Devilish by Jo Beverley

[meganbmoore]

 

Diana Westmount is the Countess of Arradale. Her father’s only child, she was trained from an early age to take over his role after his death, making her the most powerful woman in England, after the queen, and has long since decided that she will never get married, if she has anything to do with it. Though well known among the nobility, she escapes the king’s notice by staying well out of sight and out of mind in the north. Until, that is, she petitions to be allowed to take her father’s seat in the House of Lords. What? Scandalous! That woman must be married off quick! Too much time without a man to do the thinking for her has caused bad ideas to start eating her brain!

Dispatched to bring her to London so the king can find her the perfect man to think for her is Lord Rothgar Malloren, who’s met Diana enough in the past to know that yes, she really can think for herself, and quite well at that. "Not to worry," he says, "we can hold him off for a few weeks, and he’ll forget all about you when the queen goes into seclusion." Naturally, things don’t work out quite that way, especially once you throw in kidnappings and French spies. Rothgar, of course, has also vowed to never marry, in his case, because he doesn’t want to risk passing on his mother’s insanity.

Jo Beverley has a habit of doing two things in most of her books. The first is taking unusual plots and making them work. The second is sinking the reader deep into the mindset and culture of the times, and making you go with it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Here, she makes it very clear why Diana would try to get a seat in the House of Lords (and think she would get away with it) but also makes it clear that no, it didn’t work that way. Furthermore, she has Rothgar make this clear in a way that actually conveys a great deal of respect, and doesn’t make you want to clobber him. Unlike most romance novels, Diana and Rothgar are also made to be as close to equals as a man and woman of their times(Georgian England) and social class can be. As is the habit with romance novels, though, more attention is given to Rothgar’s problems (angsty past) than Diana’s. In addition, while considerable detail is given to Rothgar’s plans regarding his lands after his death, none is given to Diana’s. It does, however, do far better on most front in terms of respect and equality than most romance novels do, even if it does incorporate many of the standard tropes.

As a side note, it’s been a while since I read a romance novel several books into a series, and I was not prepared for all the babies. Now, I’m a supporter of "and then they made babies"(I don’t remotely demand babies in my fiction-with a few exceptions-or situations leading to babies, but I don’t really understand this mass "Eeew! Babies! People happy with babies instead of running around and trying to get themselves killed! Eeew!!" thing that the internet seems to have) but I was not prepared for three books worth of characters trotting out their pregnant heroines and happy, chubby toddlers at the beginning of the book.