A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting
1818. Left impoverished by her spendthrift father’s death, jilted by her betrothed and with four younger sisters to provide for, Kitty Talbot hatches a desperate plan to launch herself into London Society with the aid of her dead mother’s friend, Mrs Kendall. She sets her sights on the Hon. Archibald de Lacy—naïve, good-natured and easily manipulated—but hasn’t counted on the opposition of Archie’s older brother Lord Radcliffe. But maybe Radcliffe can be put to a different use, as a reluctant ally, if she promises to leave his brother alone?
This lively debut is as fun and frothy as one of Georgette Heyer’s Regency romances. I don’t think anyone will be in any doubt as to how the novel will end, but the fun lies in watching Kitty and Radcliffe sparring as they get to know one another and discover the vulnerabilities lurking under an outward show of confidence.
Occasionally Irwin seems a little shaky on Regency etiquette: Jane Austen has made it clear that two dances with the same partner are acceptable, but three is going too far. While Austen’s heroines are sometimes left sitting on their own in ballrooms, unlike Kitty they rarely wander off without a sister, friend or chaperone for company. Since Kitty at 20 is under age, shouldn’t she and her sisters have been made wards of court, if their father failed to make a will naming guardians for them? Once or twice the language feels a little too modern: I’ve never understood why historical novelists use an ugly modern word like ‘(un)fazed’ when more old-fashioned words like ‘(un)perturbed’ or ‘(un)troubled’ mean exactly the same thing.
But these minor quibbles aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this light-hearted romp and am looking forward to the second book in the Lady’s Guide series.
