This is a Regency-era romance book and it was a good read for me.
I won a complimentary copy from LibraryThing and Book View Cafe. The opinions are many own.
Lady John, Olivia, is a widow and she and her mother have been invited to visit her deceased husband's family in London. There she finds an old love before she married Lord John.
I recieved an e-book for the read and review. I could not find the book at my library system but the books are available on used book sites. This book was written in 1982.
I gave it a 5 star rating because I did enjoy the book. I will read more books by Madeleine Robbins.

Obtained free as part of the Feb 2012 LibraryThing Early Reviewers batch. Offered by Book View Cafe to mark the books' publication as an ebook. (I took in epub format and read on my kobo).

Only 20 and already widowed, Lady Jane is invited to spend the winter with her late husband's family. There she is reintroduced to Lord Menwin, a man she was in love with before her marriage. After a few embarrassing meetings, where he is decidedly off hand and insulting to her, they realise it was all a misunderstanding, and decide that they are in love really. Unfortunately Menwin has not only inherited his father's title, but also his debts, and the only way for his grandfather to agree to dig him out is for Menwin to marry and produce an heir. The rest of the book is an attempt to get Menwin out of the disastrous engagement he's found himself in.

Not quite Jane Austen, this tries valiantly enough. The first pages try to overload you with too much information (a habit I hate, and I groaned when I read it), but it got better quickly. Lively, light, using some phrases I'm not entirely convinced were in use during the Regency period and some that were, overall an enjoyable book for a damp spring weekend


( )

Excellent - a lot of fun! OK, the situations were rather contrived - but in each case I could see why they made those choices, it was only the timing in which I could detect the author's fine Italian hand. And three times - twice in one reading session - I wondered which Georgette Heyer it was I was reading and how I'd missed it before - that's how the quality of the writing impressed me. I'm something of a historical romance snob - anachronisms really bother me. Didn't see a one here (doesn't mean there aren't any, but there weren't any I could detect). The characters - the main ones, at least - are solid and well-realized; the secondary ones are somewhat simpler, but no one acts against character throughout. Poor Olivia, and poor Matthew! What a twist John put into their lives. But it all came out right (well, it is a romance, after all) - the appropriate people paired off, because, or in spite of, all the plots and plans. I really hope that some of Robins' other Regency romances are about this family - I'd love to see Kit's and Bette's stories, and even the Duke's. Fun! I'm really sorry it took me this long to get around to my ER books by her. ( )

Lady Olivia John is a widow living in a small home with her mother. Months after the death of her husband she receives a letter from her late husband's family. They would like her to come visit them in the family home in London. Olivia is a bit apprehensive about meeting her husband's family, but accepts the invitation. What follows is enlightening time for Olivia and her mother.

Lady John was written in 1982 and has now become available in an ebook format. The book began a bit slow for me because it is written in regency style of writing and speaking. But once I became accustomed to the dialogue the book picked up and I enjoyed the story. There are several hilarious characters that I either loved or loved to hate. It's a sweet, romantic read that will definitely appeal to regency lovers.

I received this book free of charge from Library Thing in exchange for my honest review.

This is an enjoyable read, but certainly not the best of the genre. I thought the romance between Matthew and Olivia was very weak -- I never saw any real reason why they supposedly loved each other. I also didn't see the need for so many brothers- and sisters-in-law. Keeping track of them all got confusing at times!

Still, it was a pleasant story. ( )