A woman in the British Horticultural Society! The very idea horrifies everyone, including ardent horticulturalist Lavinia Harlow, whose own name has been put forth for membership by the provoking Marquess of Huntly. He does it as a joke, of course, to get back at her for an imagined slight—well, to be fair, she had insulted his writing—and Vinnie, older sister to the infamous Harlow Hoyden, is far too sensible to rise to his ridiculous challenge.
Determined to head off further scandal (her name has already been recorded in the betting book at Brooks’s!), Vinnie dashes off a polite note refusing the honor—which she has every intention of sending. Really. Only she can’t help but chafe at the way everyone keeps demanding that she decline at once, even the marquess. Oh, especially the marquess, whose perfection she finds intolerable. Who ever heard of a gentleman being so handsome and so intelligent and so well informed about foreign flora? Clearly, the man needs to be taken down a peg, and somehow, despite all twenty-four years of faultless propriety, Vinnie is just the hoyden to do it.
Lavinia Harlow is not the hoyden her twin is. But after a spate of heroine-like behavior, Vinnie finds it hard to return back to a normal life. Especially when she is reminded of it every day she is in black gloves for her departed fiancé.
Then her brother-in-law’s bestie comes back into town and she has a new mortal enemy. Which somehow lands her in the middle of hoyden-land again.
This follow up to The Harlow Hoyden features a twin, a hot Marquess, and a tad of social commentary on women in academics in the Regency era. While not as rompish as the first book of this two-fer, it still has delightful moments and a lot of sweetness to recommend it. I enjoyed the interaction between H/h and found it funny, romantic and even realistic.
Although a bit of late appearing hot action surprised me for this mostly clean book, I found it another example of Messina’s mastery of the genre and clever take on the traditional Reg Rom. She definitely gets what we readers love about the archetypal characters of the genre and delivers it with few pain points. She also doesn’t have to set up dramatic, over the top action to hold our interest or keep a strong, fast pace.
For me, this was proof-positive of Messina’s talent and I definitely look forward to reading more of her work.
4.75 out of 6 Sweet, funny with a powerful female heroine and interesting subplot.
| Content Rating/Heat Index | |
|---|---|
| Mature Content |   |
| Some assorted plotting and light mature subject | |
| Intimacy | |
| One main scene. Vanilla, but still descriptive | |
| Violence | |
| Not much. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Generally clean and appropriate for older teens with the exception of one main intimate scene pre-wedlock. | |
