LOVERS AND LADIES - Jo Beverley
Signet Eclipse
ISBN: 978-0-451-22336-4
April 2008
Regency Romances

Remember those little paperbacks, usually with a sedately posed couple in Regency dress on the covers? Sweet romances and fun romps? Drawing room comedies and moving accounts of the Napoleonic wars, and the occasional dramatic tale of a dastardly guardian? The major publishing houses saw fit to cease publishing them (though they are being kept alive by several electronic publishers). Now Signet is reissuing two such stories by one of the most popular stars of the sub-genre. In a foreward, Ms. Beverley writes briefly of the Regency era and the traditional Regency romance as introduction to two of her titles from the early 1990s.

THE FORTUNE HUNTER
Lincolnshire and London, 1814

Since the death two years ago of Sir Digby de Lacey, the credit the gentleman had been living lavishly upon has dried up. The family estate can barely even attempt to pay off its debts. This leaves very little for Sir Digby's children. Beryl, plain and lacking a dowry, has little chance of making an advantageous marriage at three and twenty; Jasper, the present baronet, is a schoolboy of sixteen; Jacinth, his twin, is too young yet for a come-out. That leaves stunningly beautiful Amethyst, twenty, to somehow haul the family out of the river tick. (Regencies, in case you are new to them, are full of colorful cant.) Amethyst detests her name and prefers to be called Amy. She also dislikes the attention her beauty elicits. But if selling that beauty will save her family, she's willing to try. Investigation uncovers the existence of a wealthy bachelor lately moved into the neighborhood and Amy sets out in the dogcart to let him see her. Her plan is to have a breakdown in front of his house, but a gathering storm precipitates things, and Amy must take shelter in a decrepit farmhouse.

The farmhouse is temporarily inhabited by three young gentlemen come to the area for the hunting. Two of them are out with the hunt while the third, Harry Crisp, Lord Thoresby's heir, chose to stay behind. Harry becomes the one caught in the trap set by Amy for another. It looks as if Amy will have to throw the charming Harry back, however. It's doubtful the Thoresby fortune is large enough to rescue her brother's estate and to provide for her sisters, Aunt Lizzie, and two antique servants.

Amy is a thoroughly likable heroine. She becomes a big success when she and Aunt Lizzie are able to move the hunt to Town, though she really doesn't enjoy the superficiality of Society. She's uncomfortable enough with the idea of selling herself without constantly running into Harry.

DEIRDRE AND DON JUAN
London, 1814

Mark Juan Carlos Renfrew married too young; his wife ran off to Europe, and ever since, he's been a Man on the Town who enjoys the ladies without having to worry about dodging the matchmakers. His manner and the dark good looks inherited from his Spanish mother caused the ton to dub him Don Juan. But now everything has changed. With his brother killed in the Peninsular campaign and his cousin dying, Don Juan, the Earl of Everdon, needs to sire an heir. Before he can institute legal proceedings, word reaches him that he has been a widower for the last six months. Now he needs to find a plain, sensible homebody to marry -- he won't be left again -- before Society learns that he's free. His mother suggests her young friend, Lady Deirdre Stowe.

Having been told all her life that she's the plain one of the family -- and believing it -- Deirdre has found a man for herself, someone who needs her. Her parents disapprove of the match and have dragged her to Town. Deirdre reluctantly attends social functions but makes no effort to be attractive or sprightly. She made a pact with her parents that if she doesn't receive a respectable offer by the end of the Season, she'll be allowed to marry her Howard. Deirdre enjoys spending time with the Dowager Countess of Everdon with whom she shares a love of needlework, but she knows her son only a little. But now the man proposes to her and ruins everything!

Deirdre makes another atypical young debutante at a time young ladies are not supposed to be serious or intelligent. And though Don Juan likes and enjoys women, he's not truly a rake or a rogue. Both he and Harry from the first story are able to see and appreciate a lady's true worth.

Jo Beverley's writing was already mature when THE FORTUNE HUNTER and DEIRDRE AND DON JUAN were first published. The characters -- major and minor -- and their portrayals, the dialogue and plots were already first rate, as was the gentle humor. As traditional Regencies, the passions may not be taken beyond a tasteful G rating, but they are there along with all the emotion one could wish for.

Thank you, Signet, for LOVERS AND LADIES, an attractive, easy to read edition of two timeless works guaranteed to call forth many a smile.

Jane Bowers