Exeter's Daughter (Signet Regency Romance)

Rating:
Summary: An amusing but intelligent love story
Review: As a British reader, I tend to be a critical reader of Regency novels by American authors, and my list of those who do it well is quite short. However, after reading 'Exeter's Daughter', I have now added Emma Lange to that list.

I enjoyed this book enormously; the author has drawn the complex characters very well. Marissa is, on the surface, a spoilt and over-indulged duke's daughter, and Tristan - to whose home she has been exiled as a temporary punishment - believes that this is precisely what she is. But her disgraceful behaviour hides an independent spirit and justifiable motives.

At first, the two appear to loathe each other; Tristan certainly disapproves of Marissa, and she resents his disapproval to such a degree that she refuses to explain herself to him. But gradually, each discovers that the other is not what they appear to be. Tristan discovers that Marissa is caring, loyal, intelligent and virtuous; Marissa discovers and admires Tristan's strong sense of duty and loyalty, demonstrated in his struggle to stay afloat financially and to take care of his mother and sister.

How these two eventually overcome their distrust and suspicion of each other, and fall in love, is well told in a cleverly crafted novel by Emma Lange. I am keeping this book, and it has made me want to seek out other titles by this intelligent, talented writer.

Rating:
Summary: Irrepressible heroine, strong-willed hero, fun conversations
Review: Lady Marissa Portmaine, spoiled daughter of a duke, has never had to face censure. She is used to doing what she wants, and getting away with it. Now, though, her father has had enough, and he has sent her to stay at the home of a family friend, a man she detests because he has always regarded her with disdain, dismissed her as lacking any sense of propriety.

Yet she must spend the summer being chaperoned by his mother, and he must learn to tolerate her. Although at first Marissa almost delights in allowing Tristan to carry on thinking the worst, and her pride won't allow her to disabuse him, they gradually become friends despite his disapproval and her dislike. Some of the scenes in Tristan's study are simply wonderful.

Misunderstandings continue, mainly because Tristan is reluctant to believe the evidence of his own eyes despite getting to know Marissa better, and because Marissa's pride won't allow her to admit the truth. It doesn't help, of course, that Marissa also believes Tristan to be short of money and suspects that he may be prepared to put aside his contempt and marry her for her money - she reaches that conclusion early in the book and, like Tristan, holds onto it.

This was the first Emma Lange book I read, and it made me want to find more by this writer. As with the other I've read more recently, it started slowly, but then engrossed me as I got further into it. An entertaining book with some beautiful moments and a very satisfactory finish.