[edited 5/20 to change grade and add postscript]
Lady Lydia Eastlake is envied by everyone for her extravagant lifestyle, fashionable wardrobe, and her yellow-wheeled barouche. She is the rare female of her time who is financially independent and accountable to no one except a distant relative who serves as her indulgent companion. But when she finds out suddenly that she is broke, she must marry a wealthy man or face financial ruin.
Ned Lockton, the younger brother of the Earl of Josten, comes home from his naval service to find that his ancient, wealthy family is also facing financial ruin. He must find a wealthy bride quickly to save his beloved home. Guess what happens? They meet and fall in love.
The good news is that Brockaway takes that setup-- which is just itching for a rote, stereotyped conclusion-- and makes it into a pretty interesting story. She avoids the obvious ending-- which you're expecting almost to the last page of the novel-- that somehow one of them will suddenly inherit a vast fortune from a distant relation, or come up with unexpected wealth some other way. God bless her for that.
She also avoids another common pitfall. Lydia and Ned are immediately smitten with each other and by halfway through the novel, they both know they want to be together. In that situation, a lesser author would resort to one irrelevant plot twist after another to draw out the inevitable conclusion. Brockaway skirts close to that problem, but in the end, the forces that keep them apart are believable. It's predictable, sure, but it never quite got all the way to feeling contrived.
the bad news: Lydia is absolutely, stunningly gorgeous, and Ned is absolutely, stunningly handsome. Yawn. How many most gorgeous women in London can there be? If you read historical romances, apparently the answer is "quite a few." and the ending. Please. We've been reading for nearly 400 pages. You can give us more of an ending than that. It just ... ended.
So. It's a fun read. If you don't over-expect, it will entertain you for a plane ride or an afternoon at the beach. She lost a few points for the moment at the masquerade ball where Lydia is covered in gold dust as part of her costume and after they are totally mashing out in the woods, Ned returns to the ball with nary a speck of gold dust on him. But she gained some bonus points for a beautifully touching love letter written by Ned which makes you go all velvety even though you know Brockaway wrote it and not Ned. Grade: C+.
p.s. ***Spoiler Alert*** I guess I have to confess that I am a skimmer. I have a bad habit of skimming over details when I get close to the end of the book so I can get to the good stuff. So I missed that Lydia actually marries the Other Guy until I went back this morning to re-read Ned's letter. I really hate plot twists that involve actual marriage to the wrong guy (Moonlighting, I'm looking at you). So much that I might have to add that to my list of pet peeves. The only thing that saves it from spoiling the whole book for me is that she does have pretty compelling reasons, and the marriage only lasts about three pages (obviously, since I missed it the first time). But I lowered the grade I had originally given the book. Bah humbug.
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