Emily Hendrickson: Miss Timothy Perseveres

Alone in the world, Miss Persys Timothy has lived under the protection of her wealthy aunt, serving as her cousin’s companion and confidante. But once her cousin is married, Persys is no longer needed—or wanted. Summarily put out of her aunt’s home, she has nowhere to go and no one to turn to—until the Duke of Eddington surprisingly comes to her rescue. He is in dire need of a companion to keep his injured mother amused and whisks Persys off to his grand country estate.Struck by her disarming combination of unusual, violet eyes and exotic, Persian name, the dashing Duke is quite taken with Persys. But his campaign to win her affection is almost sabotaged by Persys herself, who sees nothing but folly in falling head over heels for a duke. And when the time comes that the duchess no longer needs Persys’s help, the Duke must devise a way to trap “his Persian woman”—in his house and in his heart.

The Duke is less in need of a companion for his mother, than he has the hots for the heroine, Persys. Something about her eyes, and the way she mooncalfs over her cousin’s hubby.

If you can swallow that, then you may enjoy Miss Timothy Perseveres. I was in a forgiving mood and willing to suspend disbelief, and dove in to this master/ward love story.

The cadence of the novel is a bit of a mix between Trad. Reg Rom and Historical Reg Rom. Its well-written, but vacillates between plodding and spanking pace so that character development is not as rich as we might expect from a more traditional approach but hey, at least I wasn’t bored and given over to skim reading.

The Duke is first standoffish, and critical and the Dowager a demanding and sympathetic if not likeable character. Persys is down in the dumps over her lost love and situation, but grateful for the opportunity to at least not be tossed out on the streets. She thinks the Duke is a weirdo, and frankly he is a bit weird in an unintended amusing way.

We realize the Duke is playing a deep game, trying to slowly and subtly woo Persys. In many ways the romance is really sweet. In other ways, its unbelievable.

Some readers will love this slow burn romance, and others will frankly be bored to tears. The H/h aren’t the strongest characters, but they are generally likeable and if improbably matched at least they ultimately seem like a good fit. The plot revolves almost exclusively around the slow and somewhat secret courtship, including misunderstandings and miscommunications, although there is a semi-villain.

The biggest disappointment of the book, after suspending disbelief and being willing to let minor flaws go, was the ending. It was patchy, sort of like an editor got his/her hands in there and mucked about. I won’t spoiler it too much, but if you read this one and figure out why Hendrickson made the choices she did in the climax/conclusion please leave me clue in the comments.

5 Stars 3.75 out of 6 Clean, mostly traditional Reg. Rom of the master/ward variety.