Regency May-December Romance with a Gender Switch

This book intrigued me because I always appreciate a romance that features an older heroine. Why should only younger women have all the fun! I was surprised, though, that the hero was younger and not by just a small amount. They had a 15-year age difference between them. So I was interested to see how this book would go.

The first part of the book seemed a little bit too insta lust to me. Right in the first chapter, the duke is already mentally expressing his “admiration” of her and her assets from when he’d seen her at a ball the night before his older brother’s death. I’m not usually a fan of those kinds of stories. Also, I didn’t like how at times it felt like the characters weren’t really true Regency, or at least not the way we think of Regency romance. They were both more forward than I would have thought them to be, especially on early acquaintance. At times, they seemed more modern in their sensibilities.

But I’m glad that I stuck with it. I found the banter between the duke and the countess to be most amusing, starting when she came over to ask for a big favor and they then played billiards. That scene was a lot of fun, and that delightfulness carried on to different parts of the book, though not all. The book did have a serious subplot about Anabel’s missing daughter. The duke is actually a swoon-worthy hero, despite the insta lust, because once he realized what was really going on, he tried very hard to be the proper gentleman, and always acted in her best interest even if she didn’t want him to. The Wanton Widow has more than a few secrets, and I really enjoyed how the duke helped her put the ghosts of the past at rest. All in all, I found this to be a very different, but rather enjoyable read.

Definitely Not a Standalone

I will admit to feeling cast adrift for quite a while in this book. It is the fifth book of the series, and I hadn’t read any previous ones, so I felt I was dropped completely in the middle of a bigger story about which I knew nothing. The author didn’t say in the description that this wasn’t a standalone and that you really did have to read the other books to understand what was going on in this one. I really think authors should do that. For romances in particular, just because a book is in a series doesn’t mean that it is part of an episodic set of novels. Usually, in fact, in the books that I read, each book in a series is about a different couple and only marginally relates to a bigger story and may only peripherally mention characters from other books. So I really did feel confused about what was happening at first, who everybody was, and what their backstory was. Literally, I did feel like I was plopped down in the middle of something because the author did state in multiple places that certain important events only happened just a few days or weeks prior. So, it would appear that this book was really just a continuation of the previous book with, perhaps, only a slight change of emphasis to make it about the main couple.

The one thing I did like about this book is that it featured an older couple as the hero and heroine. While they are not ancient, the hero is on the cusp of becoming a grandfather, and the heroine is trying to help her lackluster son get out of debt. Probably because I didn’t know these characters from the other books, I found the hero a bit boorish and the heroine a bit naïve in the dealings with her son. Why would any woman give up so much and go to such lengths for someone who has made such a wreck of his life, even if she is his mother? She is definitely what we in modern times would call an enabler. I found myself not liking the story despite the fact that I usually do like romances with more mature couples, and I wonder if that is because I did not read previous books of the series. Definitely, do not let this be the first book you read of the series; you need to have read the other books to make any sense of it.

Hero Too Weak, But Some Good Parts to the Story

I found this Regency to be a refreshing change from the typical. What young woman of the era would not want to go on a Grand Tour? Why should the young gentlemen have all the fun? That is not the only difference between this and other Regencies. The heroine is actually American by birth, the daughter of an English earl who has chosen to live his married life in Georgia so his wife may remain close to her family. But now that Cecilia, the heroine, is of age to secure a good match, her father wants to take the family back to England so she can find a suitable husband, preferably a titled one chosen by him. Lady Cecilia is able to convince her father to allow her a six-month Grand Tour through Italy before she settles in for a London season. While she is in Rome, with her mother and companion, she happens to meet two young Englishmen. One is Lord Frederick Williamson, who is there with his friend, Lord Haverstock. These two young men have been enjoying life on the continent, escaping responsibilities that they both have at home. Frederick, the hero, has been ducking his mother’s more and more urgent missives to return home.

Frederick and Cecilia have a natural affinity for each other that Cecilia’s mother is happy to encourage, though she is not sure if she should because he may not be of high enough rank for her husband. (In a fun subplot, the companion gets a little romance, too.) But Frederick has been hiding a big secret, one he is not sure how Cecilia will respond to. When his mother succeeds in calling him back to England, he does so in haste, not giving proper leave to Cecilia.

I thought the hero and the heroine were well drawn, though a few things did seem odd. First, I find it hard to believe that Cecilia was truly so meek before–that her boldness and the spirit that she showed in Italy is so different from her previous “true” character. She did seem to be that sort of person before, so it wasn’t really new. I liked that Frederick was at first the typical aloof Regency hero but quickly became something more as Cecilia lifted his spirit with her kindness and forthrightness. What I didn’t like about him was how weak he became when confronted by his mother. Seriously, why couldn’t he have stopped and talked to Cecilia before fleeing back to England? He was just going to do his mother’s bidding and take off on the first boat? That seems so different from the way he thought about his mother previously and how he swore he would act. And when they got face-to-face, he changed completely. He actually became pretty weak, and I didn’t like that . . .  another did Lady Cecilia. Not good for a hero to become weak when he must confront his mother!

The book was oddly structured in that what the called the epilogue was really part of the main story. If the book had ended before, where the epilogue started, it would have been a very incomplete book. That said, I still thought the book ended rather abruptly, and I actually do love a true epilogue that gives is somewhat of a glimpse into the couple’s future.