"This story has the most romantic ending!"
Georgina Montcalm's life is not the best right now. The
only thing she has to look forward to is when Sir Trevor
Longchamp will finally come home and claim her. When he
left for the war, they decided to meet at sunset at
the "throne" rock, where Trevor would finally ask her to
marry him. After her father's death, Georgina took over the
reins of High Barrow House. Unfortunately, her father never
really paid attention to the finances and Georgina has not
had an easy time of it. The fact her home will go a distant
cousin hasn't helped as Georgina has no idea what will
happen when he finally arrives to claim his inheritance.
But at least Trevor is back in London recuperating. Since
Trevor's little sister is Georgina's good friend, she's
been able to keep up on what's been happening with him.
When Trevor shows up at her home, the timing couldn't be
worse. After all, she didn't know he would be coming and is
wearing her worst gown. Excited to see him, she doesn't
want to take the time to change and so sits with him in the
sitting room where she offers him the last bit of brandy in
the house. Instead of asking her to marry him as Georgina
hopes will happen, he tells her he has found someone else.
Devastated, Georgina spends the next day out riding, when
in the middle of an eerie red fog, she somehow interrupts
an attempted burglary. A highwayman tried to take the
purses of two young men. One of them becomes infatuated
with her and calls her his "Fair Amazon". Not long after
this, Georgina receives a summons from her godmother, Lady
Barnstaple, to come to London. Accompanied by her maid, she
ends up at Lady Barnstaple's London home where she finds
Trevor's mother and sister already in residence. When Lady
Barnstaple sees Georgina, she sends the young woman to bed
and makes sure Georgina stays above stairs for two weeks to
recuperate, all while having various clothing made for her. Trevor knows his mother and aunt, Lady Barnstaple, do not
approve of the woman he loves—Diana Wintersea—but he
doesn't plan on that stopping him from marrying her. It's
only a matter of time before he will offer for her. After
all, Diana is the Incomparable of the Season being petite,
dark-haired and beautiful. So when his aunt invites him and
Miss Wintersea to dinner to be followed by the theater,
Trevor believes they are finally coming around. Imagine his
surprise when Georgina walks into the room, no longer the
worn-out hag, but now looking just as beautiful as she ever
did. When Diana notices how Trevor seems to be noticing
Georgina, she immediately steps up her plans to get him to
marry her—not that she particularly loves him, but she does
love his money. Eventually, Georgina's distant cousin shows up—tall,
handsome and with money to spare. The reason it took him so
long was due to his wife's illness and he didn't want to
leave her side. Once she finally passed, Mr. Montcalm
decided to sell his land and start over in England. Will Georgina and Trevor reunite? Will Trevor marry Diana?
Why does Diana want to marry Trevor so badly? What of the
cousin? Will he become attracted to Georgina? THE FAIR AMAZON is a delightful read. Janis Susan May does
a wonderful job of bringing the Regency period to vivid
life in this story. We have our heroine, Georgina,
regardless of what she's been through, she always remains a
lady. The more time Trevor spends with Georgina and Diana,
the more he can't help comparing the two of them. After
everything, this is a romance and we have a wonderfully
romantic ending, complete with heartfelt sigh. If you enjoy
a good Regency with a wonderful ending, don't miss this
story.
Reviewed by Chere Gruver
Posted October 15, 2009
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Georgina Montcalm has lost her father and her brother, but the final blow comes when Sir Trevor Longchamps, for whom she has waited during the long years of his Peninsular service, says he loves another. Trying to forget her sorrows, Georgina goes riding and, during an ill-omened red fog, saves young Mr. Garrick Courtland and his friend from a highwayman. A romantic, Mr. Courtland immediately falls in love with Georgina, a situation which does not sit well with his social-climbing sister. Lady Barnstaple, Georgina's godmother and Sir Trevor's aunt, hears of the incident and realizes she has been neglectful of the girl. Georgina is bidden to London and Lady Barnstaple makes plans to marry her off. Garrick is all too willing, but he is too young. Thomas, the long-lost heir to Georgina's home, arrives from America and is smitten by his cousin. As more suitors swarm around Georgina, Sir Trevor begins to realize that Diana Wintersea, his new love, is not so enchanting as he once thought, with a certain worldliness and coarseness about her that no debutante should have. In actuality, Diana is little more than a respectably born adventuress, come to London to marry a rich man. Her beauty has taken her to the higher reaches of the Ton, but her dream of marrying a duke or an earl is just that - a dream. Sir Trevor, she decides, will have to do, especially as a skirter named Felix Charbonneau is pressing her for money she does not have to settle her gambling debts. Desperate, Diana sets about to bring Sir Trevor up to scratch just as he begins to think he has made a mistake. Lady Barnstaple is determined that Sir Trevor shall not marry Diana, but she has also decided that he is too weak to handle Georgina. She decides Thomas the American cousin is a perfect match for her goddaughter and proceeds to matchmake relentlessly, forgetting that Georgina is a strongminded young woman who is more than capable of settling her own life her own way. Genre: Historical Romance, Regency
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