This series just gets better and better. At the end of the last book, Piers and April found themselves in an awkward situation which they resolved by getting married. Now, after an idyllic honeymoon, they return to England to face the music, and explain just why a viscount married an ex-thief from the slums of London. Not that anyone knows April’s full history, but they know she’s basically a servant. Now, dressed for her rank, and behaving like a lady, will she be accepted or will the sky fall in on their heads?

Meanwhile, Piers’ valet, Stewart, has been arrested for stealing a baronet’s purse at the local inn, and our intrepid sleuthing duo have to uncover the truth of what happened that night and rescue Stewart from the false accusation. There’s the usual array of suspects, and the question of who’s telling the truth. I have to say that the mysteries aren’t the main reason I read this series, but they’re always enjoyable to see unravelled. This one is particularly satisfying because when the truth is revealed, it’s a case of ‘oh, of course’ and not ‘oh well, I suppose that makes sense’. I felt that if I’d been bothered to think it through, I’d have worked it out.

But really, I’m here for Piers and April. They’re such an unlikely couple, both damaged and needy in different ways, and yet totally dependent on each other. I’ve said all along that April’s transformation from guttersnipe to servant to lady and now to viscountess is not believable in the slightest. Spread over several years, maybe, but that’s not the case here. And somehow, astonishingly, the servants who had known April as a servant fail to recognise her as the new viscountess. Is that remotely credible? I don’t think so. They might pretend not to remember her previous incarnation, but they would certainly recognise her. I’m reminded of the Downton Abbey housemaid who left to become a secretary, married her boss and returned on a visit as a respectable upper-class wife, and she was certainly recognised. There are certainly times when you can’t place someone when you see them in a different context but you generally know that you know them.

But it’s a small point. Given the big leap in the last book which saw the pair married, all their well-wishers must be glad the author didn’t keep us in suspense as to how things are going to go. I can’t see a smooth path from here on, though. Things are still going to be rocky with the family, and I suspect there’s some serious history to April that’s yet to be uncovered. We shall see. But in the meantime, another well-earned five stars for a highly enjoyable read, and on to the next book in this addictive series.

These books are a constant delight, and thank goodness Mary Lancaster is such a prolific author that hopeful readers never have to wait too long for the next instalment of that ill-assorted pair, Piers and April.

Here’s the premise: Lord Petteril’s cousin, Major Bertie Withan, has disappeared in Portugal in the very short time between arriving in Lisbon and leaving to join his regiment. Since then, nothing has been heard of him, and the locals all think he must be dead. Piers (Lord Petteril) is determined to find out one way or the other, so off he goes to Lisbon with his trusty helper, former thief April, to find out. To deflect awkward questions, Piers is pretending to be a lowly clerk, with April as his wife, although they very chastely step around each other to avoid unnecessary intimacy on the sea voyage to Portugal and at their hotel.

I’ll be honest, and say that I could have done with a bit more background at the start of the book to explain exactly what was going on. I’m never good at remembering plots and characters from earlier books, so I struggled a bit with this one, starting as it did more or less without any explanation. However, the plot burbles along merrily, and we soon have a fine array of locals and military sorts who might have seen Bertie shortly before his disappearance. One of the local aristocracy was murdered on the same night, and there’s a rumour of a duel – but do these mean anything, or are they merely distractions? Or is the key to be found at a local and very unsavoury bordello? As Piers and April investigate, April’s past as a thief and survivor of some pretty unsavoury situations of her own stand her in good stead to make discoveries in her own unorthodox way.

The mystery isn’t really terribly mysterious in the end, but of course the fun is in getting there, and then there’s a surprising little twist at the end although I’m not sure quite how I feel about it. Big, big ramifications for future books, at the very least. If I have a complaint at all about these stories, it’s that April’s progression from uneducated street urchin to a passable sort of lady, complete with accent, manners and reading/writing skills, is simply not credible, and certainly not at the speed depicted here. But that’s my only grumble, and to be honest, the unique relationship between Piers and April far outweighs the implausibility. The mysteries are fun, but I keep reading to see how this unlikely couple eventually resolve the differences between them and find the happy ending they both deserve. An excellent five stars.

