Review: Variety is the spice of life
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 2, 2013
To address the concern in earlier critical review, I think you'd enjoy the book more if you can look beyond the hero's vehement declarations that he'd never marry a Bittlesworth. He doth protest too much, and as trite as it sounds, actions do speak louder than words. His treatment of the heroine is never dishonorable, and eventually his love prevails over his distaste for having the Viscount Bittlesworth's for a father-in-law.There is a clear turning point at the beginning of the story where it could have followed the same path as the first one. Giddy - the hero of the first book - tells his best friend, Quince, to offer for the Sabre to atone for the insult he'd dealt her by proposing to make her his mistress. But the plot unfolds quite differently because the hero refuses. Not that I could fault him for it in the beginning: Sabre was more enamored with the idea of becoming a duchess rather than marrying Quince for himself. While she grows to love him, not his title, which shows in her willingness to sacrifice her social standing in staying with him without the benefit of marriage, he learns a thing or two about trust.A relatively minor issue that, nonetheless, put a shadow over the book, is what I call an 'heir problem.' The confusion between an heir apparent, who gets a courtesy title from a nobleman, whose title he will eventually inherit, and an heir presumptive, who does not, often lurks in period romance written in recent years. I was disappointed to find it in here.Ignore for a moment the legal hoops Quince would have had to jump through to ensure his younger brother, whose existence was hidden from the late duke, would be the next in line to inherit the title, displacing a cousin, those were barely mentioned. It was the use of courtesy title for those worthy gentlemen that I found jarring. Cousin Lionel should have been a plain mister, and brother Jeremy  - Lord Jeremy - as appropriate for a younger son of a duke. Neither of them could have used the title of  marques, which would have been reserved for Quince's first living legitimate son. In all fairness, aside from a conversation between Giddy and Quince, the courtesy title is mentioned all of twice, and probably only matters to nitpicky readers like me.