DERE'S DEMONS - Tara Manderino
Awe-Struck Books
ISBN: 978-1-58749-6684
June 2008
Regency Romance

Manchester and the Raby Estate in Lancashire, England

Nigel Derrington, the wild Earl of Raby, died in a riding accident leaving his imperiled title and estates to his brother Brayden. The new earl found a missive from the Prince Regent threatening to seize everything if a certain artifact was not returned to him within a month. Dere (Brayden shared the nickname with his bother) could only surmise the mess has something to do with Nigel's Dere's Demons, a group of Nigel's friends who share his thirst for adventure and now look to Brayden as the nominal leader. Dere (Brayden) would like nothing more than to disband the group, but he can't until he learns the whereabouts of the artifact. When Lord Worsley, a young man who badly wants to join the Demons, loses his house and all its contents to Lord Hawke in a card game, then disappears, Dere wonders at the interest the young lord's house engenders in Hawke and others. Could it hold the artifact?

Lady Jane Worsley is another left to clean up a mess made by a brother. For years she has held the family together under straightened circumstances as first her late father, then her brother gambled away their assets. Now Collin is gone, but at least she and their nine-year-old twin sisters still have the house....

When Dere tries to call upon Lord Worsley only to find he is gone, It falls upon him to inform his sister (whom he first takes for a servant judging by her clothes and red hands) that the house now belongs to another. Finding a dead end in his search for the artifact, Dere leaves, assuming the sisters will find a home with some relative or other.

Jane has no one to turn to but herself. She packs up Emily and Evangeline and a few of their belongings, finds a room in a boarding house and a job in a factory for long hours and little pay. It's not enough. And her sisters are not safe. Jane asks Dere to please hire her sisters for just a little while; they are able to do light housekeeping chores to earn their keep. Dere is appalled that Jane is putting those sweet little girls to work, but takes them in as companions to his nieces.

DERE'S DEMONS is an unusual Regency romance in both its setting, the industrial town of Manchester, and its heroine. Jane isn't the first put-upon daughter or sister with no expectations but to serve the family, but she is certainly one of the few if not the first to actually work in a factory as a common laborer. Those were very dangerous places as witness the accident involving a little boy and a loom. Dere is an admirable hero with a great load on his back. If he's just a bit dense at first in judging Jane, he'll make up for that in time. Besides, he needs her to help him solve the mystery of the artifact. Other characters of note are Braden's younger sister Arabella and his friend Kit, Viscount Hulton.

Though the details concerning Dere's Demons and the motivations behind the theft and hiding of the artifact were somewhat puzzling, I found DERE'S DEMONS to be entertaining and the main characters likable and don't hesitate to recommend it to Regency romance lovers.

Jane Bowers