Another good outing for our likeable but improbable sleuths, Piers and April. Not a lot of progress on their relationship, but I suspect the author’s going to milk it for all its worth. I have to say, I don’t quite see where the inevitable happy ending is coming from, but we’ll see.

Here’s the premise: new viscount Piers, Lord Petteril, is asked to call in at a friend’s house instead of going direct to his own estate. A portrait of his late father has been damaged, and it’s upsetting for everyone, not least his stepmother, Lady Haggard. His ex-thief ‘assistant’, April, hates the idea; Piers wanted to leave her with Lady Haggard to be trained as a servant, and was only dissuaded after some effort on April’s part. Now she wonders if she should trust him. But Piers is getting a reputation for solving mysteries, so to Lady Haggard’s house party they are to go.

The mystery is the usual thing – a range of suspects, and a great deal of careful questioning and observation by Piers and April. April is able to move between upstairs and downstairs, which makes her particularly useful, and her background as a ne’er-do-well, always looking out for trouble coming her way, makes her very observant. Piers’ relations are well to the fore, as well, including his obnoxious aunt, and his cousin Gussie, a young lady who seems to attract undesirable types like a magnet and frankly is very poorly chaperoned. House parties are notorious for shenanigans, and this one has inordinate numbers of people wandering the upper corridors at night.

The mystery takes a neat twist towards the end of the book, with an explanation that I didn’t see coming but was very satisfying. A very enjoyable five stars, but I still wonder where Piers and April will end up.

The third part of this series of short cosy/Regency mysteries, which are best read in sequence. This episode worked even better than the previous two – not sure whether the author’s getting into her stride now, or whether the characters have just reached a more interesting stage of their relationship, but I have to say I enjoyed this a lot.

Here’s the premise: Piers, the new and still uncertain-in-his-role Viscount Petteril, returns to London with his former thief ‘assistant’ April to solve a murder. An earl’s son has been shot in the home of his mistress, and the main suspect is the mistress’s former protector, and Piers’ friend. As usual, there’s a wonderful array of suspects, surrounded by quirky upper-class characters (somehow it’s never the lower classes who do the murdering), and the solution is satisfying on a number of levels. There’s a nice (if rather surprising) little romance on the side.

But the main interest (for me, anyway) is the development between Piers and April. The murder is loosely connected to April’s past, so we learn a little bit of her history, although I suspect there’s more to come. The two have always had an unusually close relationship for an aristocrat and an uneducated employee, rooted in the fact that they met when they were both at low points in their lives. They helped each other to move forward, and because of that have developed an intimacy that is clearly problematic. Something happens in this book that throws this into stark relief and they have to decide whether to continue their odd relationship or not. Needless to say (because there’s at least one more book to come, and the series could be spun out indefinitely) they stay together. But it remains to be seen whether that will work out, and how they resolve the problem in the end.

A most enjoyable read, without the implausibilities and pesky editing errors that plagued book 2, so I’m going for the full monty this time. Five stars.

This is a bit of a curate’s egg of a book for me — some parts that were meltingly romantic, some parts that were ho hum, some parts that were out-of-the-blue shocking (OK, to me, anyway) and some parts that were boringly predictable. And a couple of parts where I just wanted to bang heads together and say: just talk to each other, for heaven’s sake. But you know what? After a slow start, I just tore through it, so the author has me right where she wants me, I guess.

Here’s the premise: Lucy Vale was betrothed at birth to an earl she’s never met, purely because their mothers were best friends and thought it would be a good idea. Well, okay, I suppose. By the Regency, we’re well into an age when betrothals of that nature aren’t even legal, let alone binding on either party, so why they don’t just laugh at the quaintness of it is beyond me. But that’s the premise of the book, so whatever. The mysterious Earl of Eddleston has requested a meeting with his ‘betrothed’, but he hasn’t yet appeared. Lucy isn’t minded to give him the time of day, but if he comes, she’ll have to be civil to him, she supposes. Then she can reject him and her life will be her own again.

