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I was curious to read this as Jane Aiken Hodge was a writer I read way back in my teens and twenties. I read a lot of recently written historical fiction, mostly Regencies, so I wondered how this would stand up. If you can ignore the bonkers premise… that Camilla Forest, fleeing a bad situation as a governess in a household with a lecherous older son, is picked up on the road (literally) by Lord Leominster when the coach she is waiting for doesn't turn up. Within a couple of hours he's proposed to her, a business arrangement because his fearsome grandmother will disinherit him if he remains single.
Julia Quinn is always a reliable read. Though the premised for this is a bit bonkers it largely worked for me. Celie Harcourt abandons England with barely a penny to her name, and goes tearing off to the Americas when she finds out that her brother, Thomas, has been injured. When she gets to New York she finds that Thomas is unaccountably missing, but his best friend, Edward Rokesby is badly injures and in need of care. In order to get access she tells the authorities that she's Edward's wife, and since he's insensible she gets away with it. When he comes to, he's conveniently lost his memory and so she fools him, too. That's the point at which I was screaming for her to do the sensible thing and tell him, but no, she continues to fool him as well - until she doesn't. Even though I had a few quibbles, it was an enjoyable read.
The second Agents of the Crown book features James Sidwell, Marquis of Riverdale, whose spying has been curtailed because a French spy has exposed his identity. So while he has nothing much to do he's called down to his aunt's estate to help her identify a blackmailer. While in disguise as the new estate manager he meets Elizabeth Hotchkiss, companion to his aunt, well-bred but penniless.
Elizabeth has just stumbled on a book in her employer's library called 'How to Marry a Marquis.' Since marriage to someone wealthy seems to be the only way she can support her younger siblings, she gets trapped into trying out the edicts in the book – trying them on the only available male, James, who is, of course, a marquis in disguise.
I usually try to blog the books I read one at a time, but I've been busy, so I'm playing catchup. It's only when I make a list that I realise how many Julia Quinn books I've read this year. No excuses. She writes engagingly frothy regency romances, and when I'm deep into writing, I need something to switch off with.With six weeks to go before her twenty-first birthday and freedom to control her own money, Caroline Trent is running away from an unwanted marriage when she's captured by dashing Blake Ravenscroft, who mistakes her for a French spy, Carlotta de Leon. She only needs a place to hide for six weeks, so, believing that she can come clean at any time, she plays along. There's a lot of quirky comedy in this book, which is good because the plot is frankly ridiculous. Blake and Caroline are engaging characters, however and James Sidwell, Marquis of Riverdale is an excellent secondary character.
I've enjoyed all of Julia Quinn's Bridgerton books. Eloise is one of the middle siblings of eight. When she begins a correspondence with the widower of a distant cousin, she never thinks it will develop into a relaitionship. At twenty-eight she feel she might be a confirmed spinster, but that's only because she's turned down sixc proposals already, determined to have a love-match or nothing at all.
Sir Phillip Crane feels that a twenty eight year old spinster might be desperate enough to marry him. He's not looking for a love match. He needs a mother for his two unruly children and that's about it. He's clueless, of course, but it's not all lighthearted froth. Phillip's first marriage was a nightmare. His wife's illness has left him traumatised. He's dumbfounded when the spinster who turns up on his doorstep is not a drab. Eloise's practical good sense saves the day and as their relationship develops you really want to root for them.
When a dashing soldier-turned-highwayman stops the carriage carrying the dowager Duchess of Wyndham and her paid companion, Grace, there are two revelations. The dowager recognises highwayman Jack Audley as her grandson and Grace recognises that she's not immune to Jack's charms. But the problem is that if Jack is truly who the dowager thinks he is, he's the rightful Duke of Wyndham and will displace Thomas, the current duke. And Grace might fall in love with a charming rogue, but she knows she's not high-born enough for a duke.
Lady Charlotte Carpenter is abducted by thugs and held in an inn in retribution for her brother-in-law putting an evil brothel owner out of business. She almost mnanages her own escape, but is helped by a dashing gentleman and unfortunately seen with him by an inveterate gossip. i.e. she's been 'compromised' according to the customs of the day, by Constantine, marquis of Kenilworth. Con agrees that the only solution is marriage, but Charlotte isn't sure. He keeps a mistress for goodness sake and Charlotte is deeply into campaigning on behalf of sex-workers (or unfortunates as she might call them). Can she change Con's view of the world where virtue is a negotiable commodity, and can the Worthingtons finally put an end to the evil 'madame' who has appeared as the villain in a couple of books in the series?
