Customer Reviews

Lady Linford's Return (Historical Romance)

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This book is a mixture of promising details and some tired cliches. I picked this book up, having read Anne Ashley's book Lady Knightley's Secret, and then came across this work. The story is a sequel to an earlier book The Earl of Rayne's Ward, where we first meet Viscount Linford (who has "lost" his wife). In this book, we find out exactly how this happened.

It is not a spoiler to say that Viscount Linford married his wife when she was just 16 and married only for her money (promised him by her miserly and misanthropic father), since this appears in the first chapter. We soon learn that he was a rather dissolute rake, but has changed his ways. Linford visits his aunt in London and is introduced to her entrancing friend, Mrs Emily Stowen, who is apparently a widow of means. However, it turns out that Mrs Stowen is neither a widow nor all that unknown to him. If you have read a few romances, you will guess her identity even before the hero does.

The rest of the story is taken up with the attempts of Lord Linford to win back his wife through means fair and foul, and how Lady Linford finds her place as chatelaine of a great country estate, despite the machinations of a rather nasty neighbor. There is a sub-plot involving attempted rape and murder, and blackmail, although most of the story is focused around the growing friendship between Linford and his wife.

My main problem with the story is that I found a couple of secondary characters - a young neighbor Lucy Maitland (and her family dynamics), and a retired Bow Street runner - far more interesting than the hero and heroine. When this happens, even a decent story loses its attraction. However, this might not happen to you.

Anne Ashley writes a competent Regency romance, with nothing really jarring. However, this book's plot and main characters are not as arresting as those of her other book Lady Knightley's Secret.

Mentions of Lindford's missing spouse in other books led me to purchase this book with delight, and it does not disappoint. The beautifully matured Lady Lindford has through her disappearnace been a beneficial influence on her previously uncaring spouse, but even she did not think that he would fall in love with her when she returned to town under an assumed name to fullfill a deathbed promise to her benefactress.