A Dangerous Beauty

Sophia Nash comes to Avon from the now defunct (sob!) Signet Regency line. Her book, A Dangerous Beauty, is a Regency-set historical romance that really needs to be a lot longer than it is, which is already a substantial 384 pages).

You can't say the Earl and Countess of Twenlyne haven't secured the title - they have four sons whom they love dearly, but both of them long for a daughter. When the countess has a little girl, they give her a string of imposing names, but she is known by her first one - Rosamonde. After the birth of another daughter, Sylvia the countess dies and the earl devotes himself to his children. They grow up happy and rather wild.

When the Duke of Helston and his son spend a summer in the neighboring estate, 17-year-old Rosamond sets her cap at Lord Sumner, the duke's heir. Sumner is reserved - even downright cold - and that only spurs Rosamond to win his notice. After she beats him in a horse race, she asks for a kiss as her reward. Sumner gives her a dutiful kiss, and that is that. But when Rosamond comes home, she is confronted by her father and the duke, both of whom accuse her of having seduced Sumner. Someone in the neighborhood had seen them in the act, and Rosamonde has sand and leaves on her habit. Sumner dutifully asks her to marry him, but Rosamonde can't face life with an indifferent husband and a cruel father in law - and she knows that she only kissed the young man. When a local squire asks her to marry him, she elopes to Scotland and ruins her name. Only her loyal sister Sylvia will have anything to do with her.

After eight miserable years, Rosamonde's huband dies, leaving her nothing. Rosamonde is surprised to receive a letter from the dowager duchess of Helston asking her and Sylvia to come to the estate for a wedding (the dowager's granddaughter) and, since they have nowhere else to go, they accept. The dowager, (knicknamed Ata) is a kindly woman who heads an informal group called the Widows Club. Ata tries to help the widows to get back on their feet and find happiness and she takes particular interest in Rosamonde because of her past experience with the family. During the years of Rosamond's unhappy marriage, both the duke and Lord Sumner died, and the new Duke is the younger son, Luc, who was away at war when Rosamonde and Sumner knew each other. Luc is distant, formal and has nothing good to say about marriage. We all know that his attitude will change, though - don't we?

The biggest problem that I had with A Dangerous Beauty was that so much of it happened off stage. The squire who married Rosamonde came out of nowhere and their unhappy marriage was over and done with in between chapters. Since this traumatic experience was a big factor in making her what she is now, getting the story in dribs and drabs as Rosamonde talks to Ata or Luc about it wasn't enough for me. The same thing is true about Luc. His relationship with his father was not at all good, and we find out about it only when he tells Rosamonde in a long conversation. If this had been one of those lengthy, leisurely novels that were popular in the 1980's, we'd have seen both Luc and Rosamond's experiences first hand and gotten to know them better.

As characters, both of them are all right, but only all right. I've met the cold heartless rake and the sadder but wiser woman in lots of different books, and neither Luc nor Rosamonde is unique or memorable. It's not that A Dangerous Beauty is poorly written - it's not (although there was one Big Surprise toward the end that caused me to roll my eyes), it's just...well...very average.

I'm not sure if Ata's Widows Club will spawn more sequels - this being Avon, I am prepared to guess it will. Some of the supporting characters do have a spark of charm, and I am willing to give Sophia Nash another try. While there's nothing fresh and new about this book, at least there are no Regency spies afoot. That has to count for something.

-- Ellen Micheletti

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