and her miraculous escapes from them are almost too silly for words, some of the characters are pretty silly, too, not to mention the dog, and Wynn’s determined refusal to believe that someone is trying to kill her is really carried too far. But the moment when he realises the truth is just perfect. “You could have been killed,” he says, horrified. “I could have lost you.”

The romance, once it gets going, is the strongest part of the book. The plot is distinctly wobbly (why does the villain keep trying to murder Rosellen even when the reason for it is gone?), the loose threads are more or less tied up at the end almost as an afterthought, and I’m still not entirely clear where the fifty pounds came from, or why. As for historical accuracy, forget it. But it’s the funniest book I’ve read for months, and that alone makes it worthy of four stars. Here’s just one sample that made me laugh out loud:

‘Uncle would turn purple with apoplexy at the price of Rosellen’s ball gown. Aunt Haverhill would go ashen at the low cut. Clarice would turn green with envy. Rosellen was pink with pleasure.’

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Review: The Ghost of Castle Ravenswych by Charlotte Louise Dolan (2013)

Posted January 31, 2025 by Mary Kingswood in Review / 0 Comments

A strange little book, off-the-scale implausible and overwrought. If this had been an older book, from the 80s or 90s, I could have understood it, but for a book that’s not much more than 10 years old, there’s no excuse.

Here’s the premise: When Rowena’s great-uncle dies, and his heir, the new Lord Cheyne, is still away fighting Napoleon, Rowena’s guardian turns up to take care of her, which involves trying to persuade her to marry him, and when she steadfastly refuses, turning to less honourable methods. Frankly, a guardian trying to marry his underage ward for her inheritance is a huge no-no and just as dishonourable, but let that pass. Rowena is fed up with fending him off, and with a whole year to go before she’s of age, she turns to desperate measures – she fakes her own drowning in the local lake. There’s an inquest (without a body?) and Rowena is declared dead by misadventure (still without a body). Happily nobody tries to bury a non-existent body. The guardian takes off, thwarted, and all Rowena has to do is to play dead for the remaining year before she comes of age, and the loyal retainers are happy to assist with this ploy.

Into this scenario comes our hero, Marcus, to take possession of his inheritance, and now Rowena has more of a challenge to keep out of his way in case he discovers her existence. Which of course he soon comes to suspect, finding traces of her perfume, for instance. He becomes convinced there’s a ghost at the castle.

If this were all, this would be quite an unexceptional story, but Marcus is very conveniently prone to bouts of fever after his soldiering, and Rowena is prone to having a look at him while he’s semi-conscious. And not just looking, either. This formerly virtuous maiden (allegedly) finds herself compelled to climb into bed with him and indulge in a certain amount of kissing and cuddling, which even a semi-conscious man is bound to remember as a remarkably pleasant fever-dream.

From this point on, there’s a whole heap of lusting and being unable to keep away from each other, or keep their hands off each other, combined with wildly over the top angsting, and frankly, my eyes were spinning in their sockets. I’m sure this was intended as some kind of Gothic melodrama, but I much prefer my characters and plot a bit more realistic, not to say down-to-earth.

Eventually, hearing the story of Rowena’s ‘death’, Marcus becomes determined to wreak revenge on the unspeakable guardian, and thereupon discovers that Rowena isn’t a ghost at all. At which point they retreat directly to bed, to continue all those feverish dreams. Sigh. Of course they do.

A short book, and if you have a taste for the Gothic maybe it will suit you better than me, but for me it was only a three star read.

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Review: A Winter’s Romance (Anthology) (2024)

Posted January 31, 2025 by Mary Kingswood in Review / 0 Comments

Charming – that’s the only word to describe this collection of short Regency romances by some of the best authors of the genre. I loved all of them, but if you held a gun to my head and forced me to choose a favourite, it would have to be A Worthy Alteration by Judith Hale Everett, if only because the delightful hero, Lord Windon, reminds me so much of one of my favourite Georgette Heyer heroes, Freddy Standen from Cotillion. But honestly, every story is a gem that made me smile in delight. Five stars.

Here’s a brief resume of the plots:

Advice to Young Ladies, by Jayne Davis: Kate Ardley and her younger sister Cecy are invited to a house party to meet marriageable heir Ben Paynton. Kate neither needs nor wants a suitable match and is quite happy to stand aside for her pretty but shy sister. Ben’s tired of being chased by marriage-minded mamas and daughters, but the plain-speaking Miss Ardley is more interesting. What can go wrong? Just the eponymous book of advice to young ladies, that’s all. A teeny tiny misunderstanding, speedily resolved in a lovely way.

A Christmas Wish, by Penny Hampson: Jane Mortimer is a long-suffering teacher at a girl’s school in Bath. Colonel Nicholas Anstruther is a retired army officer, not exactly in tip-top condition, who has been given guardianship of a young girl by a fellow soldier who died. When he meets a pretty and intriguing young woman who’s not bothered by his missing eye, he’s delighted when he finds that she’s actually his new ward’s teacher.

