This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Delia Somerset is dragged to the Sutherland house party by her sister. Lily wants to be part of high society, but Delia despises it because of the scandal surrounding their parents’ marriage. Alec Sutherland is less than pleased to see them – their mother eloped rather than marry his father and he’s determined to stop his younger brother from getting entangled with Delia. He’s decided the best way to do this is to ruin her reputation, she decides to play along and we all know where this is going…
I love a good regency romance – Georgette Heyer got me through A-level exam stress back in the day (and was a gateway to an expensive habit), so I was excited when this dropped through my door. Add to that the fact that enemies-to-lovers and house parties are two of my favourite tropes this had all the ingredients to be right up my street.
Delia is an engaging heroine – she is sometimes a bit modern and is a touch foolhardy – but never quite gets as far as too stupid to live! I found Alec a little too mean at times and lacking in empathy, but he mostly managed to win me around. Some of the secondary characters didn’t quite feel as well rounded as I would have liked – this is the first in a series and I’m not desperate to read the next.
But that said, I did enjoy reading this. I’ve read a lot of historical romances – good, bad and everything in between – and this has much more good than the bad. It is not quite up there with the best of the genre, but it is a promising debut. A frothy and fun historical romance – you know exactly where it was going, but the trip is fun.
7/10