Caroline Brooks

At an inn in Calais, Lady Lenora Ware comes to the aid of a runaway school girl. Lady Lenora is on her way to Paris now that Napoleon is exiled on Elba. The school girl, Miss Jane Hobart, is on her way to her father who is attending the Congress of Vienna. Also at this inn is a dark gentleman in the taproom ignoring the contretemps. This gentleman is Umberto Roberston-Durand, Marques of Durand, the man who killed Lady Lenora’s husband in a duel.

Lady Lenora decides to deliver Jane Hobart to her Godparents in Paris. Unfortunately when they arrive the Godparents are not in the city. In Paris she meets again with Lord Umberto feels an attraction for him. She comes to the decision to leave Paris and Lord Umberto, taking Jane Hobart to her father in Vienna.

This regency has an interesting premise; can a lady become attracted to the man who killed her husband in a duel? Unfortunately, that plot was overwhelmed by the descriptions of the clothing of the ‘Fashionable Lady Lenora’. An example, p.97

[. . .becoming attired in a dinner dress of claret-colored watered silk, with a deep décolleté trimmed with a row of blond lace in Vandyke pints and a rouleau of white satin banding the high waist. . . .] and the description goes on.

In Vienna, the author names almost every notable attending the Congress, including Wellington, Casterleigh, Talleyrand, Tsar Alexander, and more including wives and family. All of this left little room for the plot.

I can recommend this book for those interested in the fashion of the day and the attendees at the congress and who don’t mind a shallow plot. However, because of her research of the time period I would try this author again.… (altro)