Smugglers' Summer

When her fashionable cousin Julia Langston is "exiled" to a remote location on the Cornish coast, in hopes that she will forget her unsuitable suitor - the "radical" speech-writer James Winn - Olivia Gray is asked to be her companion. The daughter of a reform-minded politician with a large family and modest means, Olivia had never been beyond the confines of London, and found the idea of peace and quite in the country quite attractive. Little did she realize that in her time at Cotehele she would befriend and help to rescue an amiable smuggler, win a number of admirers, from an older politician to a young Customs Lieutenant, and fall deeply in love with Sir Tristram Deanbridge - the man determined to marry her cousin...

An entertaining, show more light-hearted read, Smuggler's Summer is one of the first regency romances not written by the incomparable Georgette Heyer that I have read. Dunn is no Heyer, of course, and I did find her writing somewhat uneven, with occasional narrative interruptions to "explain" things. The ending also felt rushed and distant, with an almost bird's-eye-view of Sir Tristram dashing around arranging everything. Still, Dunn tells a fun story, and it has the added bonus of being a classic "Ugly Duckling" tale, which is always appealing. I'm not as enthusiastic as I'd hoped to be, but will probably pick up another regency by this author, when the opportunity presents itself. show less

Adorable regency romance--possibly one of Dunn's best. Olivia is pretty, plump, and constantly at the beck and call of her political father and charity-obsessed mother. Her much richer cousin Julia is her only glimpse into the fashionable Ton. When Julia disgraces herself by falling in love with a Whig, she is banished to the country. Olivia, who has never been out of the city, jumps at the chance to accompany Julia. The country is every bit as beautiful as she'd hoped, but far from relaxing--she befriends a smuggler, is much admired by a Lieutenant, and falls in love with Julia's beau.

I enjoyed this story a great deal; the one annoyance was that Olivia has to lose weight before anyone notices her. Very frustrating!

This was a nice regency but not one of my favorites. I didn't like the smuggler plot much and certain things seemed unlikely, for example the baronet estate is not entailed. I don't know if this is so because he is not a member of the higher mobility or a mistake on the part of the authoer. It was an easy fun read but one I had little difficulty putting down and picking up something else. The romance was almost incidental to the dull smuggling plot.