Willy W. reviewed on 10/31/2013 + 503 more book reviews

Elizabeth Boyle writes a fun, if not particularly historically faithful, romance. It's not so much that the story isn't historically accurate, I'm no historian, but one mostly reads historical romance because of all the rigid rules and customs of the period. Elizabeth Boyle creates rather flamboyant women most of whom flout the traditions and customs of the period. In other words, they're acting mostly like women do now so you feel a bit cheated out of the historical aspect.

In this story a scholarly second son inherits his brother's title, debts, and three "of age" nieces. He also inherits some of his brothers questionable "investments", one of which is a theater company. He meets the owner/director/leading star of the company whom he is wrangled into hiring as a trainer for the nieces who need to be husband hunting. The actress, Riley Fontaine, winds up moving into his house and hijinks ensue. She is assumed by all to be a notorious strumpet but of course she's no

There is a lot of running around and pretend and role playing and lying. Kind of like an I Love Lucy episode in 1797 costume. Fun and silly, nothing deep or emotionally penetrating. Not that all romance needs to be that way, but they really stick with you when it touches something other than the funny bone.

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