Another incomparable book from Jayne Davis, an author who always seems to come up with a unique look at the Regency era, without ever stepping outside the bounds of proper behaviour.

Here’s the premise: Joanna Stretton isn’t looking for love, filling her days with caring for her sick mama and helping her papa, rather secretly, with his investment projects. But when she meets handsome and charming Captain Alfred Bengrove, the younger son of a viscount, she can’t resist. He’s only visiting for a week before returning to his regiment in Spain, but he asks Jo to wait for him to return from the war, and she agrees. It’s not a betrothal, but it is a commitment, of sorts. But his family assume it’s a definite betrothal, and then comes the devastating news that Alfred is missing in action.

Happily, he’s only injured and captured by the French, but it’s his writing hand that’s out of action, so he ropes in a fellow captured officer, Captain Robert Delafield, to write his letters home, including those to Joanna. And even when Alfred is well enough to write his own letters, somehow Rob finds a reason to continue to write to Joanna. A most improper correspondence!

And so the stage is set. The reader sees the worst of Alfred, during his time as a prisoner of war in France, and understands that he’s only chasing after Jo for her dowry and the inheritance from her father (she’s an only child and he’s very rich). His obnoxious and snobby family make it obvious, too. And Rob, of course, the hero, is everything that a hero should be – honourable, kind, thoughtful, intelligent and poor. Wait, what? But that doesn’t matter, since she’s so rich… and no, this is not that book, that founders because she’s rich and he’s poor. The only question is how long it will take Jo to switch allegiance once the prisoners return to England. Spoiler: not very long at all. In fact, it all seemed a bit sudden to me. Not the part about wanting to dump the obnoxious Alfred, but the speed with which Jo decided she wanted to marry Rob. But it was a wonderful moment, so let it stand.

If I have a quibble at all (and it’s a minor one), it’s that Jo’s mother, who’s the daughter of an earl, chooses not to use her courtesy title. She could be Lady Frances Stretton after her marriage, but she chooses to be Mrs Stretton, which of course is entirely her right. But given that she’s so conscious of rank, and so keen for Jo to move in the ‘higher society’ of the aristocracy, it seems an odd choice. And then it’s confusing for those who don’t know her. I’m a great believer in everyone being aware of the exact rank of everyone else (or how else is one to know the precise depth to which one is expected to curtsy?). I’ve read several books where the hero introduces himself as simply {Name} and he’s assumed to be Mr Name, when he’s really the Earl of Name (or similar). It’s misleading and potentially embarrassing.

Now in this case, it does lead to some glorious set-downs, such as when the obnoxious Alfred’s even more obnoxious mother patronisingly asks Jo how she would address the daughter of an earl, and she perkily replies, “The one I know, I call Mama.” Which is lovely, but I still think the obnoxious mother ought to be told this sort of thing upfront. And later, when she (a mere viscountess) says she outranks Mrs (or Lady Frances) Stretton, she’s plain wrong. They both have the rank of a viscountess. A daughter of the aristocracy married to a commoner retains her birth rank from her father, leading to the non-intuitive result that of two sisters, both daughters of earls, the one married to a commoner outranks her sister married to a baron, who takes her rank solely from her husband. But that’s a huge digression, and not really relevant.

In summary, another wonderful five-star read from the author. Highly recommended.

Jayne Davis is one of the most reliable of the new school of historical romance authors, not because she writes the familiar themes repeatedly but precisely the opposite. She’s not afraid to step off the well-trodden paths and set her characters firmly down in unusual territory – the pre-Regency Georgian era, for one thing, far-flung parts of the British Isles for another, and the hard-working middle and lower classes. As a consequence, her books are always fascinating, and this is just the latest example.

Here’s the premise: Nell Mason has fallen on hard times. Her father’s bank failed, and when he died, she and her mother were forced to turn to her uncle, running a shady inn on the Yorkshire moors. Her mother is now dead, too, but Nell is still there, working as an unpaid skivvy in the kitchen, keeping her head down to avoid her uncle’s cruelty. She’d love to leave, but the occasional coin she gets as a tip isn’t enough to risk it, and where would she go anyway? She knows her uncle’s up to some nefarious business, but there’s not much she can do about that, either.

Into this difficult situation comes a man who could bring her a great deal of trouble. Lieutenant Toby Bourne is on leave from the army before a posting to the Colonies, and he’s recruited to investigate a highway robbery, which leads him to the lonely inn. He soon realises that Nell is not the usual lowly inn worker, and draws her into his plans. She finds herself having to take unusual risks, pitting herself against not just the highwayman but also her own uncle.

