"A sexy, funny Regency romp!"

The beautiful - but totally knows it - Lady Charlotte Collins, as with all women of the Ton during Regency period, was raised to be vain, shallow and think of little past the fashions of the day. Females were schooled to be gorgeous, an ornament for the male's arm, in vogue and only open their mouths with a generally nattering of polite conversation, never to show any amount of intelligence lest they be called a bluestocking. This is something every marriage-mart mother shudders to consider happening to her darling daughter. London's glittering social life was a doubled-edged sword for Charlotte. She was both the epitome of the Regency debutant in London for the Season, but also a bit of a rebel, for she chafes under the severe restrictions of English society.

Cousin to the vivacious Gillian Leigh (Gillian's story is told in NOBLE INTENTIONS where she married Noble Britton), Charlotte shocked the proper and stuffy Ton and outraged her family by eloping with a second son of Italian noble, just after Gillian wed Noble but now she is back. A penniless widow, thanks to the hatred of her mother-in- law, Charlotte is more than ready to embrace the shallowness and adoration of the Ton again. Only she is horrified to find the door of the Ton slammed in her face. Her father was furious with his daughter for the elopement scandal, and though now dead, her brother Matthew is determined to pick up where daddy-dearest left off and see she is not received by any of the families of polite British Society. Charlotte rushes to her cousin for aid and support, but Gillian, now a mother, is off to the West Indies with Noble to inspect their plantation. She gives her sage advice: marry well and marry soon.

Once Charlotte embraces the notion, one man immediately comes to mind: Alistair Macgregor, known as Dare. Dare fits all her qualifications for the perfect husband: he 'looks well on her' - i.e. - they make a beautiful couple, he is an Earl, so should be rich, and he is still unmarried. There were sparks five years ago, and Dare likely would have offered for Charlotte, but when he inherited the Earldom, he also inherited a mountain of debts that would take three lifetimes to pay off.

In London, to see his sister, Patricia married, and to find financing for his marine steam engine, he was thrilled to see Charlotte again; disappointed to know he feels the same because he still cannot offer for her when he cannot ask any women to live in the genteel poverty he finds himself facing especially since he has nothing to offer Charlotte, who will need to be supported in lavish style. To his surprise, she proposes marriage to him! He declines, which does not deter Charlotte. She sets up a situation to trap him into marriage and what a situation! The plot works, but suddenly things are not going as Charlotte envisioned them.

A faulty codpiece inspiring a hasty engagement, a circus for a wedding and a husband who refuses to bed his wife because he is determined she cannot force him to act a husband, spells off the wall fun. Charlotte may have caught him and used his honorable ways to get him to marry her but Dare wants more from her. Her wants love. Well, a lady just has to take matters into her own hands such as shooting her husband just to cheer him up, mind you!!!

Dare is enchanting and Charlotte and her murdering the language is a howl. Maybe not quite as special as IMPROPER ENGISH or NOBLE INTENTIONS, this is still a rousing good time that will have you laughing.

Reviewed by DeborahAnne MacGillivray
Posted May 10, 2003

Summary

A poor widow, Lady Charlotte Collins returns to England eager to take her place in the ton, only to find herself shunned by all. Her one choice is to marry a groom with wealth, a title, and good looks, but Alasdair McGregor cruelly refuses to be the answer to her problems. In fact, she is forced by Dare's obstinacy to take extreme action— the faulty codpiece that leads to this marriage, the wedding that is literally a circus. But nothing can stand between Charlotte and what she wants most: the love of her husband.