I do like Mary Burchell books. One of the reasons is illustrated quite well in this book. The heroes are just so dang gentle and indulgent. Yes sometimes that attitude is a bit dated but wanting to care for someone sort of transcends time period. Here the hero fell in love and just didn't care about what the heroine had done that was slightly shady, he just loved her. I'd like to think that if she'd turned out to be a murderer he might have had a qualm. But since it was relatively minor he was all 'well what can we do to fix this since we're in this together.' The heroine was well developed and neither a goody two shoes nor a bitch. She just kept getting herself in deeper cuz she loved the hero and couldn't bear to let him go. ( )

This review contain spoilers.

Tina Fenwick had been living in New York for three years and was miserable. She wanted to move back to England, but as a orphan she had no ties there nor did she have the money to move. Her roommate, Sonia, then received a letter from England saying she inherited a thousand pounds, but since she'll be marrying a rich old man in a matter of days, she decided Tina should impersonate her and go claim the money. Tina wanted Sonia to transfer the inheritance over to her instead, but before that could happen, Sonia died on her way to her honeymoon, and Tina, so overcome with her longing to go to England that her sense of right and wrong got screwed, decided to impersonate Sonia, with the aid of a few conveniences that made sure Sonia wouldn't be missed.

In London, Tina found out that Sonia's inheritance was really sixty thousand pounds, and that Sonia had a living relative, a cousin-by-adoption named Dr. Charles Linton. Tina, struck a little by her conscience, knew the money really belonged to Charles so she decided to share the inheritance with him, though he didn't want it. He wanted to marry into money instead so he proposed.

I'm not fond of deception stories but I don't mind them if the characters are redeemable, except Tina had no redeemable qualities at all. She struck me as a selfish person the way she kept up with the deception throughout the book. It didn't matter to her that she was claiming money that didn't belong to her, nor the fact that she had to live in fear in case she might be found out, nor did it matter that she married in Sonia's name, nor even being blackmailed by someone who met both Tina and Sonia stop her deceit! Her consolation in ripping Charles off his inheritance was that by marrying him, he will have the money to build the resting home he wanted.

There also wasn't much romance, but that didn't come as a surprise: a heroine who practiced deceit and a hero who married her for money and seemed to care more about his work is not a recipe for love.

I hated the fact that so much of the book revolved around people driven by greed and money. If I believed in throwing books at walls out of frustration, this would be a total wall-banger. ( )