Review: More tongue-in-cheek farce than romance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 6, 2013
Once I got in the right frame of mind for reading this book, I really enjoyed it.  I'll bet Elizabeth Chater had fun writing this book with such an outlandish character as Lord Ranulf Malyon. He is depicted as a descendent of Vikings with a warrior's heart to go with his fierce, blond looks.  Lady Floss Dearborn is as sweet as can be, though her plans are not well thought out.  Her niece, Clea is a gawky 6 foot tall debutante transformed into a goddess with new clothes and hairstyle.  Lord Glendon is a typical regency aristocrat who falls in love with Lady Floss and escorts her and Clea to their "ton" events and comes to their aid when needed.Lady Floss' husband dies and Lord Ranulf inherits the estate.  He is wrongly led to believe that Lady Floss is a conniving female so he decides to dislike her even though he's never met her.  Ranulf pays Floss a large sum of money for the dower house in exchange for her immediately vacating the estate.  Clea (Lord Dearborn's niece) has been living with Floss and her uncle for four years and so with the money from Ranulf, Floss decides to take Clea to London for a season.  Ranulf descends upon the Dearborn estate expecting to give Lady Floss a set-down but when he discovers she's already left for London he becomes determined to follow her there so he can vent his spleen at her.  Keep in mind, Lady Floss has done nothing wrong and at this point Lord Ranulf seems like an unreasonable brute.While in London, Lady Floss and Clea meet Lord Glendon and he agrees to help introduce them to society.  He gallantly rescues them from several scrapes. In the meantime, Clea and Lord Ranulf have several run-ins with each other.  One thing that helped me accept Lord Ranulf's behavior was reminding myself he's only 24 years old and maybe hasn't outgrown his erratic behavior like the typical 30 year old Regency Hero.  Eventually Lord Ranulf comes to realize he was misled by the source who told him Lady Floss was conniving.  Overall this is a fun regency romp, with stylish make-overs, match-making strategies and a rescue from a kidnapping/elopement. The book ends with everyone getting their HEA.