An interesting read by a new-to-me author, with a terrific premise, a lot of misunderstandings and miscommunications, and some difficult family situations, which I read avidly.
Here’s the premise: Cassandra Vincent’s rector father has died leaving her destitute, and her brother is away at sea. In desperation, she advertises for a position as a companion. Only one person replies – merchant Jethro Hunt, who wants to impress his investor by being more adept socially, so he needs a genteel wife. He offers her a business deal – a marriage of convenience, nothing more, if she will help him move in society. Cassandra prefers marriage, even if it’s not a love match, to the alternatives. Because she’s about to be thrown out of the rectory by the incoming resident, they marry immediately.
Now, this is a wonderful situation – two people who know very little about each other, thrown together by circumstance, and inching their way towards an accommodation. Things are bound to be a bit rocky, and so they are, not helped by the fact that they both continually make assumptions about what the other wants, and don’t think to simply ask. How hard would it be? Quite hard, apparently.
To make things more difficult, there’s a stepsister, Julia, who’s taken a different route, working as a teacher at the local school until a suitable husband comes along, and then there’s Eugenia, who was betrothed to Cassandra’s brother, Alexander, but abandoned him when a better offer came along, having now married Jethro’s business rival, Mr Frampton.
Eugenia is a real piece of work, who is unspeakably rude to Cassandra in her own house, and Cassandra, who sometimes has all the gumption of a wet noodle, simply sits there and takes it with very little pushback. Now, this is an overtly Christian book, so there’s an element of turning the other cheek, but when someone is insinuating, and not very subtly, that the hasty wedding was for suspicious reasons, I’d have thought a more robust response is called for. It’s possible to do that without being nasty, surely?
And then there’s Alexander himself, who is less than well-behaved. I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the Christian tone regarding these less than admirable characters – the flighty Julia, the rude and avaricious Eugenia and the sneering, selfish Xander. The strong implication is – if only they followed more Christian principles like Cassandra and Jethro, they’d be good people. But Eugenia and Xander aren’t so much unChristian or immoral as downright bad-mannered, and Jethro, for all the time he spends praying, isn’t a great advert for Christian charity. He far too often comes across as grumpy, and he jumps to wrong, and very negative, conclusions about Cassandra all the time.
And this is my main complaint about the book. Jethro and Cassandra are constantly at cross purposes because they simply won’t talk to each other. Something happens, they see the other’s reaction and they promptly misinterpret it. It’s maddening. I wanted to bang their heads together so many times. They know very little about each other, so it’s not unreasonable to say, ‘Is it all right if I…?’ now and then. And they keep circling round the marriage of convenience business. Why not simply say, ‘Look, I know what we agreed, but if ever you want to change that, I’m willing. And if not, that’s fine, too.’ You know, talk to each other, like sensible adults.
And despite all that, I devoured the book in no time. There’s some nice business at the end with Mr Wade, Jethro’s backer, which turned out to be more complicated than I’d expected, and a big, dramatic finale to resolve the romance. A beautifully written book free from typos and Americanisms. I noticed a couple of historical quibbles. Angst is a twentieth century word, and male cooks were very rare (and expensive!) in the Regency. Otherwise, a great read (apart from all those misunderstandings). Four stars.
Well, that was fun! A lively heroine, a duke with Daddy Issues, and a nice but not over-detailed look at the season with a slowly developing romance, this one doesn’t push the boundaries at all but it’s an enjoyable read.