While she’s waiting for her supposed betrothed to appear, she attends the Blackhaven ball with the rest of her family, where she meets a mysterious stranger. This is one of the good parts of the book for me — the description of Tyler, and his interactions with Lucy, were breathtakingly fabulous. He’s not even the sort of character I usually like (that whole almost magically clever and perceptive and creative and acrobat-level agile is all too much; I prefer my heroes a bit more down to earth). But the author was going for just that out-of-the-ordinary vibe, and she succeeded in spades. In fact, all the scenes with just Lucy and Tyler were wonderful. I wasn’t so keen on Tyler the guy who’s planning to change the world for the better, but that’s just me.

But of course we have to have a subplot, so step forward Miss Hester Poole, heiress, and her fortune-hunting suitor, Mr Harold Irving. It isn’t long before Lucy is getting herself into the middle of a situation that’s really nothing to do with her, because she doesn’t like Mr Irving and wants to protect Hester from him. And Tyler seems to have the same idea (as well as a myriad other projects — he’s a busy boy).

One of the ho hum parts arises purely from the premise of the series. Everything is constructed around a single night, when all the various Vale children meets their matches, so as Lucy’s story is unfolding, we’re also getting snippets of the other stories, where they cross and recross Lucy’s. We see little bits of Julius’s story, which was book 1, and there are glimpses of the other Vales, like Cornelius and Delilah, who are also busy about their own lives. And because there was a whole huge series set in Blackhaven previously, there are swathes of characters from those books with walk-on parts. It would be really helpful if readers could have a) a full list of the Vale children, their ages and parentage (because some of them are illegitimate); and b) a list of characters from earlier books still lurking in odd corners of Blackhaven, because I don’t remember them, and frankly I don’t see that they add anything to the story. But maybe I’m being churlish just because I have trouble with this.

I’m not going to talk about the out-of-the-blue shocking thing, because that’s just me. I should have guessed it, but I had such a mental disparity between… let’s say, two things, that I never would have guessed the truth.[1] There was another revelation that was blindingly obvious to me regarding Hester Poole, so I’m not totally oblivious to clues. Only some of them.

But this is the point where the book went slightly off the rails for me, because when the revelations happened, both Lucy and Hester made totally stupid decisions, and that was the point where I wanted both of them to just sit down and talk things through, instead of jumping off cliffs (metaphorically speaking). And as if that wasn’t enough, we have to have that hoary old chestnut, the Elopement. Because it’s a Regency romance so there has to be an Elopement or a Kidnapping or a Highwayman, or possibly all three.

I know all these grumbles sound as if I didn’t enjoy the book at all, but that’s not true. I took a while to get into it, but after that I read it avidly, and yes, I thoroughly enjoyed it. My grumbles are just me saying ‘It would have been perfect if only…’. Mary Lancaster’s writing is as polished as ever, she does the swoony kisses brilliantly, and if the sex scene felt a bit gratuitous, it was tastefully done. The only historical glitch I noticed concerned the postilions and hired horses, which don’t work quite the way the author thinks they do.[2] But who cares? It all made for a good story. A good four stars.

One of very few books whose release date I marked in the calendar! Couldn’t wait to read Victor’s story (the most interesting character of the series), plus the explanation for how the duke died in the duel. Was it worth the wait? Absolutely! I loved Victor, as I suspected I would, and although the revelation of what happened at the duel wasn’t particularly surprising, there was enough real tension to drive the plot along very nicely. One word of warning: because of the nature of the plot, which culminates in all the principal characters in Brussels at the time of the Battle of Waterloo, it makes far more sense to have read the preceding books first.

Here’s the premise: Victor, the new Duke of Cuttyngham, has been left behind at Cuttyngs, alone but for the servants. He sent away everyone but his stepmother and sister, but even they have jumped ship and gone off to Brussels. But into his quiet, studious life comes Olivia, the natural daughter of Victor’s cousin and heir, to warn him that his life may be in danger. Which is lovely and all, but she’s the daughter of Victor’s cousin and heir presumptive, Anthony Severne, who is no friend to Victor, so how can he possibly trust her? And she, of course, has her own concerns about putting herself forward. But she knows something about the duel and so she feels she has to speak out.

