Sourcebooks Casablanca, 368p, ISBN:1402238797
To say that the beautiful and tempestuous Lady Serena is highly upset to find that her recently deceased (and highly eccentric) father, the Earl of Spenborough, left the care of her fortune and control over her marriage to her jilted fiancé Ivo Barrasford, the Marquis of Rotherham, is to understate the case. Too much time has elapsed since Serena broke her engagement to her childhood companion, Rotherham, (and that too after the invitations had been sent – such a scandal!) for them to feel anything but discomfort at this bit of posthumous matchmaking on the part of the Earl. Or so they both declare.
Used to commanding a large household and having acted as her father’s hostess from a young age, energetic and politically-savvy Serena soon finds herself in doldrums when her life is suddenly reduced to a small Dower house with none but her father’s young widow, Fanny, for company and a social sphere consisting of occasional visits from neighbors who’d been just casual acquaintances before. The only bright spots in Serena’s life are visits from the Marquis which always set off verbal fireworks between them, leaving a timid Fanny much distraught, but which curiously leave Serena exhilarated.
When even Fanny begins to feel their quiet life is a dead bore, the two ladies decide to move to Bath for a welcome change. And suddenly things begin to get a little too exciting for words – the return of an old lover, a shocking engagement, an elopement, flaring passions and love intrigues complicate their lives like never before. What follows is an engaging drama of romance and wit from that mistress of the genre, Georgette Heyer.
Comments
Post a Comment