Review: funny farce in regency england
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 30, 2013
I adore a good farce, where the situations and characters are just over-the-top exaggerated.  Think Mel Brooks or Monty Python, The Pink Panther movies or I Love Lucy.  Adjectives like zany, madcap, bizarre, and nonsensical apply.  The plot in a farce makes rapid and confusing twists and turns and runs from one scene to the next.  The characters behave strangely and sometimes badly, and usually come off as lovable fools.  This book is a lovingly respectful skewer of the formulaic and typical regency romance, and it works.  If you laugh at Fawlty Towers, Arsenic and Old Lace, or even The Hangover, you'll enjoy Apple Pie for a Duke.  This is an homage, not a reference book on early 19th century England, so there are some anachronistic phrases and situations thrown in; again, it's supposed to be broadly humorous and slightly absurd.  And you can't say you weren't warned: the author fully describes exactly what kind of book she's written and warns you not to buy it if the description isn't your cup of tea.  A sample of the book can even be downloaded for free, and you will know very quickly if this is a book you'll enjoy or not.  So snag this book and have fun trying to keep up with Gigi and Surrey and poor digestively-challenged Mr. Whimple. *The only reason I didn't give this book five stars is there are a handful of typos and grammar errors; a little extra proofreading should have caught and fixed these. *