So the adventure unfolds, and to be frank, there’s a lot more adventure than romance. Toby and Nell are on good terms fairly quickly, but the drama rather overshadows the gradual development of their feelings. I can’t say the balance was wrong, because the fallout from the robbery is dramatic enough to justify the attention paid to it, but the romance was just a tad low-key for my liking. Even very late in the day, when Toby finally gets round to proposing, they’re both still uncertain about the depth of their feelings. Luckily, they’re both sensible enough to talk things through, so there are no last-minute misunderstandings. And I very much liked the pragmatic way Nell decided their future. It wasn’t the outcome I’d been expecting, but it was perfectly in keeping with their characters. And I loved the mini-epilogue right at the end, summarising a lot of history in one newspaper announcement (and complete with authentic-looking ‘s’ shaped like ‘f’ – a delightful touch!).

I haven’t said much about the adventure, because I don’t want to spoil the plot for anyone, but it’s all very nicely done. Along the way, there are people who both help and hinder Nell and Toby, whether through wickedness or silliness, but they were always fully rounded and believable characters. I actually felt sorry for Miss Delaney, the epitome of silliness, who should have been better protected by her parents, and there were some lovely side characters, like Aunt Em and the magistrate. Naturally, being Jayne Davis, there’s not a single whisper of an anachronism, and the writing is well up to her usual standard.

A lovely, lovely story about ordinary people caught up in difficult circumstances, yet always behaving with honour and dignity, and a fine, low-key romance. Five stars.

Short but very sweet – a lovely little novella about a soldier returning from the Napoleonic wars to claim the woman he’s loved for years, battling through snow to her side, only to find that she’s on the brink of marrying her cousin. Needless to say, there’s a lot more to it, as Meg is being forced into marriage by threats against her mother. Jon arrives just in time, but what can he do to help? He can save Meg by marrying her himself, that’s what.

So begins a heroic ride through the snow to obtain a marriage licence in time to prevent the marriage, or at least to prevent the repercussions if Meg refuses point blank to go through with it at the altar. I won’t spoil the story by revealing how the villain’s dastardly plot is foiled, but suffice to say that my pedantic soul was thrilled by the clever use of the provisions of the Marriage Act, and by an ingenious intervention from the vicar.

So three rousing cheers for impeccable deployment of Regency law and plot logic, the romance was heart-warming, and there’s a delightfully original epilogue. My only complaint is that it’s too short! I could have stood to read a lot more about these characters. Five stars.

Another absorbing read from Jayne Davis, with a basic plot that might have been a bit dull in other hands (that well-worn scenario, the choose-a-bride house party) spiced up with an intriguing spying plot.

Here’s the premise: James, the Marquess of Harlford, is coming to terms with his unexpected ennoblement after his older brother’s death. He’d rather be pursuing his scientific research, but his mother is determined to marry him off to prevent eccentric Uncle David from inheriting. She arranges a house party with some suitable candidates. Among the chosen guests are two who’ve wangled an invitation for reasons of their own. Gossipy Lady Jesson and her companion Alice Bryant have an ulterior motive – to find out if Lord Harlford’s secret letters to France mean he’s a traitor to his country. Alice doesn’t like what she has to do, but when James starts to pay attention to her, her position becomes very awkward indeed.

It’s easy to like both hero and heroine here. James is the sort of person we’ve all met, someone who’s so engrossed in his own affairs that he fails to see what’s right under his nose. Not from lack of perspicuity, either, but simply because his thoughts are so occupied that he just doesn’t notice what’s going on. Alice is smart and sensible, and able to rescue the hapless James from the machinations of his mama’s multitude of ambitious guests. He, in his turn, rescues her from machinations of a different sort. Being thrown together in this way leads them both into a rather tentative courtship.

But there’s more than Mama and a rash of title-hunting young ladies to contend with, because if James isn’t a traitor, who is? And they will stop at nothing to get the information they need about James’s experiments. And so this part of the plot hurtles into melodrama and danger and an exciting rescue plan, and although there was nothing terribly unexpected in any of this, it was still a dramatic page turner.

Along the way, there are some nicely eccentric side characters, like Uncle David and the Dowager Marchioness, and if the house party setting throws up few surprises (why are wannabe marchionesses so unsubtle?), it’s still a fun read, beautifully written and with impeccable historical research. Five stars.