Sketches by the Serpentine (Comfort Quartet)
In the second of the Comfort Regency Quartet, Magnus Blackstone, the Earl of Anderly and heir to the Duke of Scarsdale, has withdrawn from society after a brief but disastrous marriage. His sole preoccupation is painting, but his attempt to sketch the Serpentine in Hyde Park is disrupted by an ill-behaved pug and an irrepressibly cheerful young lady. Despite his reluctance, he finds himself drawn to the aptly named Miss Felicity Comfort, and prospects for his recovery from guilt and depression look promising, despite the inevitable obstacles that lie in his way.
Kind-hearted Felicity is a likeable heroine with just the personality to rally the earl’s spirits. She is, however, too young and inexperienced to recognize danger signals, and her readiness to trust others leaves her vulnerable to misjudgments. While her abduction by the autocratic Duke of Bolton drifts towards melodrama, the warning against unwariness is valuable in a world where too many are ready to take ruthless advantage of the gullible and those over whom they wield power, as the predations of the duke and Magnus’s mother-in-law demonstrate. Love triumphs, but it does require some initiative and hard lessons need to be learned. Insightful. Recommended.
