"Regency Romantic Suspense"

LATE FOR THE WEDDING is the third installment of the team of Lavinia Lake and Tobias March, who are both lovers and detective partners in Regency England.

Lavinia and Tobias began life as a very prickly pair in Slightly Shady and it has been great fun watching this wary pair come together and form a truly loving relationship.

Lavinia is an independent woman trying to carve out a living in a Regency world that did not have many options for a woman on her own. She is also raising her niece Emeline, who has formed a romantic attachment with Tobias's brother-in-law Anthony. Both couples are wonderfully matched and watching these two alpha males come to terms with two alpha females is half the fun of this series.

In LATE FOR THE WEDDING, Quick also gives the reader a well constructed mystery that is both interesting and exciting. The story begins at a house party where Tobias is hoping to spend 2 nights in Lavinia's bed, free from having to worry about the constraints of conducting such a liaison in town. Unfortunately, murder and an old friend get in the way of their first chance for intimacy. Lavinia is insistent that a peer's fall from a roof is murder and manages to antagonize the house party host enough, that Lake and March are summarily dispatched back to London.

Tobias shares with Lavinia the information that his old friend Aspasia Gray had come to the house party to tell him that she had received a Memento-Mori ring on her doorstep that morning. The death head rings were popular in England, but they were also the trademark of a pair of murderers. These men had operated in the Ton in the past as murderers-for-hire. Tobias tells Lavinia that one of the pair, was Aspasia's lover and had shot himself when she discovered his occupation and betrayed him to Tobias. Tobias is afraid that a copy cat Memento-Mori man is now working among the Ton.

This mystery nicely brings together both the two primary couples, but we also get to see Joan Dove and Lord Vale again. This pair has eased Lavinia and Tobias's way among the Ton and their love story is very sweet. Tobias and Vale's discussion about their strong-minded women and what marriage would mean for these women was wonderful. One of the reasons I have always enjoyed books by Amanda Quick (Jayne Ann Krentz) is the conversations and special moments between her likable couples. Quick's characters really listen to each other and they are often witty. I found myself chuckling often as I read the repartee between both primary couples. The relationships between the men and women also ring very true.

I for one am hoping that this is not the last we will see of March and Lake. This is one couple that may marry, but they will never become boring. In LATE FOR THE WEDDING, Quick gives her long time readers all of the character attributes we love and also provides a cracking good mystery for Lake and March to solve. Quick is one of my few autobuys in Hardback and LATE FOR THE WEDDING was well worth the expense.

Reviewed by Linda Hurst
Posted May 16, 2003

The third book in Amanda Quick's Regency romantic-suspense series featuring Lavinia Lake and Tobias March...

Summary

An invitation to a country house party at Beaumont Castle provides a perfect solution to Tobias and Lavinia's most exasperating challenge: how to escape the chaos of London for a remote, relaxing--and above all romantic--retreat from prying eyes and wagging tongues. But the lovers' plans are foiled when their first cozy interlude of the weekend is disrupted by the appearance of a stunning woman from Tobias's past. Aspasia Gray's beauty is as haunting as her connection to Tobias. Her long-deceased fiancé was a friend of his--in addition to being an eccentric assassin. The mysterious nature of the bond between Tobias and Aspasia makes Lavinia more than a little uncomfortable. Especially as her first encounter with Aspasia occurs when she finds her in Tobias's bedchamber...

It seems Aspasia is seeking protection--and solace--after receiving an ominous message that eerily recalls the past. Suddenly the obstacles standing betweenTobias and Lavinia appear greater than just a little London gossip--and far more deadly.When events at the castle suggest someone is imitating the dead killer's methods, the team of Lake and March fervently pursue the investigation--and each other-- as their leads take them from Society's most elegant haunts- -and most discreet hideaways--to London's shadiest backstreets. As their relationship heats up, so does the intrigue. Soon Lavinia will have to employ all her talents to flummox the scoundrel who so rudely interrupted her rendezvous. And then she and Tobias can get back to more pleasurable affairs.