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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A comedic romance in the style of Georgette Heyer, December 3, 2000
Diane Farr is excellent at writing couples who have no idea that they're in love with each other, even when everyone around can see that they're in love. In this book, Gil and Chloe have known each other for years. They're the best of friends, but have never seen each other in any other light. Until one night they're stranded together in a cottage. Although both protest that nothing happened, suddenly a notice of their engagement appears in the newspapers.Gil can't jilt Chloe. Chloe doesn't want to humiliate Gil. So they agree to carry on for a while, and when they realise that Gil's (married) sister is being pursued by a rake, Chloe decides to pretend that the engagement is real in order to encourage the rake to flirt with her too. Farr makes excellent use of jealousy in this book; there are some wonderful scenes in which Gil sees Chloe with Lord Rival and realises just what his feelings for his childhood friend are. But he still has the major problem that Chloe, for very good reasons, has no wish to marry... There is a very well-written secondary plot - which is one reason why I found this book reminiscent of a Heyer (another is the extremely well-drawn cast of cameo and secondary characters). Gil's sister and her husband are well-drawn and Farr makes us sympathise with them in their difficulties. Gil's mother, who appears near the end, is also a wonderful character! And, just to make the Heyer comparison even clearer, Farr has actually set this story in one of Heyer's books! Who else recognised Alverstoke and his sister, from 'Frederica', and recognised the ball Chloe attended as being the one Alverstoke threw for his cousin Chloe and Frederica's younger sister?
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A pair of childhood pals find themselves suddenly engaged!, April 15, 2000
A sudden rainstorm forces Gil and Chloe to spend the night in a nearby cottage. Then someone places a notice of their engagement in the newspaper, and the pair must seek a way to end their engagement that will not damage their reputations. Since Chloe wishes never to marry, she plans to release Gil from his obligations. Gil, however, doesn't want to saddle Chloe with the reputation of being a jilt. Besides, when Chloe comes to London with a new wardrobe and finds herself surrounded by admirers, Gil is struck by the thought that she would be the perfect wife for him. How frustrating that she seems to be attracted to the same rakehell ladies' man that is destroying his sister's marriage!On her part, Chloe is beginning to look at Gil as more than an old pal as well, but doesn't believe he reciprocates, so she sets about trying to help her friend--Gil's somewhat addlepated sister--save her marriage. Tish has taken up with one of the smoothest rakes around in an attempt to make her husband jealous, but only succeeds in driving the two of them further apart. In an attempt to prove the rake's true character to her friend, Chloe flirts with him herself, but finds herself way out of her league with this practiced seducer. In the end, it is up to Gil and Tish's very wise mother to set things to rights with these two troubled pairs. A delightful Regency romp for anyone with a romantic soul.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truly charming in every respect, May 29, 2003
Here is a Regency I found pleaurable to read in every respect. If it had any faults, I definitely forgot them under the spell of its charm.
The 'forced' engagement undertaken by the couple with the intention of later breaking it, is almost a hoary old cliche in this genre. Sometimes it works and mostly it is just a yawn - one has read it all too often. Here, however, there was no such impulse or faint praise.
The characters were all sympathetic and believable - from the protagonists Gil and Chloe, to the important secondaries of Gil's sister, brother-in-law and Lord Rival.
Chloe actually matures in a believable way, she is made to see the error of her youthful attempts to make everything right as being foolish. She discovers how little she truly knows about those she loves the most and suffers as the result of grave misjudgments of her sister's marriage and relations with the rakish Rival.
However, the most interesting lesson she is taught, is at Gil's hands. His angry confrontation with her, that makes her realize the depths of her selfish lack of consideration for him and his opinions is very well done indeed. All too often the heroine in a romance does such things and escapes censure at the hero's hands, while the hero is always rightly brought to book.
Rival of course is the too-attractive semi-villain many love to sigh over. He very successfully almost overshadows Gil - but his undoubted paucity of active virtues put him into the category of the undeserving. Thankfully Gil was not 'too good to be true', no he was definitely very human and his realization of love was well drawn.
Of course the 'in' joke of the Heyer references made the reading all the more enjoyable.
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