A Worthy Alteration, by Judith Hale Everett: Peter, Viscount Windon, is attempting to reach a house party in pursuit of the latest in a long line of desirably pretty females. Stopping at an inn to ask for directions, he’s distracted by a delectably beautiful female in distress and gallantly offers to help her. She turns out to be Prudence Stowe, a cousin to Honoria Tyndall, the original delectable female, and once home, she morphs into a drably dressed governess. Lord Windon is intrigued enough to find excuses to seek her out.

The Viscount’s Christmas Runaway, by Audrey Harrison: Louisa (do we ever hear her family name? Not sure) is living on the streets of London, eking out a miserable existence with two other reluctant gutter rats, Rosie and Billy. But one day, astonishingly, a well-dressed stranger appears who takes all three under his wing. He and his wife take them into their home, and not only feed and clothe them, but also attempt to educate them, as far as that’s possible. Gradually Louisa learns to trust again and reveal her story, while finding herself drawn to the son of her benefactors.

Epiphany Day, by Christina Dudley: Eliza Blinker is a school teacher forced to spend Christmas as companion to an old friend. While there, a participant in the local hunt is injured and brought to the house to recover, and Eliza helps to nurse him. Because his eyes are injured, he’s blindfolded and unable to see her, but he can hear her voice and realises she’s not quite the middle-aged spinster she claims to be, as protection against his roguish reputation.

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, by GL Robinson: Hero James crashes his phaeton on ice on Christmas Eve and is forced to seek shelter at the cottage of Elisabeth Wilberforce and her father. Their life is the very antithesis of his own pampered existence, but as he sheds his aristocratic pomposity, he learns to enjoy the simple life, and appreciate the down-to-earth open-heartedness of Elisabeth.

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Review: Petteril’s Christmas by Mary Lancaster (2024)

Posted January 10, 2025 by Mary Kingswood in Review / 0 Comments

For the first time, a Petteril book turned out to be slightly less than a perfect read for me. Probably just me in the wrong frame of mind, although it crossed my mind that maybe the series has hit the Mulder and Scully problem – the romantic tension of the early books has evaporated now that the principals are married, and there just isn’t that much drama between them. Added to which, the mystery really wasn’t any great shakes this time. All the tension, such as it was, revolves around April’s history, which isn’t uninteresting, but I didn’t find it as riveting as some of the earlier books.

There were some intriguing new characters, like Great Aunt Prudence and her eccentric entourage, some I would have liked to have seen but didn’t (like Gussie, ill for the whole book), and a fair few that seemed to be repeat characters but I didn’t remember them. But that’s a problem I have with any long-running series, so I’m not going to blame the author for it.

I suspect the biggest problem I had with this book is that it didn’t surprise me at all. April running off looking for trouble and not bothering to tell Piers about it is old news now, and although it may be a necessary stage in the development of their relationship, I just wanted to slap her upside the head sometimes. He’s your husband, dear, so trust him, and let him help you.

All that said, this was still an enjoyable read, and a welcome return of the two ill-assorted lovers. Four stars and I hope the next book is a bit more on my wavelength.

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Review: Summer Escapade by Charlotte Louise Dolan (2014)

Posted January 10, 2025 by Mary Kingswood in Review / 0 Comments

A very short read with a preposterous plot, and too little time to develop characters, or add sub-plot or, frankly, create a rich, immersive reading experience.

Here’s the premise: Marigold Kinderley is fourteen, and an orphan. Her uncle Terence is so terrified that she will succumb to illness like her mother that he insists on her taking no risks, and even keeps her on a special diet. She is finally allowed to attend a school for a term where she makes just one friend – Lady Sybil Dunmire. When Sybil is invited to bring another friend, Clara, home for the summer, she decides it would be fun to smuggle Marigold home in Clara’s place. What could possibly go wrong?

When Terence comes looking for Marigold, Sybil manages to send him off on a wild goose chase to Gretna after the school’s dancing master. And while he’s doing that, Marigold is learning to enjoy life, romping with Sybil and her six male cousins, being mothered by Sybil’s widowed mother, Alicia, and eating anything and everything. Terence is astonished to discover (when he eventually discovers the truth) that Marigold has not merely survived the experience unscathed but has thrived on it.

But where is the romance, you might be asking. Well, Terence and Alicia are the happy couple, and because this is merely a novella, and the childrens’ high-jinks take up so much space, it’s a very perfunctory affair. They meet, they’re attracted to each other, there’s a brief misunderstanding, it’s all sorted out. And that’s it.

There was the potential to deepen the characters sufficiently to make this a much better book, but frankly the whole premise is so over-the-top that I think it’s best left as it is. It’s perfectly readable, and even enjoyable (as long as realism isn’t on your wish list), but it’s the bare bones of the story, rather than the usual richly detailed affair. Three stars.

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Review: An Angel For The Earl by Barbara Metzger (1994)

Posted January 10, 2025 by Mary Kingswood in Review / 0 Comments

A weird book – a sort of (but not quite) ghost is sent to rescue a wastrel earl from his wicked ways. The element of fantasy is certainly different, even if the theme of the rake’s redemption is an old one. But very readable, so long as you can suspend all critical faculties and just let it flow past.

