The Duke’s Holiday
This is the first book in the aptly named Regency Romp Trilogy, and it is a comic delight. Since a traumatic childhood experience, the Duke of Montford has suffered from obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, which drives him to exercise fanatical control over every aspect of his life. By contrast, Astrid Honeywell is spirited, warm-hearted, and impulsive, quick to over-react when aroused and defiant of social convention. But when these opposites meet they fall helplessly in love, despite their own best intentions.
Predictably their wooing is a tempestuous affair, and as they lurch precipitously from one misadventure to the next the situation keeps getting wilder: the rampages of the pig Petunia, the alcohol-soaked foot-and-ale race at the Harvest Festival, the melodramatic abduction of Astrid by the villain and her rescue by the duke, and of course their increasingly passionate embraces.
Characters and situations are exaggerated, often implausible, but who cares? The exuberant pace sweeps aside such mundane considerations, just as it does the characters’ caution, and beneath the bizarre exterior lies a nugget of true comic gold. Highly recommended to those who relish humor in their Regencies.
