The Miser of Mayfair (House for the Season, Book 1)

Rating:
Summary: An easy, fast historical love story.
Review: I enjoyed this novel, along with all of the other "A House for the Season" novels I have read. The plot and characters were simple but the story was amusing and uplifting. I was able to read The Miser of Mayfair in one night and despite the simplistic nature of the novel, I was not disappointed in the experience.

Rating:
Summary: An easy, fast historical love story.
Review: I enjoyed this novel, along with all of the other "A House for the Season" novels I have read. The plot and characters were simple but the story was amusing and uplifting. I was able to read The Miser of Mayfair in one night and despite the simplistic nature of the novel, I was not disappointed in the experience.

Rating:
Summary: It was good, but the heroine was too much like her others.
Review: I liked these books. The only problem I have with them, is that the heroines are always absolutely gorgeous, with a rich Lord hanging around in the background who just can't seem to get her out of his mind. She gets into trouble, he rescues her, she turns him down because she doesn't think she's good enough for him, or he's good enough for her. Very good light reading, and a pleasure, but not up to the Gone with The Wind class by a lot.

Rating:
Summary: A Unique Impression
Review: This is the first and best of the series. It introduces the eclectic group of servants of the unlucky house: the resourceful ring-leader of a butler, Rainbird, sympathetic and downtrodden Lizzy, and the effeminate, vain Joseph, and the rest.

Fiona Sinclair, taken from an orphanage to be raised and educated as a lady for her benefactor's dubious purposes, is accustomed to using her wile and cunning to dodge the exploiters and schemers of her day. Usually, she gets the upper hand until she meets Lord Harrington. His aloof manner and haughty views leave him the only man in London society impervious to her extraordinary beauty, or so it seems. To that end, he is the only one who does not want to exploit her. To Fiona, for this reason, he is the only man who will do.

For an orphan of questionable birth, albeit a beautiful one, to ensnare an autocratic Lord who is rich and handsome would require a miracle, one which the servants of the House on Clarges Street are all too ready to manufacture- a plan to make this arrogant Lord see the beauty of Fiona's heart.

This novel plays out like a situated comedy much like Chesney's others with the same twists and turns, yet with the undertone of sweet melancholy unique only to this book. Fiona appears to be too wily and stoic at first to deserve such fortune until she ventures to risk everything by revealing her heart. Miser of Mayfair portrays the harshness of Regency society and the triumph of those who gamble and win, weaving not only a poignant love story, but more, a lasting impression.