2016 American Regency romance, third and last of a linked series. Dr
Gray conducts an academic correspondence with Miss Babcock, whom he
met in passing during the events of the previous book. But when she
comes to London to show off her hybrid rose, will they recognise their
feelings for each other, or will societal pressures get in the way?
Well, yes, obviously there's no tension in the simple answer to
that question. What's uncertain, as in most romances, is how the
couple will be brought to a happy ending, and what they may have to
give up on the way. Dr Gray is given a large group of siblings and a
ne'er-do-well father, and a complicated family situation involving a
betrothal that everyone's been expecting for years even if he hasn't
ever formally committed himself to it. (And perhaps a sign of a series
that's gone on a little longer than planned? In the previous book he
was a doctor who had "attended the Queen", but here that's carefully
explained as a one-off event that's not a regular part of his life, so
as to make him more relatable.)
There are the usual quirks and oddities that one expects from an
American Regency; here they include an aristocratic mother being
constantly involved in the raising of her baby, a family meal
including children down to age four, and upper-crust English people
called things like Jubilee, Delilah and Benjamin. But, as in the
earlier books I've read by this author, it's worth persisting in spite
of the stumbles, both because they're not critical to the plot and
because of the way she works everything round her principal
characters. I've read two other novels and one novella by Noble, and
in no case could the protagonists be exchanged; never mind their
social positions, they're different people with different
personalities and goals for their lives.
I'll admit that I could have used fewer distractions from the main
story, but the book still holds together (even if Gray is the Best
Doctor Ever because he's noticed the link between clean surgical tools
and patient survival) and the resolution is highly satisfying.
This is the end of this series; all the books can stand alone, though
there are some looks at the continuing lives of the couples from the
earlier stories. I'm distinctly tempted to try to find some of Noble's
earlier work.
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