Review: A spunky Regency heroine who doesn't descend into goofiness, aided and abetted by an upright Duke
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 11, 2014
There's something that really appeals to me about the heroine in a historical romance who spurns convention. The problem is that finding a book which has a butt-kicking Regency heroine but which doesn't descend into ridiculous goofiness and involve multiple implausible character shifts is trickier than you would think.Well, this one absolutely gets it right! The heroine is an unrepentant troublemaker, who doesn't understand the word "no", and is absolutely determined to live her life on her terms, and yet, the social pressures of the time period aren't forgotten, and it's written well enough that you can see, almost, how she might be able to stay, just about, on the right side of Society.The adventures of the heroine drag the rest of the characters along in her wake. You know they'll never keep up, thank goodness, and (hooray!) you know she'll never change. The other characters are actually fairly predictable (the "stiff" hero, the gauche male cousin and the long-suffering relations), but what makes this one stand out is the absolutely wonderful dialogue, both between characters and inside their heads, and not just between the hero and heroine either. The interactions between all the characters just sparkle off the page and even had me chuckling out loud several times.So, 4 stars. I really, really liked it.I received this book in return for an honest review.