Look Before You Leap (Miss Prentice’s Protegees, 2)
After his ill-considered marriage proposal results in public humiliation, Lord Guy Harrowby turns from all thoughts of marriage to bury himself in running his estate. Until he is thrown from his horse after a near-collision, that is. Despite her father’s lectures, Lottie Travers struggles, with limited success, to control her “unconquerable wildness,” especially “the need to ride like the wind”… wearing breeches, no less. It is during one such ride that she encounters and then proceeds to chastise the dumbfounded viscount for his inferior riding capabilities. Another meeting would seem unlikely, but when Lottie turns up in his house as the new companion to Lady Almeria Winthrop, his autocratic aunt, the fireworks resume. Behind their verbal sparring, however, lies a mutual physical attraction and many shared interests, but can the social gap between a viscount and a farmer’s daughter be bridged?
This is an entertaining Regency romance: the kind-hearted heroine is an unrepentant delight, her grumpy employer as insightful as she is sharp-tongued, the socially progressive hero deserving despite his insecurities, and the satire at the expense of privileged aristocrats and their husband-hunting daughters biting despite its exaggeration. Strongly recommended.
