Regency Summer Scandals (Mills & Boon Special Releases) [Paperback]

Diane Gaston (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mills & Boon Special Releases | Publication Date: June 19, 2009

"An Invitation to a Regency Summer House Party" - The Fitzmanning sisters are ready to take the Ton by storm! Justine Fitzmanning has resigned herself to the knowledge that no man will ever accept her scandalous birth - the illegitimate daughter of a duke has no place in society. She finds happiness in looking after her legitimate younger brothers and sisters. Until the arrival of Viscount Brenner, whose rakish looks and polished manners set her aflame...Annalise Fitzmanning has no intention of marrying the suitor picked out for her by her family. Ned Milford may be attractive, witty, charming - but Annalise has bigger plans for her life. Then her artistic ambitions land her at the heart of the biggest scandal of the season...Charlotte Fitzmanning might be the youngest of the beautiful Fitzmanning sisters, but she knows her own mind - and she wants Lord Andrew Bassington. Her dilemma? How can she make Drew see her as the beautiful young lady she is, not the spoiled child she once was?

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Mira/ Mills & Boon (June 19, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0263875423
• ISBN-13: 978-0263875423
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,823,855 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Diane Gaston grew up the daughter of an Army colonel, living on army posts and even in Japan for a year. Diane's first career was as a county mental health social worker, helping others craft their own happy endings, but her secret dream was to write romance novels. One day, when her life calmed down a bit, she decided to make that dream come true and now writes full-time. Diane's Regency Historical romances have won top awards, including Romance's highest award, the Romance Writers of America's RITA award.
Visit Diane at her her website http://dianegaston.com with links to her blogs, Twitter, and Facebook.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very well done joint effort, August 23, 2009

By 

Susan Smith (A small rural village in the English Midlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Regency Summer Scandals (Mills & Boon Special Releases) (Paperback)

I do like Regency anthologies, especially Christmas anthologies. However, I have been disappointed in the anthologies where three or more authors "link" the stories so that effectively you have multiple voices dealing with many of the same characters. Usually it's not completely successful. However, I was tempted to this one because (1) I admire Diane Gaston very much; and (2) there aren't many regency anthologies and I was happy to find one with at least 2 authors I recognised (I have read other books by Amanda McCabe).

This one was very well done. The first story sets the stage for a family of a Duke and his mistress (finally Duchess) and their family of half siblings - some legitimate and some not. Raised in an unconventional but extremely loving and happy family, they are mutually supportive and united. However, when their parents die abroad on honeymoon, one of the half siblings (the Duchess's abandoned son of her first marriage) appears on the scene to sort out the confusion and chaos caused by the sudden death. Each story follows one of the illigitate daughters.

The first story (Gaston) tells how Viscount Brenner (the abanded child) finds love with the Duke's eldest daughter. Both hurt, both have been damaged but both are mature and capable people who stand in loco parentis to the rest of the family. The second story (Deb Marlow - unknown to me) is about the elder of the Duke and Duchess's daughters who is an artist. This story was particularly interesting because the hero is a newpaper cartoonist - something I've never encountered before. He falls for Annalise but learns something about the hurt his particular line of work can cause. In the final story (McCabe) we learn about how one of the family's friends finds happiness with the youngest of the daughters, one of life's charming girls but who suffers from awareness of her lack of "respectability". The one error that arose in all of this was to get Andrew Bassington's name wrong in two of the stories. As the second son of an earl he has no title other than The Hon Andrew Bassington. Just a distraction.

Overall, this was a very good effort. Not quite a keeper although in Gaston's hands as a full length novel it very well might have been. I do recommend this for a nice, easy, and satisfying read.