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Rating: 
Summary: Lovely cover, and a love quandrangle or triangle?
Review: First, my hats off to Signet and the artist for actually paying attention to the plot. The dress worn by the heroine on the cover is the almost exact match of the dress as described at a certain event in the book. And what a dress! Enough to make me happy with the book. And then, the hero does not hurt either.THE INDIAN MAIDEN is a somewhat usual Layton (in that she has introduced love triangles with the heroine and two contending hero possibles earlier in THE DUKE'S WAGER and LOVE IN DISGUISE, both reviewed and highly recommended, by the way). It is also an unusual Layton in that there is a love quandrangle or should I say a double love triangle? Now I am confusing you. Let me explain. This is the story of an American heroine Faith Hamilton with an unhappy childhood and a passion to return home to her loving grandfather who only wants her to marry an Englishman (he was born one). That is not what Faith wants. Faith wants, a bit anachronistically, to join grandpa in the family business. [Let's leave that aside, shall we?]. And she wants to return home. She is not that fond of English society. So much "not-fond" that she makes up tall tales for a group of young gilded youth at a country house where she is staying. So much so that she makes some enemies, and she is henceforth tagged as "The Indian Maiden" (having falsely claimed to be part-Indian, among other things). Telling tall tales is clearly not good for Miss Hamilton's popularity. Enter hero 1 - an earl who is desperate need of Miss Hamilton's fortune and who is also attracted to her wild imagination. Enter hero 2 - a peer (who is miscalled Lord Barnabas Deal, one of Layton's early errors in titles). He is a recluse, and a man with a troubled romantic past. He is definitely amused by Faith Hamilton, but he also takes the trouble to warn her about social pitfalls although she will not listen. And then there is Faith's companion, an English-born American merchant hopelessly in love with their host's daughter, Lady Mary. There is Lady Mary herself, apparently in love with said merchant. There is Lady Mary's matchmaking mama, determined to throw her in with Lord Deal or to marry Faith off to the penniless earl by hook or crook. That is just the start of an unusual book. I won't give you any spoilers, but let me just say that I was totally shocked at the end, by something that happened, where I completely misread a couple of important secondary characters. [Don't read the ending, even if you are an end-peeker. Please]. Nothing unpleasant, and it made sense in a way. But completely unexpected. I cannot say how this compares to the other luscious Layton love triange stories, since admittedly THE DUKE'S WAGER is my favorite. Faith Hamilton is far less passive than Regina of that book, and far less "nice" (as in genuinely good) than Susannah of LOVE IN DISGUISE. Lord Deal compares favorably to the heroes of both books - far less of a reprobate than the Duke of Torquay (but we do love a reformed rake, don't we?), and far less tormented than Warwick in LOVE IN DISGUISE. Take your pick of any of these, or try this lovely short Regency. Rating = 4.1 (some deductions for some errors)
Recommended = Highly
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