Almost Perfect
By Denise Hampton

         Cassandra Marston is a widow, fleeing when she thinks she has killed Neville Mayne, Earl Bucksden, after hitting him on the head with an urn. Cassie’s father, Roland Conningsby, is an inveterate gambler. His latest gamble had him handing over his youngest daughter to the man Cassie thinks she killed. Cassie, Eliza, and their father flee to Scotland to stay with her aunt until Cassie can gather funds to enable them to start a new life in America.

      Staying at the aunt's castle is Lucien Holier who has lost his wife and child in childbirth. He has plans to make the scoundrel who caused their deaths pay. He meets Cassie again. Six years ago they had been in love, but he had withdrawn from the marriage because he feared the scorn of society for aligning himself with her wastrel father. Cassie is the one woman he always cared for and they find love again. Cassie is reluctant to believe him, expecting him to abandon her again. So when she wins at their card games she takes his money and attempts to flee the country. Unfortunately she becomes involved in a carriage accident and, pretending amnesia, finds that Lucien is calling her his wife. The two must resolve their misunderstandings and escape the vengeance-seeking Earl Bucksden to find their destiny. .

         This is an enjoyable Regency romance, full of fun characters with a story that moves along with skill. The action is constant with the two lovers trying to find a future for themselves in spite of their past. The characters are well drawn: Cassie as a strong woman; Roland as the father, a weak man unable to withstand his gambling; Lucien as a determined lover fighting to win his true love.