Three Lords for Lady Anne - Book 53

I succumbed to the overwhelmed feeling I get at this time every year, first Thanksgiving and then Christmas. I just don't do holidays well. So I had heard about this other regency romance novelist in the style of Georgette Heyer, and I thought I'd check her out. I needed something to escape into and reading about the Napoleonic Wars in the last book got me in the regency mood. Anyway, I downloaded this particular book because it had 5 stars with 20 reviews.

I don't know anything about the author Charlotte Louise Dolan. I really kept comparing her to Georgette Heyer, but I am guessing she is a more contemporary writer than Heyer. She's a little blunter about sex than Heyer, but still doesn't resort to anything graphic. She's got that romantic/comic style that Heyer is so good at. The plot didn't quite make sense to me at points, but then I fear sometimes Heyer's plots are a bit weak as well. Heyer's writing just seems more substantial, but this book was a very enjoyable romp.

Lady Gloriana is a poor relation of some gentry. She is living with some shallow, brown-nosing social climbers, when she is rescued by a master meddler, Lady Leticia. She goes to live with her aunt who schools her in how to be an independent woman even in this age where women's freedoms are severely curtailed by law and convention. For some reason she uses an alias, Anne Hemsworth and becomes a governess. She winds up taking a position as a governess to twin boys, who have been long neglected by their relations and guardian. However,the guardian, Bronson Roebuck, Lord Leathem, is a handsome, kindly if restless man, and means well. He apparently suspects the twins' uncle who is supposed to watch over them while he, Lord Bronson, goes traveling the world, of embezzling or something. . . The two romantic leads build up very bad impressions of each other before they ever meet. So when they do finally meet, sparks fly. The whole convoluted plot resolves itself in a charming way. Trying to sum up the plot here, I realized how complicated it is and how some of the loose ends didn't quite make sense. This is the type of book you really shouldn't think too deeply about, I fear. But it was an entertaining romance and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Just what the doctor ordered!

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