Miles, the Earl of Strickland is a handsome widower in search of a new wife to be mother to his two children. Having loved once, he seeks only a convenient arrangement with a mature woman. When two sisters come to visit his estate, the elder sister, a beautiful young widow, seems the perfect match. But Hannah, the artless younger sister, causes all his best intentions to fly out the window.
With a fairly classic traditional H/h, this lengthier Regency delivers on what Reg Readers expect; great characters, house party antics, secondary romances, a bit of drama and a bit of romp, and slow and sweet romance. The heroine is a high flying architecture loving gal who is dragged along with her older, widowed sister to the Earl’s house to see if the widow and widower can’t make a love connection.
The hero, Miles, is convinced he will never fall in love again and only wants a mature wife for a marriage of convenience. Despite the length of the book, Hern doesn’t pull the curtain back too much on what made his first marriage such an Incomparable love match, so it made me feel like he was a bit disingenuous. I didn’t find him more than above average in the hero department, he felt a little two dimensional and I thought some of his dialogue was annoying and cardboard like. For instance, a pet name isn’t usually used over and over, sentence after sentence (I am something of a nickname specialist, or so I tell DH). While it was easy to see why he would be attracted to Hannah, who is lively enough to perhaps be unrealistic for the era and definitely enough to attract a dull dog, I am not sure why she would be in to him (except for his good looks).
I honestly started and stopped this one a couple times, so it isn’t the easiest to get into, but once you push past the set up it takes off and is delightful, charming, and very sweet. There at no thundering moments or heart wrenching drama, but Hern is nonetheless a skilled author who knows what Reg Readers want. That being said, non genre devotees may find this slow.
I did love the details Hern breathes into the pages, and found it easy to picture the locations, people, and pace of life. I also adore rowdy bluestocking Heroines, and Hannah definitely lives up to her reputation.
This is a provincial house party like setting, which is also a nice escape from Town, so readers looking to summer away from London will enjoy the bucolic delights of Epping Hall. Its also traditional, so with the exception of some smooching, clean with minimal adult subject matter (I think there were a few mentions of mistresses or affairs).
The secondary romance was undeveloped, and I am not sure if it was originally intended to be developed in another book, or just meant to be understated, but I found it more distracting than enhancing. I generally am take it or leave it with secondary romances, and only really like them when they are used as foil (as Heyer does so effortlessly). I thought the secondary romance could’ve been better used as foil, but at the end of the day its so lightly explored that it felt pointless.
The hero is part of A Garden Folly, so these are meant to be companion novels, but I read them several years apart with no problem so they also work fine as standalone titles.
I probably won’t reread this one, but I do think its a solid traditional that was easy to read, entertaining, and if not without flaws (or as good as other Herns), its still a great example of great Regency writing.
4.5 out of 6 A traditional Regency with classic characters and plot
| Content Rating/Heat Index | |
|---|---|
| Mature Content |  |
| Not really | |
| Intimacy |  |
| A kiss or two | |
| Violence | |
| Not really | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Clean traditional Regency appropriate for most ages | |
