Review: A Unique Spin on Regency Romance
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 28, 2014
Lovely Little Liar by Gloria Gay is a 2014 Boroughs Publishing Group release.  I was provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.Abigail, ( Abby) and her aunt are left practically destitute when Abby's father passed away and left their investments with the Marquess of Ravensgaerd.  Now the only choice Abby has is to become a governess.  As fate would have it she accepts the position offered by the Raven's sister, the Countess of Castweill.Neither Raven or his sister realize who Abby really is and so in order to keep her position Abby builds a dangerous house of cards by telling one lie after another.  To complicate things Abby may find herself face to face with the man that jilted her at the alter a couple of years ago.  Keeping her identity a secret becomes more and more difficult and her relationship with Raven becomes more and more heated causing the Countess to try and come between them.I liked the setup in this regency period historical romance.  The penniless girl going to work for the family that caused her financial ruin and trying to keep her job without anyone finding out who she really is while moving in the social circles she once belonged to is great storyline. Abby is a very sweet girl,  but a little too naive and perhaps a little unrealistically forgiving.  The suspense comes from having the Countess observing every little thing Abby does and being very suspicious of her and from knowing that sooner or later someone was bound to recognize Abby and tell Raven.  There were a few kinks in the story though.  One is the romance lacked chemistry and a few make out sessions were all that really happened until the very end of the book and that just happens to be one of my little pet peeves.  The other issue I had was that Raven was so careless with the finances of others.  He never checked on Abigail and her aunt although it is made clear Raven was otherwise engaged for a long period of time.  He has no idea that Abby's money had all but disappeared and really didn't go to any great lengths to investigate their well being.  I wasn't all that impressed with him as a result and found him a little dull as well.Although I had a few issues with Raven and the very slow moving romance,  I still found the book to be enjoyable and the author did a great job of putting a unique spin on the regency romance novel.  This one gets 3 stars.