Wooing Miss Whately

Rating:
Summary: Average, but...
Review: Miss Sara Whately came from Philadelphia to England with a plan: one that Lord Reath is most definitely not a part of. When she meets him, he infuriates her. When she meets him again, he infuriates her. In fact, all he seems to do is infuriate her... but he also intrigues her. Her focus, though, is braving London society and getting her hands on a... certain object.

Ex-rake Lord Reath (called "Sin" by his friends) has decided to change his ways. He is determined to right the wrongs in his life... and that includes giving up mistresses and the like. When he runs into Sara Whately, he is enchanted (and annoyed) by her disinterest in him. She is a bit uncouth, and has a sharp tongue, but that only makes him want to woo her more.

Neither of them realize that Lord Reath may have exactly what she's looking for...

This book has a lot of pros and cons. Had it been the first Regency romance I'd read, I would have enjoyed it immensely. However, I've read many Regency romances, and this one's a dime a dozen. It's very archetypal. The heroine is saucy. The hero is an ex-rake. They get into fights. They go to balls. They like each other, but they won't admit it. There's nothing new here. Still, the beginning and ending were really good. (The middle was somewhat slow)

Most of all, I like the author's unique "out of sequence" style. She's writing a series based on the love lives of 4 friends, but she's not doing it in chronological order. Her last book, "Miss Seton's Sonata", takes place AFTER the events of "Miss Whately." Seperately, neither book shines. Together, they make an interesting pair.

Rating:
Summary: Average, but...
Review: Miss Sara Whately came from Philadelphia to England with a plan: one that Lord Reath is most definitely not a part of. When she meets him, he infuriates her. When she meets him again, he infuriates her. In fact, all he seems to do is infuriate her... but he also intrigues her. Her focus, though, is braving London society and getting her hands on a... certain object.

Ex-rake Lord Reath (called "Sin" by his friends) has decided to change his ways. He is determined to right the wrongs in his life... and that includes giving up mistresses and the like. When he runs into Sara Whately, he is enchanted (and annoyed) by her disinterest in him. She is a bit uncouth, and has a sharp tongue, but that only makes him want to woo her more.

Neither of them realize that Lord Reath may have exactly what she's looking for...

This book has a lot of pros and cons. Had it been the first Regency romance I'd read, I would have enjoyed it immensely. However, I've read many Regency romances, and this one's a dime a dozen. It's very archetypal. The heroine is saucy. The hero is an ex-rake. They get into fights. They go to balls. They like each other, but they won't admit it. There's nothing new here. Still, the beginning and ending were really good. (The middle was somewhat slow)

Most of all, I like the author's unique "out of sequence" style. She's writing a series based on the love lives of 4 friends, but she's not doing it in chronological order. Her last book, "Miss Seton's Sonata", takes place AFTER the events of "Miss Whately." Seperately, neither book shines. Together, they make an interesting pair.

Rating:
Summary: Loved the spunky heroine and the amusing interplay
Review: This is the second Regency romance by Meredith Bond I've read, and this was both quite different and similar to her first, "Miss Seton's Sonata" - but as likeable.

It's different in that it is much more lighthearted than the first, with a nice little mystery thrown in to keep the romance company, and is correspondingly less deeply passionate (or explicit) than the first. It's similar in its deeply and sympathetically drawn characters (including what I have come to recognize already as Ms. Bond's attraction to 'outsiders' as heroines) and the continuing theme of amusing interplay between a band of four friends (Merry, the hero of the first book, Reath, who stars in this, and Julian and Fungy, who will star in the next two books in the series).

The main characters, as before, are beguiling, and are really what drive the page-turning nature of the book. The hero is the devastatingly handsome, wonderfully charming and devilish Lord Reath (whom the author teasingly dubs 'Sin', short for Sinclair). The heroine is Sara Whately, an American of British parentage, whose spitfire personality hides a deep hurt. (Interestingly, this is the second 'foreign' heroine - the first book's heroine was from Spain).

As with all good traditional Regency romances, the book is a quick, and satisfying, read - great to take on that trip to the beach, when you can let yourself drift for a few hours into the elegant world of lords and ladies and perfectly tailored coats and attentive hordes of servants! I enjoyed Ms. Bond's second offering, and look forward to the remaining two books in the series.