Elizabeth Mansfield: Regency Sting

An American inherits a title and a love he never expected when he comes to England to claim his fortune in award-winning author Elizabeth Mansfield’s sparkling Regency tale

The Hartleys are on the brink of disaster. Viscount Mainwaring has died, unaccountably leaving his entire fortune to an American. Worst of all, Anne Hartley’s future is in jeopardy. She has been forbidden from marrying the nobleman she has adored since the moment she found him thrown from his horse in Hyde Park.

With two society families up in arms, the unwitting new Viscount Mainwaring arrives in England to claim his title. That’s when Anne’s scheming stepmother comes up with a plan to save them all from imminent ruin. All that proper, sensible Anne has to do is transform the uncouth Virginian into an English gentleman. But Jason Hughes isn’t the ill-mannered boor everyone expects. And love was never part of the bargain.

I have been in a bit of Regency slump. I veered off the path of historical and into contemporary, something I never thought I would do, and got lost among Cities and Cowboys. I kept assuring myself it was just a little palate cleanser…a brief respite…a mini-break. But, apologies dear Readers, that break turned into a couple of months.

To get me back on track, I picked up an ebook version of Regency Sting. I have had mixed feelings about Elizabeth Mansfield in the past, but the premise sounded funny…exactly the sort of thing I needed to get my Regency groove back.

Its not a perfect book by any stretch of the imagination. But there is enough similarities to Heyer’s The Unknown Ajax, that I ploughed ahead.

I get the sense that the American hero is really tweaking the heroine’s vanity. Its never made explicit, but he is so over the top hayseed American, that I consoled myself this debonair heir was also a great lover of comedy. So I found him funny. He is also the hulking alpha type of hero I enjoy, although the hayseed schtick does get a bit tiring.

The heroine is also terribly imperfect, and can be a bit of a shrew. I liked her though, because I thought she was sympathetic. Anne thinks she has found the perfect match, but her subconscious keeps trying to tell her that perfect isn’t perfect for her. Other readers will likely find her annoying or unlikeable. She is patterned after the formula Reg Rom heroine…feisty, beautiful, and smart. But she does have her moments of being less than heroine-esque, so is definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.

There are some funny moments, and a secondary romance, that kept my interest up. There is a Pygmalion aspect, or at least a makeover, where Anne is trying to groom hero Jason into a gentleman, although a bit of the satisfaction was gone because I really did get the sense he was messing with her the whole time.

This is a pretty straightforward traditional Regency, with a fish out of water annoyance-to-love type of plot that was a great slump breaker (although I think its a one time read only kind of book).

5 Stars 4 out of 6 Funny American in the Regency novel