Reviews
It's truly a delight to read about Emma's confusion in regards to Peter's intentions. Almost like fencing, a sport he begins to teach her halfway through the book, he makes a move towards her, she takes steps back and guards against.
Throughout the book references are made to events of the day—the grand re-opening of the Vauxhall Gardens and Napoleon's defeat. More specific to the story, the British Consul and French Consul's fight over the Egyptian antiquities found at dig sites throughout Egypt. Sometimes these make sense, but often the events just seem plopped in there. A remark or thought is made regarding them and then nothing more.
There is a certain amount of intrigue involved, as well as a secondary love story, but neither is as interesting as Emma trying desperately to keep her ruse going and Peter trying to convince her (as both George and herself) of his sincere intentions.
Her cousin (distant twice removed or something like that) Jonathan, Earl of Harford, however is simply interesting. You can tell from the get go that these two were made for each other, even forgetting that this is a romance, so of course they are. Few other romantic leads would trust their future lady love so quickly with what was a rather important evening for him, at least not on their first scandalous meeting. I have to wonder at the education of Penny's that she thought it quite proper to visit a distant male relative alone at his bachelor quarters without an introduction.
I think, though, I was far more interested in her female relative, the one she more or less barges in on to stay with while in London—Miss Lettice Winthrop, another spinster, though a poet-in-the-making spinster, who is quite absent minded and indulges in obsessions. She lives alone (save for her servants and companion), writing poetry, reading poetry and making infrequent social excursions. When foisted with the responsibility to help Penny in her marriage mate quest, she is quite taken aback and tries to warn Penny, but Penny is insistent.
Lettice has her own suitor, a fellow poet who has courted her many a year, with no success. Not because the lady is indifferent, more because he is not haut ton blood and Lettice is wary of her family's acceptance of him. Lettice is a far more entertaining character I think, though she is not the main character. In fact, romance seems to bloom for several people surrounding Penny suddenly, making her feel less easy about her own situation.
While the expected outcome is familiar, the secondary characters make this a very enjoyable read. Incidentally, the title is a little misleading as the proposal made isn't very wicked, just misguided and unusual.
InfoDump much?
There are other things, like the characters read a play out loud. I know this was a common past time, but it certainly makes for boring reading, as it has nothing to do with the plot. We just get to read about the ladies copying the play out, a rehearsal, and a performance for no reason.
The actual storyline isn't bad, I give it points for the heroine being kind of catty and for her disliking dogs (as opposed to a heroine made of perfect shining light). I just didn't feel satisfied. The hero is a jerk at the beginning, then boring for the rest.
She's a fabulous, strong heroine, not afraid to stand up for what she thinks is right, but also (and this is more rare) not afraid to admit when she's wrong or to give others the benefit of the doubt.
There's also a spot of intrigue about some missing jewels & paintings & hidden passageways, as well as a secondary romance that Hyacinthe and Lord Norwood contrive to help along.
I did have a bit of trouble getting over him tearing down all the houses for a whim, but all in all, a fun story.
LORD DANCY'S DELIGHT. It's kind of unfortunate that this was packaged as a 2-in-1 with the Redhead & the Rake, because the heroine in that one was surnamed Dancy, but she's absolutely no relation to the Lord Dancy in this one.
The heroine, who was raised by Chinese woman/companion, is rescued by Lord Dancy 3 times, so she informs him she's now "his". And sees it as her duty to watch over him. She keeps rescuing him, which irritates the heck out of him, and is very much fun to read.
Once again, Ms. Hendrickson has written a wonderfully strong, smart, yet eminently likeable heroine. Amelia Longworth takes her duty to Lord Dancy very seriously, and she's clever enough to deal with threats to him in manners suited to her strengths, rather than the more usually seen heroine whose heart would be in the right place, but who would blunder in and make things worse.
The only problem is, I liked the hero's best friend much better than the hero, who was really a jerk to the heroine. Still gets 4 stars for being fun.
Elizabeth and Leighton have been friendly, but she mistrusts his teasing and rakish ways, so has been avoiding him. Leighton, for his part, respecting Elizabeth's intelligence, has come climbing in her window to ask for her help in determining if his father is being poisoned and how and by whom.
The tension of the mystery and danger from the unknown poisoner is balanced by the amusing antics of Aunt Bel, and her insistence that the two are now betrothed.
**** The "Cupid" in Cupid's Mistake is the Cupid, also known as Eros, god of love. Some years ago, he made a mistake. Not his fault, really, that Paul Templeton, the Marquess of Blytheland, happened to turn his head and look at the wrong woman just as Cupid's arrow struck. So now that the first wife has died (while giving birth to another man's child), Cupid's trying to rectify matters.
Paul isn't cooperating, however. After the disaster of his marriage, he's vowed to keep his distance, and the more arrows Cupid shoots, the more resistant he becomes.
Cassandra Hathaway is the woman who's Paul's perfect match. Cupid's been keeping an eye on her through her young sister Psyche, who's the only one he allows to see him. Much fun as everyone assumes Psyche is letting her imagination run away with her.
The story is light-hearted, but also complex and satisfying, particularly for such a short novel. Nothing less than I'd expect from a Cherry, of course. I'll be looking for the subsequent books featuring Cupid: Cupid's Darts and Cupid's Kiss if I'm not mistaken.
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In short, this novel seems deadest on extolling most of the more common Regency Romance tropes. Feisty young heroine, older bored gentleman, meddling sisters, boorish family, heroine becomes an Original, lecherous old suitor, dishonorable younger military suitor—the list goes on. This isn't a bad thing! Harriet is a likable character and you feel instantly for her because of her family's treatment of her (ranging from dutiful neglect from her father, to malicious cruelty from her older, perfect sisters) and she doesn't indulge in fits of resentment.
The true fun in this book is Ferdy's reactions to everything she says and does. The poor man is besotted with her before the third chapter is through, but neither he nor Harriet seem to understand that their friendship is not in the common way of things. Which is refreshing to read. The two of them share a comfortable relationship that allows them to speak their minds to each other, chide each other and be themselves at all times. Moments of discomfort are quickly forgotten until closer to the end when things start to come to a head, but neither seems terribly discontented by this fact. Indeed, even if his two sisters, Diana and Emma (they helped to make her over and introduce her into society), had not interfered, I suspect the outcome would have been the same in the end, just longer to happen.