Kitty Stone dreamed of making a perfect match with the Duke of Charsley...until he wed her younger sister instead. And, much to Kitty's chagrin, the happy couple soon announces that they are expecting a bundle of joy. Drat. Now she will have to reside in Charsley Hall to help her sister and play the role of dutiful maiden aunt. But by great good fortune, a delightful distraction soon appears. Jack Whitaker, a dashing officer in the Peninsular War and cousin to the duke, has returned to Charsley Hall to recuperate. Though he finds the chaotic household hardly restful, there is one bright spot: Kitty. She is sweet, spirited, and bewitchingly pretty. And in her company, life seems full of promise - the promise of love...
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
a not very engaging read,
By tregatt (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Least Likely Lovers (Zebra Regency Romance) (Paperback)
If Miss Kitty Stone thought that having her younger and prettier sister, Beatrice, elope with her eligible beau, the Duke of Charlsey, from right under her nose was too embarrassing for words, the unpalatable knowledge that because of her family's financial situation, she will now have to live with Beatrice and the duke at Charlsey, is making her feel quite bilious. But beggars cannot be choosers. And soon Kitty finds herself and her mother, Lady Dunmark, living with Beatrice, the duke and the duke's forbidding mother, the Dowager Duchess at Charlsey, where things are far from rosy. The duke, used from a young age to allowing his mother to run the estates and all his affairs, has allowed his mother to rule the roost. And as a result, the disapproving Dowager Duchess is making everyone's life quite miserable. Kitty is determined to change things for her sister's sake. But how to do so? Help comes from an unexpected quarter, in the shape of the duke's older and dashing cousin, Major Jack Whitaker. While quite a favourite of the Dowager Duchess', Jack nevertheless deplores the manner in which she has kept the duke so firmly under her thumb for so long. And with both Kitty and Jack working together, surely they will be able to bring an end to the Dowager's reign of misery? Or so, Kiity reasons. And then she will have time to contemplate the deliciously giddy feelings that Jack inspires in her...
While the plot premise was very promising, the novel suffered from character inconstancies. By this I mean that the characters suffered from identity crisis from chapter to chapter. Take the character of Beatrice for example. She's first presented to us as a charming peahen totally incapable of complex thought, but halfway through the book, Beatrice is giving the ladies of Charsley a masterful setdown, and is being portrayed by her sister (who had hitherto bemoaned her charming sister's childishness) as a having the potential to be a great political hostess? It's the same with the duke, he progresses from being an ineffectual and bad poetry sprouting gentleman who allows his mother to run his house, to someone who could, potentially, make speeches that would help Wellesley win the war? And while the gradual maturing of a character is only all to possible, it just wasn't all that credible given the scope of this novel. And then there was the strange plot twist bit about the Dowager's past and the Kitty's out of no where's antiwar stance. Now, if Kitty had, from the very moment she had met Jack, mentioned her aversion to war and killing, her sudden attack at the end would have made sense. Kitty's antiwar stand is understandable, but very modern. I'm not sure that very many Regency misses thought much about death and killing. Character portrayal and realisation is a vital component of a novel -- they can really either make a book memorable or else make it a bore. And when one cannot get a clear handle on the characters, the book really suffers. Perhaps it was just me being a little too demanding. Whatever the case, unfortunately for me "Least Likely Lovers" did not turn out to be a stellar read.
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