Prudence

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable romance, if not quite Jane Austen for the 70's.
Review: Cooper wrote several romance novels like this one, which makes me think she rather aspired to be the Jane Austen of the 1970's. In addition to a standard boy-meets-girl-girl-hates-boy-girl-falls-in-love story, she offers a pretty wit, and a certain amount of social satire.

The Prudence of the title is a pretty young London party girl, playing at a career but more interested in her astonishing (as described) wardrobe and finding Mr. Right. She may have found him in tall, elegant, extremely repressed Pendle Mulholland, she's interested enough to spend a ridiculously extended weekend in the country with his family, even though he's never tried to bed her. She meets the whole family, the eccentric mother, the wastrel brother and his blowsy wife, and of course the eldest brother; a tough yet glamorous foreign correspondent and heir. Guess who captures her heart?

Prudence herself is pretty likeable for such a ditz, and the rest of the characters are all well drawn enough to interest. It never really rises above the level of fluff, but it's enjoyable, well-written, witty fluff. Good enough.