Suzanne Allain: Incognito

Can a young lady allow her beloved sister to be sacrificed on the marriage altar? Emily Smithfield cannot. So when her mother announces that a marriage has been arranged between Emily’s older sister Lydia and Lord Wesleigh, a man the sisters have never met, Emily offers to marry the gentleman in her sister’s stead. Emily’s act of selflessness leaves Lydia free to marry the man she loves and Emily the bride of a handsome young marquess. Not a bad bargain at all!

Lord Wesleigh, who knows nothing of Emily’s matchmaking scheme, arrives in the small village where the Smithfields reside disguised as a curate, in an attempt to observe his betrothed anonymously. When Lord Wesleigh finds himself more attracted to Emily than her sister, the rules of the game change. Can he make Emily fall in love with him when she believes him to be a penniless curate?

Mistaken identities can be really funny plot devices for Reg Rom. Take Jacqueline Diamond’s Lady in Disguise or Candace Hern’s A Garden Folly. Those are funny mistaken identity/masquerade plots that are sweet, clean and everything a good Regency should be.

Which is what lead me to pick up Suzanne Allain’s Incognito.

There were some very likable parts of this self-proclaimed romp (more of a traditional Reg. in the sense that it is clean, genre true, and focused on H/h) it wasn’t exactly as funny as I had hoped. Something about the characters or pacing never quite clicked, so that it wasn’t a book I was burning the barn down for.

However, that being said, there are some redeeming qualities that probably merit another read (or a first time one).

There is a twist on the marriage of convenience/arranged marriage general bones with some unabashedly imperfect supporting characters ala Austen that I found refreshing. Allain doesn’t apologize or over characterize some of her character’s flaws, she just acknowledges them in the light, appreciative way Jane often did.

The H/h, likely because this novel skirts the word count limits, are less carefully crafted. In some ways, they are cut-outs from Heyer or Austen characters that seem familiar, but don’t breathe the way we would expect. So that gets a bit in the way of the romp-esque-ness.

I wanted really badly to like the hero, but something about him just bugged me. I think his motivations or backstory just wasn’t fleshed out enough to make all the sneaking around make sense.

There is a fun villainy element that again suffers from a truncated novel. There was an element to the gothic ridiculous that didn’t get quite as nicely exploited as it could’ve been–at the expense of some big laugh pay offs.

Finally, there was that old ugly miscommunication between H/h as main conflict rearing its head in a way that frankly didn’t make a whole lot of sense given all the other wonderful structure.

So, its an easy, fast read that suffers from probably a little bit too much self-consciousness about the genre. That being said, I probably will give it another read.

5 Stars 3.5 out of 6 Quick paced, perhaps a little too short but generally likeable traditional Reg Rom.