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Rating: 
Summary: quiet and slightly different regency
Review: I really enjoyed this quiet sweet regency. Here's the back- blurb.
"Lord Hanford of Laceby possessed an ancient lineage and even more ancient debts. He was, quite bluntly, for sale. Susannah Potter was in the market. She had recently inherited a tidy sum-and a host of odious fortune hunters. And so their marriage of convenience was made."
Hanford has been raised in the belief that as the head of his family, he is responsible for not only his mother and younger siblings but for the estate and ancient name of Hanford. He's juggled debts and mortgages for six years to try to let the family stay in the lifestyle to which they were born but he's finally sold the last thing available except himself. Susannah is trying to dodge the marriage machinations of her aunt who covets Susannah's father's wealth and plans to get it by forcing her wastrel son on her.
Both enter the marriage knowing it's not true love but a bargain from which each will get something-money and position. And it's a nice slow journey in which each learns something of the other's life and mindset. It's not easy and both have to make adjustments and overcome certain prejudices. There are great secondary characters and a nice romance for Susannah's delightfully blunt speaking sister and Hanford's brother-who learns a thing or two about Cits himself.
Rating:
Summary: Good Reading
Review: This book presented an interesting point of view in the marriage of a titled man to a "cit." Hanford knew where his duty lay when presented with horrible debts, not of his own making. He would do almost anything to save Laceby, the family estate. Even cast himself on the marriage alter to a wealthy orphaned heiress whose father was a merchant. Susannah also marries to save her family -- most especially her sister Dinah. She wants Dinah to have the freedom to marry where she wanted and all the fops (including her cousin) that were after Susannah would not help -- just spend her money. Although they both act fairly mature in this relationship, Hanford is very heavy handed in his dealings with Susannah. He wants her to be a lady while she was used to doing for herself. He does show her he is master by selling her family house in an unfashionable part of town and some other incidents, which make him unlikeable -- but true to the times. Eventually, he becomes more open about his fear of failing the family and his worries of financial ruin and allows his wife to ease his mind. Hanford takes control in the end of his spendthrift family and finds his "ill-bred" wife is the treasure he needed all along. Secondary characters are well fleshed out - Enjoyable tale.
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