Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Publisher: Avon Books (HarperCollins)
Release Date: December 2003
ISBN: 006051969X
Awards:  
Format Reviewed: Paperback
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Genre: Historical Romance [Regency, London]
Reviewed: 2004
Reviewer: Rachel A Hyde
Reviewer Notes: Some sex
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The Duchess Diaries
By Mia Ryan


     Lady Lara Darling doesn’t want a Season, and she certainly doesn’t want to get married. But her family is poor so the only way she can give her six younger sisters a chance of a future is to snare a rich man. She has the wise words of her deceased grandmother to guide her, but such a hoyden as Lara just can’t help getting into trouble, and can never resist a challenge especially if it involves driving a coach. So perhaps it is not such a wonder that she starts finding the dashing coachman nicknamed “The Baron” so interesting…

     I do enjoy a laugh when I read a romance and the daring exploits of Lara are certainly entertaining. This is an engaging Regency romance with some congenial characters, the sort of thing that ought to put any romance fan in a good mood. There is no teasing sub-plot or steamy sex, but some nice descriptions of social events during the Season and the whole tale has the right lightness to be effective. The hero isn’t too overbearing and the protagonists don’t spend pages playing “the battle of the sexes” which I tend to find tedious if played to excess. So nothing remarkable but a good tale nonetheless and I’d read another by this new author. Good-humored fun.