Review: sweet Regency mystery and romance with a touch of fairytale
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 6, 2013
This is an interesting story about the mystery surrounding who will inherit Castlegate Manor.  There is a scheming cousin with pockets to let, a mother trying to marry-off her daughter without losing their station, a daughter trying marry her love and avoid marriage to said icky cousin, a beautiful young woman masquerading as a lady but without the proper pedigree, and a protective groom that seems more than a mere servant.  All the characters play an integral part in discovering the secret and unraveling the mysteries of the Manor.  Even a dead great-aunt influences the action as the story unfolds.I like the chemistry between the Hero and heroine.  It is a chaste relationship but the sensual tension is there; you can sense these two are drawn to each other and are fighting to keep their hands to themselves.  I also like that the h is as nice as she is smart and truly regrets any subterfuge she feels compelled to enact.  She is pragmatic and realistic but yet still has dreams of 'what could be' in her life.  The H is terribly masculine and a leader from the outset in spite of his lowly position in the stables.  The reader can guess fairly early who the groom likely is but figuring out the penultimate mystery keeps one turning pages.  The villain is truly nasty so it's easy to root for his comeuppance and there is plenty of tension and suspense as the action resolves over the last chapters.Without giving anything away, I feel some readers will say it is pure fairytale how the author deals with the disparity between the classes in her story.  History records several instances of courtesans and actresses marrying into the peerage, but the circumstances in this book make overcoming societal constraints highly unlikely.  In this story the servant is known in London and the peer is not high-ranking enough to pull off "ignoring what anyone may say," especially as the resolution of the mystery would lead to much speculation in the Ton and most likely publication in the papers.  There would be no way to hide who married whom and what rank they were prior to the marriage. As a firm believer in the concept of true love and the adage that love conquers all, however, I do see these two characters marrying anyway and weathering the storm, retiring happily to the country to live their private lives.  I say disregard the fantasy of the match and just smile over the hard-won HEA.This was a sneaky little charmer of a book.  The writing style was clean and concise and the author kept the pace moving steadily throughout the book.  The secret was not terribly hard to figure out, but it was still worth reading to the end to see how the story would play out.  This was a nice, clean, light read for a Sunday afternoon.