"Funny, warm and entertaining."

Letty Potts is an aspiring music hall performer who supports herself with petty crimes and scams that up until now she has told herself don't really hurt anyone. But now her partner, and would be fiancé wants her to help him pull off more serious crimes and is willing to force her into helping him, and has burned down her boarding house to prove to her he means business. Letty escapes to the train station, but knows she won't be able to get far on the few coins she has. Luck is finally with her when she gets the chance to grab a ticket that a woman at the station throws away. She hops on the train and hopes that she won't be followed. Unfortunately for her, her destination is a small town where she is met at the station by people who think she is the famous wedding planner, Lady Agatha Whyte, whom they have contracted to orchestrate the wedding of a local girl to a member of high society. Letty, who is no slouch and recognizes a good thing when she sees it, does not correct their misconceptions but instead decides to play along for a few days until she can come up with a better plan. Deep down Letty is a goodhearted girl and she soon becomes caught up in the lives and troubles of these people who are being so nice to her. She is especially attracted to one Sir Elliot March and fantasizes about his good looks until she learns that he is the local Magistrate! Can she give these people the help they need, have a little fling with Elliot and get out of town before her past catches up with her? Does she even dare try?

THE BRIDAL SEASON was a very funny, warm and entertaining story. I enjoyed Letty Potts' character and attitude immensely. She was by turns, street smart and tough, caring and vulnerable. She wanted very much to trust Elliot, who was a very trustworthy man, but she had learned from experience to trust no one. This was very much her story, and Elliot had a much smaller role, but I did like his character also. The humor was enjoyable and the author's choice of names for her characters tickled my funny bone. I even enjoyed her dog Fagin, a.k.a. 'Lambikins' who also knew a good lap when he fell into it.

Reviewed by Janice Bennett
Posted November 28, 2001

Summary

Letty Potts has gotten into a few fixes in her twenty-five years, but this is her worse predicament yet. A petty schemer by necessity, the struggling music hall performer has decided to go straight. But after narrowly escaping the wrath of her partner in crime, she finds herself at Paddington Station with nothing but the gown she's wearing...and another woman's train ticket clutched in her hand. Now masquerading as the redoubtable "Lady Agatha" of Whyte Wedding Celebrations, Letty arrives in the backwater burg of Little Bidewell, where she is to arrange the nuptials of a young society bride.

Amid the dizzying whirl of pre-wedding festivities, nobody suspects Letty's secret ... except the sensual and aristocratic Sir Elliot March. A war hero who has forsworn love, Elliot senses something decidedly amiss about this outspoken young woman. Yet she awakens a passionate yearning he'd thought was lost to him forever. And soon a desperate masquerade embroils them both in a web of scandal and danger as Letty's past catches up with her -- threatening their lives ... and a love without peer.