Review: Delightful
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 4, 2014
I really enjoyed this story.  Our heroine is exceedingly bright, and she comes from a family in trade -- shipping to be exact.  Her mind runs along the engineering side of the business while her sister manages the books.  The family has worked for the their wealth and now they are accepted by the ton.Her sister is engaged to marry a lord, but they must still walk a fine line to be accepted socially.  And that is part of the problem.  The heroine is constantly under pressure to keep her mouth shut.  She cannot say what she is truly thinking -- even when she knows a man is after her for her fortune, or when she knows she is mentally head and shoulders above some fellow.Her sister's fiance has given her permission to escape to his house in the country, but she leaves for it a week early.  Arriving in the dead night she dismisses the driver and goes into the house alone.  She comes upon a man who had been sleeping in the library.  They are alone in the house and that is when the driver unfortunately brings back a neighbor.  No matter they were still fully dressed or that only a brief period of time had passed, she was compromised.  He proposes.They are quickly married, and he is warned by the heroine's sister to give his new wife time and space.  The hero is the younger son of a duke, and his father had tossed him out on his ear to fend for himself at a young age.  He has spent his life being pleasant and helpful to anyone offering him a place to stay -- and his face has been his fortune.But suddenly he has a wife, someone to be responsible for -- and he is penniless and has no home.  The heroine is wealthy -- just the sort of woman his father wanted him to marry.  However, our hero is smart and inclined toward the mechanical himself.  He understands the woman he married and appreciates her talent.He gives her the space he is told she needs, though our heroine is sort of wishing he wouldn't.  She is attracted to him, and slowly they embark on getting to know each other.When the duke makes a veiled threat regarding her family's business, the heroine takes matters into her hands.The story was short.  I really wished it had been longer.  The characters were engaging, and this was a bit of a different take on a Regency.Highly recommend.