It’s very easy to root for a female main character when she finds her fiance cheating on her, but Melonie Johnson really didn’t need to pull that dirty trick on Bonnie Blythe to make me like her. Bonnie is, quite simply, fun, and she definitely deserved to end up with Theo, a thoroughly decent sort who’s torn between true love with Bonnie and the need to marry well to secure his family legacy, because Theo is a duke who’s inherited a lot of responsibilities and dependents and nothing more than a pile of debts to discharge all those responsibilities with.
I have to admit I kept wondering throughout the book how the heck the author was going to resolve this without something magically unlikely happening. I won’t spoiler how she pulled it off, but it was in the end really clever, nicely feminist and didn’t involve anyone compromising their core principles.
This is a feelgood sugar rush of a romance. It’s the second in a series, but I hadn’t read the first and didn’t have any problem following along with the action. If the recent trend of demanding, bossy, arrogant heroes doesn’t do it for you, you’ll absolutely adore Theo, who’s a perfect gentleman in every way, but I did think his Britishness was somewhat overdone. It read a bit like the author had been on tour around the UK and was determined to wedge in everything cutesy she’d seen and done, with occasionally muddled phrases - I have no idea what a rasher of eggs is supposed to be, for example. Bacon is what comes in rashers.
Overall a charming read, and if you’re American with a yen for all things Brit, you’ll probably adore everything about this book. Just don’t expect everything over there to be quite this twee if you ever do get to visit, and don’t try ordering any rashers of eggs. Four stars.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.