Review: A wonderful rake meets bluestocking story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 10, 2013
This book had a very common plot line, yet it was developed in a quite original and delightful way. The heroine, due to deaths in the family, ends up with the custody of her ten year old nephew and his dog. The only place they have to live is a very run down cottage in the country. Quite a bit of time in the beginning is spent setting the scene, with them settling in and making the place somewhat livable, before the hero even enters the picture, but I loved the characters and was not bored at all. Once the rake of the story, Viscount Chetwyn, meets Meg, the heroine, it becomes even more amusing, with great witty dialogue between them. She is an educated and well-travelled woman, and besides that is honest and straightforward to a fault, and so she does not even pretend to be shocked at the outrageous things he says and does. Chetwyn has never met a woman like her before, and is immediately charmed and fascinated.There is a part later on in the story, when things appear to go wrong. It looks like Chetwyn has deserted Meg, and the nephew's nasty aunt and uncle try to take custody of the boy away from Meg. I loved that she did not just give up, but kept on fighting. Of course Chetwyn does come back, as he has realized he can't do without her, and all is happily resolved in the end.I did not notice any of the typos, grammar and punctuation errors that earlier reviewers complained about, so I guess the book has been re-edited since then. I found this story to be comparable in quality to the best of the Signet Regency romances of  years ago, and it's a bargain, so I will definitely be checking out the rest of Kate Harper's books.