REVIEW: Not Quite a Countess by Bliss Bennett
Five squabbling guardians. Three rivals for an earldom. And one dashing cavalryman threatening to overset it all…
At fourteen, Arabella Audley inherited her father’s Scottish barony—but was denied his English earldom. Shuffled between five quarrelsome guardians for six long years while Parliament dithers over determining the Earl of Audley’s rightful heir, Belle’s tired of being reduced to the role of pawn. This year, at the King’s Birthday Ball, Baroness Culmaily will finally risk a gambit of her own.
The prize? Her beloved Audley Priory, and the chance to serve its people. The plan? Broker a betrothal to one of her rivals for the earldom. A perfectly sensible scheme—until a rakishly handsome cavalry officer checkmates Belle’s schemes, challenging everything she thought she ever wanted….
Caught between legacy and love, audacious Belle must decide how far she’ll go to secure the life—and heart—she truly desires.
Dear Ms. Bennett,
After reading the blurb for this novella, I decided to give it a go. I liked the idea of a strong woman trying to steer her own way through the marriage market of aristocratic London society. Belle knows her best chance of getting her deceased father’s title back is to make a strategic alliance with a relative who has his own distant claim to the Earldom. Now can she finagle things her way?
It starts strongly with Belle hemmed in by her five guardians as well as the wives of three of them. She spots an old school chum and meets her husband as well as a Dashing Officer friend. So far, so good. I’m sure many Regency romance fans will have read about their heroines and heroes visiting Astley’s Amphitheater and voila, we see the beginnings of it as Belle goes to see a performance. Then Belle has a protracted amount of alone time with the Dashing Officer friend. Where are her guardians? Who knows but there’s Belle and Dashing Officer getting cozy before Belle remembers her mission and does a flit.
Later that same evening, she, the guardians/wives attend the King’s birthday ball. Things, due to Belle’s rather silly decision, don’t go as planned and she makes a spectacle of herself in front of the King, the Queen, and Society before leaving the ball, pulling Dashing Officer with her. Subtle, Belle. I’m also wondering why none of the guardians/wives hightail after her but nope, that doesn’t happen.
The discussion that Belle and Dashing Officer have about marriage, their thoughts on marriage, and what they want from a marriage looked as if it could right the ship. Then the insta-attraction that has percolated through the story turns to rampant insta-something though after they’ve known each other less than twelve hours at this point I’m doubting it’s love.
It’s all just too quick for me and the time spent describing the Court, the clothes, Astley’s, strawberries, and dancing could have been spent showing more about why Belle’s so determined to keep her father’s title rather than blasting this at us in a rush at the end. C-
~Jayne
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