Katie Fforde's heroines are charming - sometimes not the brightest, most sophisticated people alive - but they are thoroughly Nice and that's why we love them. Hetty has, in stock romantic heroine tradition, been dumped, and is looking for a quiet place to recover, so she house-sits the decrepit yet stately house of a distant relative. Enter Conan the Barbarian, the heir to the estate, who would like to see it torn down and made into a theme park. With that, we have the promised romantic novel set up and we're off to a good time. There's chemistry, there's laugh aloud moments, the bounder ex gets his due, and there's more chemistry. The reader is left smiling - no wiser or better informed, but greatly entertained. ( )