3.5 Stars
I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this one going in, but I will admit that I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the story much more than I thought that I would, especially considering that, despite what MrsJ claims, I am not really a romance reader. Occasionally I’ll dip a toe into romance, but it’s not really my genre of choice.
So, I actually liked this. It was a bit over the top, and in the middle I started feeling like it was getting repetitive with the antics and mishaps, but, thankfully, the book overheard me, and moved along.
I thought that the characters were fleshed out pretty well, and I liked seeing things from both Penelope’s and Charles’ perspectives. I particularly enjoyed Madame Bellafraunde. She reminded me quite a lot of Lord Akeldama from the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger… Only, you know, not vampiric. Apparently I find Fashionistas in Regency fiction appealing, despite being abysmally fashion-backwards myself.
I enjoyed the progression of the story, though the ending felt a little rushed. But I thought that the tension was done well, and that the little chips in Charles’ ice-facade were well-placed and mostly well-timed. His situation, with Lydia, was a little coincidental, but of course it had to be something. I did think that his history though was a little much. It’s a little much to believe that Charles would have fallen so many times for so many different women, all of whom would try the exact same snare tactic in such a short period of time. I think it would have really only needed one to put Charles’ guard up, not 3 or 4 or… however many there really were.
I also noticed several typos and misused words in the text. For instance, “bucked” was used instead of “bucket”, “peak” instead of “peek”, and “breath” instead of “breathe”. “Of” and “off” were mixed up more than once as well. I noticed that the frequency of typos increased the further along in the story I got – the beginning was quite clean and well edited.
Overall, this was a fun read, and I enjoyed it. I’d recommend it to fans of Regency romance easily.
Disclaimer: I received a free e-book copy of this book for review from the author.
OSgA Book Reviews 