2015 American Regency romance, second of a linked series. During the
deception of the first book, John Turner took on the persona of the
Earl of Ashby, and was pursued by Leticia Herzog, fortune-hunting
widow of an Austrian Count. When the game was discovered, she fled in
public shame. But they each felt a spark for the other, and now
they're going to meet again.
As before, one keeps tripping over small phrases which probably
sound quite reasonable to an American but mark the book to a British
reader as alien; in particular I was struck by the way that everyone
says that someone "passed" when what they mean is "died". (I think of
that as a 1990s Americanism, though I dare say it was in use earlier
and I just didn't meet it. "Pass away" and "pass on" are of course
somewhat older.)
But as before, the book is worth it. Leticia, thrown on her own very
limited resources, has snared an ageing and gouty widower and is
planning to marry him (and, while not in love, genuinely intends to do
her best to make his life happy), only to discover that his home is
close to the town where John is resurrecting the family grain mill.
Other complications are the widower's daughter (not happy to have a
stepmother sprung on her, mostly interested in plants, and perhaps in
love with John herself), gossip and social backstabbing in the town,
and to my mind the one serious mis-step, an out-and-out villain who's
determined that the mill shouldn't re-open, but sometimes acts to his
own disadvantage when doing so would let him be more villainous.
The viewpoint is mostly with Leticia, who was portrayed in the first
book as simply out to snare a rich Earl, but was somewhat redeemed
even there and is more so here; something I find unusual in a romance
is her realisation that, yes, she has acted badly at times, and it
might be an idea to change that. I'd have liked ideally to see a bit
more interaction between Leticia and John; both of them feel strongly
enough about the incidents at their last meeting that it's sensible
for them to agree, as they do, to interact as little as possible, but
the way they strike sparks off each other is such fun that it's a
shame to have so little of it.
All right, some details don't really work – for example, how is Letty
living in the same house as her intended during the month while the
banns are read, with no other woman apart from his daughter and the
servants? There really needs to be a female companion for propriety to
be observed, and of course a separate roof.
But as with the first book, the characterisation is solid even if some
of the details slip, and the people are why I pick up books in the
first place. It's particularly important to start this series at the
beginning, since a fair chunk of John and Letty's story happens in the
first book. This one is followed by The Dare and the Doctor, but
there's also a novella which I'll read first.
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