I’m not going to say much about the duel, except that the secrets behind it come nicely to the boil in Brussels. Let’s talk about the romance, instead. As with the entire series, everything happens fairly quickly – far too quickly for credibility, perhaps. But it’s all very nicely done, and it was lovely seeing the curmudgeonly and reclusive Victor, thoroughly abused by his father because of a malformed leg, but with a very good brain and far more heart than his father, stepping forward and becoming a true hero. And he likes being the duke at last, and making things happen, instead of being nothing but an irritant to his father. I liked how decisive he was when he set out for Brussels, making careful plans and protecting Olivia and the servants, as well as himself.

Olivia was not quite such a striking character for me, not because there was anything lacking but purely because she was overshadowed by the towering personality of Victor. If you’re the sort of reader who loves to meet up with characters from earlier books, then you’ll adore the second half of this one, where everyone from the entire series is gathered in Brussels. I got muddled over who was whom, but that’s just me. The villain was suitably villainous, and if the identity was obvious from the start, that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the ending one iota.

The author does a terrific job of showing the atmosphere in the build-up to the Battle of Waterloo — the British insouciance and determination to carry on as normal and not be frightened by the French, and yet the growing tension. We see some of the aftereffects of the battle, and the scale of the carnage is not hidden, but it’s not graphic (I’m allergic to war stories, so I’d have bailed if there had been anything gruesome).

This was a wonderful conclusion to the series. No, it’s not particularly plausible, but it’s a hugely entertaining romp from dramatic start to equally dramatic finish. I loved it. There is some mildly graphic sexual content, for those who like to know about such things, but for me this was a wonderful five stars.

This is the third book in a series dealing with the repercussions of a duel wherein the much disliked Duke of Cuttyngham meets an untimely demise. The first book focused on the other duellist, Major Giles Butler, and the widowed duchess. The second book dealt with the duke’s daughter, Lady Hera, and the attending doctor at the duel, Justin Rivers. This book is all about one of the seconds, the Earl of Frostbrook, and the former betrothed of Major Butler.

Here’s the premise: Sophia Wallace, living a miserable life as the put-upon poor relation to cousins, was scooped up in book 1, for fairly contrived reasons, and deposited at the ducal residence, Cuttyngs, ostensibly as companion to the now widowed duchess. When the duchess departs, Sophia is to act as chaperone for the late duke’s daughter, Lady Hera. But even she has taken herself off, so what is Sophia to do now? The new duke, Victor (by far the most interesting character in this whole saga, by the way) doesn’t much mind if she stays on, but it’s not quite proper and anyway the widowed duchess had a mind to live in the dower house before she left, so Sophia sets herself to restore it to habitability and live there until such time as the duchess returns.

Into this rather pleasant, if lonely, existence, she meets a man with whom she had a brief but unforgettable encounter some time previously. In her role as unpaid slave to her cousins, she had been required to walk some distance at night to bring a forgotten item to the young lady of the family who’s at a party. Exhausted and not at all happy, she leaves the house to set out on the return walk, only to be accosted by a somewhat drunk Earl of Frostbrook. Mistaking her for a servant girl, he amuses himself by dallying with her and eventually kissing her. Sophia is shocked and gives him a piece of her mind, but secretly she rather enjoyed the experience. Now Lord Frostbrook has turned up again, and remembers her, and so is set the scene for the gentle development of the romance. By the time Lord Frostbrook sets out to stymie his mother’s matchmaking attempts by introducing Sophia as his betrothed, there’s not much doubt how things are going to end.

Of course, a smooth path to the happy ever after is anathema to any well-devised Regency, and here it’s the unpleasant cousins who throw a huge spanner in the works. I never quite understand why such people have to be so relentlessly nasty, when they could have achieved their aim in much gentler ways but there we go, and the reason for them to decamp to Brussels and there join up with the main characters from the previous books is too implausible for words. But you know what? It doesn’t matter a bit. This is a rollicking good read, with plenty of action, a spirited heroine, a heroic hero and villains who get their comeuppance. There’s a little sex in it, but nothing terribly graphic, and it certainly helps to have read the previous books, but it’s a great read. Four stars, and I’m very much hoping that Victor gets his story in the next book.