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I\u2019ve never read a Joyce Harmon book yet that I didn\u2019t love, and here\u2019s another one. Beautifully written, clever and, best of all, funny, this was just a pleasure to read from start to finish.<\/p>\nI\u2019ve never read a Joyce Harmon book yet that I didn\u2019t love, and here\u2019s another one. Beautifully written, clever and, best of all, funny, this was just a pleasure to read from start to finish.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the premise: Peter Barton is a humble actor who found himself playing the role of a gentleman. I think this happened in a previous book in the series, although I don\u2019t remember it. Anyway, he discovered he was rather convincing at it, and able to make a living by winning regularly at cards. His memory has been sharpened by learning lines, so he finds it easy to remember cards, too (I\u2019m not totally convinced that skill transfers readily, but never mind). So for several years he\u2019s been living a low-key existence on the fringes of London society, but now he\u2019s being pursued by a marriage-minded young lady, and the smallest investigation into his circumstances will reveal what a fraud he is.<\/p>\n
Amy Greenlow, on the other hand, is a lady who\u2019s been forced by dire circumstances to become an actress on the stage, taking the name of Amadora. She\u2019s become a great success but she has many men pursuing her in the hopes of making her their mistress, and one of them, the creepy Marquis of Grissam, is very, very determined. It doesn\u2019t take long for Peter to see a solution to both their difficulties if he pretends to be Amy\u2019s protector, thus deterring both their ardent pursuers.<\/p>\n
This is a delicious twist on the fake betrothal trope, and of course it isn\u2019t long before the two are falling into scrapes with the deception, and in between times falling in love. I loved both hero and heroine here. They\u2019re both intelligent, resourceful people who find creative ways out of their difficulties, and even at the end, there\u2019s a neat and unexpected twist, which I didn\u2019t see coming even though it was completely in character. And did I mention that it\u2019s laugh-out-loud funny? Here\u2019s just one exchange that I loved:<\/p>\n
\u201cMa\u2019am!\u201d he breathed, \u201cyour most humble\u2026 devoted\u2026 loyal\u2026 ardent\u2026\u201d
\n\u201cA noun, Chilly,\u201d Peter advised lazily. \u201cWe could really use a noun right about now.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
A delightful tale, a lovely slow-build romance and an excellent five stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve never read a Joyce Harmon book yet that I didn\u2019t love, and here\u2019s another one. Beautifully written, clever and, best of all, funny, this was just a pleasure to read from start to finish. Here\u2019s the premise: Peter Barton is a humble actor who found himself playing the role of a gentleman. I think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[99],"class_list":["post-2787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-harmon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2787"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3783,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2787\/revisions\/3783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}