Not sure why I bought this book - must have mistaken it for some other title. One of the Amazon reviewers compared it to Venetia. No resemblance. Rather than being witty and erudite, Bryce's teasing was heavy-handed with innuendo. It was painfully annoying; if the man was carrying on like that on FaceBook, I'd block him in a minute. The book improved in the second half. The characters became acceptable, even sympathetic, and the plot of the story acquired some interest, thus the three stars. But I came extremely close to hurling the book across the room in sheer irritation (I was sitting across from the fireplace at the time) and actually closed the book with finality, intending to discard it unfinished, so this is not a keeper for me. I felt also that the treatment of Regency-era mores was questionable, but since the characters are not quite believable, it's hard to quibble at their sexual behaviour. ( )

Fiction,romance,European historical,piffle loan