"Enjoyable contemporary romance"
To pay off the medical bills of her deceased spouse thirty
nine years old American Tessa Riordan is elated to obtain
a job on a reality TV show in London. The $10K
compensation will get the genealogical expert out of debt
though she frets that her weight will embarrass her when
the producer rejects her for being to plump. Still the "skinny challenged" woman gets the part of the
wealthy American marrying an English duke in 1879 for the
show "A Month in the Life of a Victorian Duke". While the
corset makes it impossible to breath, Tessa finds herself
very attracted to her "husband", Max Edgerton, who in
reality is an architect, and loves his real life daughter,
who also appears in the show. To her shock, she believes
handsome Max reciprocates though she feels he is
commitment shy. In front of an audience Tessa must
persuade her duke that he could fall in love with a woman
she feels he cannot lift. This is an enjoyable contemporary romance that places
people used to modern conveniences and freedoms into a
strict aristocratic environment thirty-five years prior to
the liberating of the European masses by World War One
events. The story line is fun to follow as an amusing
Tessa laughs at her own foibles including some negative
bodily exports, but is quite serious when it comes to
loving Max and his daughter. Max is a delight as he is
ready to lift his beloved to new horizons. Fans will
enjoy this entertaining anachronistic look at displacement
as the modern crowd struggles with life just over a
century ago. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted April 24, 2004
He was so handsome she could barely breathe. Or maybe it
was just the corset,,,
Summary"I HAVE TO WEAR WHAT???"
No woman in her right mind would consent to wearing a
corset for a month. Especially a "skinny-challenged" woman
like myself. But dreams of being debt-free danced in my
head at the offer of appearing in a reality TV show.
A Month in the Life of a Victorian Duke is about
real people—like me—pretending to live on an
English estate, circa 1879. Sounds fun, no? Well, it ain't
all it's cracked up to be. We're talking no televisions,
no cell phones, no PMS medication. And did I mention the
corsets? No breathing for a full month. Luckily, when I
met the real-life duke who was to be my pretend husband,
he took my breath away...
In a manor in which everyone must strictly follow the
Victorian lifestyle, things are bound to go wrong. Like
when some harmless lust turns into that other thing...
Love was definitely not in the contract.
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