AN IMPROPER SUITOR

Author: Monica Fairview ISBN: 9780709086208 9/2008 HISTORICAL Publisher: ROBERT HALE
Time Period: Regency, 1818

A lady in possession of an independent fortune has no need for a husband. Miss Julia Swifton, secure in that belief, has made no attempt to search for one, even after three seasons in London. That is until her grandmother, an advocate of women's rights, rises from her deathbed and threatened, of all things, to marry her to a notorious rake, Lord Thorwynn. Shocked into action, Julia launches into a search for an intelligent, scholarly husband who will suit her. On her way she has to rescue a fallen 'angel,' save a rake from being forced into marriage, defeat an unscrupulous gamesmaster who needs to seduce her for money, and avert a friend's disastrous runaway marriage.Fortunately, she does not have to do it alone. Even if her companion, Lord Thorwynn, is the last person she would ever want to marry...

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Our heroine for AN IMPROPER SUITOR is a decidedly independent young lady with a wealthy portion, comfortable living arrangements with her maternal grandmother and feels no need to complicate life with marriage or men. In fact, it was her Grandmother, an advocate of women's rights, who has instilled in her this very strong belief that marriage should be avoided. That, and the fact that Julia's father was the worst sort of rake that lead to her mother's depression and eventual death.

Imagine her surprise when her grandmother tells her that marriage is exactly what Julia has to do in order to retain a respectable position in society. Also, she admitted she wouldn't want Julia to miss out on having children of her own to raise, a joy her grandmother was never remorseful for even if she regretted her daughter's choice of husbands.

Julia's Grandmother, Lady Bullfinch, and many of her friends, are not the sort of conventional 'elderly' sorts from Regency novels. They openly lament the fact that the succeeding generations have become entirely too prudish and wonder when it became taboo for a lady to have a bit of experience before marriage. Throughout the novel, though we aren't privy to the more outrageous comments, only the reactions because of them, the past is talked about in ribald comments that leave everyone else in the room decidedly uncomfortable.

I love her for it. Too often it seems that grandmothers, and the older generation in general in Regency romances, are either very cranky and contentious or soft-spoken and meandering. Occasionally there will be a grandfather spoken of with a twinkle in his eye and devilish sense of humor, or a grandmother who casts a blind eye to youthful exploits and love, but rarely does it seem they encourage incorrigible behavior.

Julia is a little less likeable a character. I wouldn't say she's inconsistent or wishy-washy, but she takes many things on face value with only the barest of thought that things might be deeper. She continues this line of thinking until well through half of the book and only changes her mind when she's placed in a dire situation. Her condemnation is well-warranted, given what her mother went through with her father, but she admits privately that she has little idea how things really were and learned everything second hand.

One sore point was Julia's age. It's mentioned to be almost twenty-one several times in the first 50 pages or so, a particularly important part of her deal with her grandmother, in fact, is that she finds someone to marry before her twenty-first birthday. After we skip ahead two months, her age suddenly changes to almost twenty-three. After this her age isn't mentioned again, so I'm not certain if this was merely a typo or had been the original intent, then had been changed in the latter drafts and this one had been overlooked, being so far removed from the other mentions.

Another was that a lot seemed to happen in the book in less than a month, at least I had assumed it was less than a month. Her grandmother had given her three months to find a husband; this was back in March of 1818 and the first chapter picks up in May 1818. I don't recall the agreement changing, so I'm left to understand all the events from the first chapter to the last chapter happen within a month. In fact, two weeks have gone by as of halfway through the book and yet so much more happens!

As I understand it from the author's website, this was her first published Regency and it's a commendable one, at that. I certainly enjoyed reading the book and look forward to more of her stories in the future.

Alexandra Cenni