Here’s the premise: Lucinda Faire is about to be pushed into one of those horrible old-enough-to-be-her-grandfather marriages so beloved of Regency authors. Her father keeps her a virtual prisoner at home, so when she manages to meet a halfway plausible and attractive young man, she instantly agrees to elope with him. He, of course, turns out to be a fortune-hunting rogue, and he’s not even planning to marry her. She deals with him and sets off for home, but an accident sees her unconscious and on the point of death. Her parents, lovely people, are quite happy to let her die. But at the pearly gates, they don’t quite know whether to send her to heaven (she’s young and very innocent) or hell (she eloped, silly girl). So she is given a test – redeem one sinner and she’ll get to heaven, and they even tell her the specific sinner they have in mind – Lord Stanford, or Kerry, a licentious, gambling, drunken thorough waste of space.

Right, I know, plausibility is not this book’s strong suit. But as I say, if you just go with the flow, it’s all very entertaining. Lucinda comes upon his lordship on the point of blowing his brains out, having lost absolutely everything. Needless to say, her appearance gives him the shock of his life, and this is one of the clever conceits of the book – Lucinda’s appearance matches his current state of virtue. So initially, she looks like one of the brothel women he’s so fond of, with a revealing dress, bare feet and her hair tumbled about her shoulders. Every time she manages to persuade him to do something ‘good’, she acquires slightly more modest clothing.

The book then proceeds on entirely predictable lines. The earl gradually is induced to become a virtuous man, Lucinda becomes increasingly modestly dressed and the two contrive to fall in love. The ending requires a complete shutdown of every critical faculty, and my historical accuracy meter blew a fuse at the idea of marrying an unconscious woman (there has to be some smidgen of consent involved, surely?), but a resounding happy ending for all that. Too implausible for five stars, but a very entertaining four stars.

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Review: By His Grace And Favor by Christina Dudley (2024)

Posted November 29, 2024 by Mary Kingswood in Review / 0 Comments

Another amusing and charming tale from Christina Dudley, the first in a new series following the impoverished Barstow family, their elderly and kindly benefactor and the various characters whose paths cross with them.

Here’s the premise: the Barstow family has, through the death of the father and son, fallen on hard times. Eldest daughter Adela, in desperation, contacts a distant relation, Lord Dere, who offers them a cottage on his estate, but as they prepare to move, second daughter Jane elopes with a roguish man who they fear might not even marry her. As they squeeze themselves into Iffley Cottage, three adults and four children, not to mention a dog and a newly acquired kitten, they agree that nothing must be mentioned of Jane’s predicament, only that she is married, lest Lord Dere think better of his offer to such a disreputable family. But it turns out it’s not Lord Dere who must be appeased at all costs, but his niece by marriage, the widowed Mrs Markham Dere, who has insinuated herself and her son, now heir to the barony, into the baron’s seat, Perryfield, and there rules all before her, including the rather timid baron.

Into this awkward situation comes Mr Gerard Weatherill, the newly recruited tutor for Master Peter Dere, even more impoverished than the Barstows, and with secrets of his own to keep hidden, lest he lose his position. And it doesn’t help that the tutor and the practical eldest daughter have the hots for each other right from the start. Nothing can come of a match between two people who haven’t a bean between them, and besides, Adela has a cunning plan to ensure that they aren’t turfed out when all those messy secrets emerge, as they inevitably will. She’s going to marry the elderly but kindly baron, and keep Mrs Markham Dere in her place for ever.

Of course, this works about as well as you might expect, at least until Adela hears what has actually happened to Jane and her new (but feckless) husband, and grows so desperate that she throws caution to the wind.

There’s so much to love about this book, but especially the characters. The Barstows are a wonderful collection, from baby Sebastian (or Bash) to bouncy young son Gordy to 15-year-old Frances who actually manages to inveigle her way into Mrs Markham Dere’s good books in support of Adela’s hopes. I assume that most of the family will get their own book in time. But there’s also Mrs Markham Dere herself, a gloriously not quite over the top character, and the absolutely lovely baron, who surely deserves his happy ever after at least as much of some of the others.

So why only four stars? A couple of things niggled at me. One is the number of times Adela contrived to trip or fall over or otherwise end up entangled with one or other of the two men, the one she’d fallen in love with and the one she’d grimly decided to marry for her family’s sake. A certain amount of that is fine, and mostly it was very funny, but after a while it did get a bit old, and I’d have liked some variation.

The other issue I had was Adela, who has basically entrapped the baron into a betrothal, and then hangs onto him for grim death, even though their marriage would make a lot of people very unhappy. I really, really wanted her to come to her senses, confess all to the baron and throw herself on his mercy, but she never did, right to the (not very bitter) end, when the happy ending is magicked into being with a wave of a well-manicured hand. It was all a bit deus ex machina, and although I didn’t like that Adela wasn’t told what was happening until the very last minute, I kind of felt she deserved all that anxiety, frankly.

As always, a beautifully written and highly literate book. Five stars and I can’t wait for the next in the series.

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