Lakeshire Park (Proper Romance Regency)
Facing destitution after the imminent death of their spiteful stepfather, Amelia Moore determines to do all she can to ensure her beloved sister Clara secures a happy marriage, and an invitation to spend a fortnight at the estate of Sir Ronald Demsworth offers hope. What she does not expect, however, is that she too will fall in love—with Peter Wood, the annoying brother of her sister’s rival, no less—and that both sisters will find the husband of their dreams.
It is, of course, a variation on the Cinderella story, but set in the Regency era, and it draws attention to contemporary problems: the need for members of the upper class to marry for financial security to avoid a drastic loss of status, the rigid conventions that curtail their ability to get to know prospective partners, and the dependence of women in a patriarchal society. Despite sympathy with their predicament, however, I found the characters irritating, partly because their behavior often seems rather silly. And expression was odd at times. (Regency gentlemen ride ‘steeds’?)
