A Fair Pretender
By Janet Woods

     Illegitimate Graine Seaton has been employed as a companion to the plain and amiable but rich Evelyn Adams. The heiress’ plantation in Antigua has been sold, and the young lady herself has embarked upon a voyage to England to marry the man of her guardian’s choosing. But the ship founders and is lost with all hands--except for Graine, who now sees her chance to better herself and impersonate her half-sister Evelyn. Trouble is, it means marriage to dull but respectable clergyman John Lamartine, when it his cousin, the Earl of Sedgley, that she has fallen in love with.

     Like one of her previous books, Angelina (also reviewed on this site), there is a touch of the Gothic about this tale that ought to appeal to all those who used to enjoy writers like Victoria Holt. Slaves being smuggled to freedom, deception, wicked slavers and a hint of the supernatural with the voodoo priestess Sheba, this is an enjoyable and fairly involved tale with plenty of spirit. I would have liked more of a sense of the place where the story is set and to have been more immersed in the year 1750. This could easily have been set in any number of periods and locations, which is a pity. But this aside, romance fans who like a bit of mystery and more plot than a bare love story will find this an engaging tale.