A COUNTRY COTILLION

Author: Sandra Heath ISBN: 9780709086598 5/2009 (U.K.) 11/2009 (U.S.) HISTORICAL Publisher: ROBERT HALE LTD.
Time Period: Regency 1814

Beautiful Elizabeth French had learned both the pleasure and pain of love as the bride of James French. But now that irresistible and infamous libertine was dead—and Elizabeth chose to wed a handsome lord as different from James as day from night. Sir Alexander Norrington was dark where James had been so fiercely exciting. Surely it was better thus, Elizabeth told herself...until she met Marcus Sheridan, the Duke of Arlington, who was so much like James as to set Elizabeth's pulse to racing, even as she desperately tried not to fall prey again to a man who would win her heart only to break it.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Sandra Heath has long been one of my favorite Regency Romance writers. Much of her earlier work formed the basis from which I became interested in Regency romance and her stories never fail to delight me in some way. A COUNTRY COTILLION is no different in that regard. I found Elizabeth to be a charming woman, though obviously emotionally confused because of her past with her no-account, scapegrace late husband.

The story is a slow one, Marcus not showing up in a substantial way until close to the middle and spending a lot of time shrouded in mystery and cryptic words. For the better portion of the book we spend watching Elizabeth's cousin Isobel working to win Elizabeth's fiancee Sir Alexander away from her under Elizabeth's nose! I was far more interested in watching as Isobel basically manipulated every action, conversation, and event to further her pursuit of Sir Alexander. I could not, for the life of me, understand why Elizabeth was so blind.

Then again, Elizabeth spent a good deal of time being haunted by her late husband's specter. With her impending betrothal to Sir Alexander looming, she has begun to think about when she first married James, how happy and in love she had been. How briefly the two of them seemed to have found the love that so many strive for. She dwells on this to distraction, unintentionally giving her would-be fiancee the cold shoulder.

This is where I had a disconnect with the story, I think. We're told that Sir Alexander spent a good deal of time and effort to woo Elizabeth before the novel takes place; that it took him awhile to prove his suit was worthy and for Elizabeth to realize how stable he was (in comparison to James). Yet it seems almost from the first that their 'love match' was lukewarm. Built on mutual affection, not love. Also, once Marcus comes to the scene, we learn very little about him beyond that he was Alexander's schoolboy friend; was in America and estranged from his father; and had a possible bride in America waiting for him. This is all we learn. We learn little about the man himself and even less about certain circumstances. As Elizabeth began to fall in love with him, I couldn't help but wonder if she was really in love with him or with the fact that he is everything she ever wanted James to be.

In the end, the novel is a sweet one, but leaves a lot of questions for me to ponder over.

Alexandra Cenni