![\"\"](\"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/counterfeit.jpg\")
Another very strange read from this author. She really does like melodrama, and sometimes that works and sometimes\u2026 hmm, less so. A fine hero, but I\u2019d have liked a bit less of the clingy dependency from the heroine.<\/p>\nAnother very strange read from this author. She really does like melodrama, and sometimes that works and sometimes\u2026 hmm, less so. A fine hero, but I\u2019d have liked a bit less of the clingy dependency from the heroine.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the premise: heiress Bethia Pepperell has been kidnapped, drugged and hauled from London all the way to Cornwall and is about to be dumped into the sea to drown (did I mention the melodrama?), presumably under orders from one of the three cousins who stand to inherit after her death. Miraculously, as she pleads for her life, she\u2019s overheard by ex-smuggler Digory Rendel, unseen in the fog, who contrives to rescue her and leave her would-be murderers thinking she\u2019s drowned. The next day, when they come looking for the body, they meet Digory and his smuggling pals. Unfortunately, their attempts to capture them and find out who sent them end up with both men dead.<\/p>\n
Digory\u2019s prepared to help protect Bethia but she knows the only sure way to fix the problem, and that is for the two of them to marry. Since they have the hots for each other, and she\u2019s not at all shy about showing him how she feels, even to the extent of inviting him into her bed and otherwise trying to seduce him, he reluctantly agrees to it, even though he realises that he\u2019s not at all of her station in life. I really felt that Bethia is stepping outside the bounds of propriety and even common sense at this point. Yes, she\u2019s overwhelmed by Digory\u2019s masculinity (or something), but really, girl, get a grip! By hurling herself at him with abandon, she really gives him no choice but to agree to the marriage. Which is pretty silly, frankly.<\/p>\n
So they go back to London, where her aunt, whose powers of self-deception know no bounds, happily tells herself that the story she\u2019s been telling that Bethia was laid up with illness is actually true and now she\u2019s better so everything\u2019s fine\u2026 isn\u2019t it? And all this worrying about murderous cousins is just nonsense. But Digory summons some very disreputable (but high ranking) friends who will swear to his blameless past and help him marry Bethia, which they do and then show themselves in society so that everyone will think everything\u2019s fine. And then, right at the end, everything goes to hell in a handcart in spectacular fashion. No, it seems an ex-smuggler can\u2019t pass himself off as a gentleman after all.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m going to be honest, and say that I really disapproved of both hero and heroine in this one. Bethia was so hot for Digory that she was prepared to do absolutely anything to stay with him, and frankly, I think they should have run off to the continent or America or some such right from the start. It would have saved a lot of bother. As for Digory, with the whole we\u2019ll get married but we won\u2019t really be married schtick – oh, per-lease. Either marry the girl or don\u2019t, but just get over yourself.<\/p>\n
My other main quibble is with \u2018society\u2019, which is prepared to randomly accept some unknown man because one or two people vouch for him, and then turn against him the instant some other random (and known to be evil) bloke says he\u2019s no good. People, even at the highest levels of society, still have some sense of judgement and don\u2019t accept or reject people purely on the basis of hearsay.<\/p>\n
Some historical quibbles. No, you can\u2019t annul a marriage for non-consummation (not in England, anyway). And no, a title once awarded can\u2019t be retracted, even when it turns out it went to the wrong person (in general, anyway; the king could, of course, do whatever he liked about those pesky titles). Money and property, yes, that can be redistributed after the event, but titles, no. What would likely happen if a title has been wrongfully claimed and the true heir turns up is (probably) that he would be given another, equivalent title.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m going to be honest – I did enjoy the read, on the whole, but the flaws in the characters of the principals keep it to three stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Another very strange read from this author. She really does like melodrama, and sometimes that works and sometimes\u2026 hmm, less so. A fine hero, but I\u2019d have liked a bit less of the clingy dependency from the heroine. Here\u2019s the premise: heiress Bethia Pepperell has been kidnapped, drugged and hauled from London all the way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[161],"class_list":["post-5743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-dolan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5743","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=5743"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5775,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5743\/revisions\/5775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}