Helpful Score: 1
I quite liked this book; it's a refreshing throwback to the sort of women's romance fiction of many years ago, in which there was a lot of story and character, and not a lot of the Tab-A-into-Slot-B stuff that pads so many romances today. Except that there aren't gothic elements, it reminds me strongly of the gothics I used to love from the 60s and 70s. The story is told in a more leisurely manner but it doesn't drag.
Dorothea Sandham's parents are dead and as a poor relation she is currently living with her cousin Miss Grayson, a meanspirited, stingy, spiteful woman. The cousin receives word that the young wife of a distant relation, Sir Tate Bancroft, has died in childbirth. She goes ostensibly to pay a condolence call, but really to see if she can worm her way in there for whatever she can get, even though she is a wealthy woman. Dorothea goes with her perforce and Sir Tate sees her there. Dorothea is appalled that he is so sunk in drunken grief that he has given no thought to his infant daughter, and on the spot Sir Tate proposes a marriage of convenience. Dorothea will look after the baby and become Lady Bancroft, while he returns to the Peninsular Wars in hopes of getting himself killed. It's a lot better than living with Cousin Grayson so Dorothea does it; besides she's fallen in love with the baby.
Complications ensue, nothing I haven't read elsewhere before, but well & entertainingly told.
Dorothea Sandham's parents are dead and as a poor relation she is currently living with her cousin Miss Grayson, a meanspirited, stingy, spiteful woman. The cousin receives word that the young wife of a distant relation, Sir Tate Bancroft, has died in childbirth. She goes ostensibly to pay a condolence call, but really to see if she can worm her way in there for whatever she can get, even though she is a wealthy woman. Dorothea goes with her perforce and Sir Tate sees her there. Dorothea is appalled that he is so sunk in drunken grief that he has given no thought to his infant daughter, and on the spot Sir Tate proposes a marriage of convenience. Dorothea will look after the baby and become Lady Bancroft, while he returns to the Peninsular Wars in hopes of getting himself killed. It's a lot better than living with Cousin Grayson so Dorothea does it; besides she's fallen in love with the baby.
Complications ensue, nothing I haven't read elsewhere before, but well & entertainingly told.
