But here, I’ll sketch out the plot of “Faro’s Daughter” and people who’ve read this one can draw their own conclusions.

In “Faro’s Daughter” the heroine was orphaned and went to live with her flighty aunt. The flighty aunt, in an attempt to get out of debt, bought a huge house and turned it into a gaming hell for the fashionable young gentlemen of London. Every night they open their doors and the heroine presides over the gambling and the entertainment. Bills are still piling up though, because the aunt is extravagant and has no head for money. The mortgage on the aunt’s house is held by an unscrupulous gentleman who is hoping to use the threat of foreclosure to make the heroine his mistress. It should also be noted that the heroine is virginal and pure but has still managed to get the reputation of being a loose woman of low morals for acting as hostess at her aunt’s “card parties”.

The hero gets pulled in when his young cousin falls for the heroine. The young cousin tells his mother he means to marry her. The mother, our hero’s aunt, calls the hero in to extract his young cousin from the heroine’s “clutches.” To pay the heroine off if he has to, if that will get rid of her.

The heroine, of course, has no intention of marrying the inexperienced young cousin- even if he is rich and all his money could solve her family’s problems. She has every intention of telling the hero this to reassure him but he treats her so badly, like a loose woman, in fact, that she decides to teach him a lesson by pretending to be exactly what he thinks she is- a coarse, money-grubbing harpy. This, of course, leads to many misunderstandings and scuffles on their path to true love.

Does it sound familiar?

Other things: the hero challenges the heroine to a game of cards for very high stakes. He lets her win at first and then bleeds her for an obscene amount of money to “teach her a lesson”. She agrees to is high stakes even knowing they can’t afford it. The heroine has a selfish younger brother in the army who doesn’t appreciate her and needs her to come up with the money to buy his expensive commission. There’s a phaeton race with the hero. The hero eventually wins the mortgage off the evil suitor on a wager.

I really liked Gladiator’s Honor and her other books sound interesting too. This book just irked me, though. It was far too similar to me to just be a coincidence and she doesn’t acknowledge Georgette Heyer anywhere in the book, not the dedication or the author’s note. It just seemed inappropriate to me and it’s been bugging me for awhile. Anyway, sorry for the rant.

Thanks,
Moth

All the best, Michelle