A FRAUDULENT BETROTHAL

Author: Natasha Andersen ISBN: 9780709087632 6/2009 HISTORICAL Publisher: ROBERT HALE LTD.
Time Period: Regency

When her sister takes the proffered chance of a London season under the aegis of their aunt, Clarissa fears her only chance of marriage may come with the stolid and worthy local clergyman. Then, when her impetuous twin suddenly disappears, she steps into the breach and impersonates her in an attempt to placate society and discover her sister's whereabouts. Clarissa is thrown in at the deep end and, surrounded by the tonish friends who have known her sister for several months, expect her to be up to date on all the latest news and fashions. Not only is her personal maid and confidante already suspicious, but to cap it all, her sister's fiance unexpectedly arrives on the scene. Doggedly, she continues her attempts to find her sister, despite the difficulties inherent in asking questions about the very person she's impersonating, while in the meantime she wards off the advances of her sister's fiance, the devilishly handsome Lord Leighton. What with his skilful love-making and constant companionship, Clarissa's own heart is soon in danger. They are falling in love, but how can she cheat her own sister of Leighton's attention?

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

A FRAUDULENT BETROTHAL is more or less standard Regency fare. I should add, classic Regency fare, since it stays safely within the PG range of amorous intentions (so think more Georgette Heyer and less Julia Quinn). And, I have no problems with that, whatsoever. The story combined two of my favorite tropes, in fact—identical twins and mistaken identity, which alone makes it enjoyable for me.

The better chunk of the story is spent with Clarissa, since Marianne (who she replaces) is meant to be missing. I liked her well enough, though she didn’t really grow much of a personality until after realizing her feelings for Leighton. She grew much feistier then—questioning, a little snarky, and very good with the deceiving.

You can tell from how Andersen sets things up that this is meant to be a story about how Clarissa came into her own, but I felt as if it was rushed and inconsistent. Her common sense seems to have fled her rather abruptly at one point in the story, and for a little while, it seemed like every little thing would make her feel so utterly guilty that she had to confess the deception to whoever was closest.

We see little of Marianne until closer to the end, and what little I saw could have been taken one of two ways. Either Marianne wasn’t quite the frivolous birdbrain everyone assumed her to be, and we just didn’t see her enough early in the story to see that, or she was entirely without any common sense in her body and honestly didn’t understand the implications of her actions. A lot of the personality for Marianne is told to us by various sources; very little of it is shown, so it was hard to tell.

What saved the book for me, however, was Leighton. Especially Leighton around page 200. He was pretty interesting to begin with, but he literally steamrolled over everyone and everything to make things work out the way he wanted them. 'What’s that, you say? No marriage license? No worries, chap. I not only got you that, but got you the necessary time off from your job, told everyone you know, and got you all the official papers for it!' (I am paraphrasing, but you get the idea). The entire scene is really something a reader should read themselves, since if I divulge too much of the hilarity of the situation it will give away a lot.

In the end, this was a light, enjoyable read. It was quick, had some pretty amusing moments, and as long as you don’t want too much substance to the characters, quite diverting!

Alexandra Cenni