Review: One of the absolute BEST regencies ever!!!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 20, 2012
I've read lots of these books over the years and frankly, I find most of the newer ones seriously flawed or just plain boring. I had begun to wonder if the genre might not be fizzling out entirely because every plot has already been done before.But. . . regencies--especially sweet regencies--still have a place in my heart, and that's why I gave this book a chance even though the cover is HORRENDOUS. (Actually, I don't really care about covers on e-books, but I know this is not true of others. Mrs. Lown, you need a new cover artist.)Katherine is a strong character, very likable, as is Lord Harry, the hero. Unfortunately, they always seem to be at loggerheads with one another. Katherine has been betrayed once by a fiancé, and she's quite happy living modestly with her aunt, not particularly interested in contracting herself to any man in marriage. Lord Harry still grieves for his angelic first wife, who died in childbirth with their son. Now that he's returned from war, he needs a mother for his young daughter and eventually an heir, but he's sworn never to love another woman. Katherine's not really interested in that sort of marriage, but Lord Harry is quite attractive and she's tempted to accept his proposal, but. . . a disagreement comes between them.However, circumstances change when a young boy, supposedly Katherine's dead brother Richard's natural child of a Spanish liaison during the war, comes into her life. Katherine becomes as fiercely protective as a mother, and she has to face the fact that she does not have the resources to get him the kind of education he will need to become something other than a servant. So. . . she will have to marry. And of the three potential husbands, she has already burned her boats with Lord Harry and Sir Clive (her ex-fiancé). That leaves the new vicar, who was the worst kind of libertine before he supposedly reformed. But then Sir Clive renews his offer of marriage. What to do? The only man she really wants to marry has already told her he will never love anyone but his dead wife; however, now Katherine wishes she had not been so quick to refuse.Every time I thought I knew where things were going, the plot would twist another way, and I found myself unable to put my Kindle down. I found myself in tears many times while reading this story and I can only say that I will be looking for more of Ms. Lown's books in future.