A pale imitation of Julia Quinn's style. Hawkins has little or no understanding of the Regency, its manners or history. Characters do things that no Regency character would do. Plus the editing stinks. There are inconsistencies throughout the book. Sometimes the heroine has "sable" hair, i.e., black, sometimes it's chestnut -- reddish brown. At the beginning of the book the heroine has a shop, later in the book ll mention of it disappears. Not that any true society miss would own a shop, let alone work in it. A constant mention is meade of her lack of money -- so where does she gte the money to bid against the hero for expensive items at auction? At one point the hero has bought up a young gentleman's gambling markers and made a deal to exchange them for all of the poor lad's lands, but leaving him his house and immediate lands. Later in the book, the hero says he is taking everything including house and immediate land. That's only three problems but the book has many more. Whoever edited this book didn't bother to read it very closely or possibly didn't care to. The one saving grace -- some humor. Personally, I will not read any more of Hawkins' books. ( )

A delightful romp through Regency England. Witty dialog, sparkling characters, crackling chemistry. ( )