Rosalind Bennington wants her husband to be a courageous man – but in such a safe location as upper-class Regency London, this means having to orchestrate dangerous situations in which the Duke of Conbatten can prove his daring.
This is the second book in the A Very Fine Muddle series, which follows five aristocratic sisters who have been raised by a fanciful hopeless romantic of an aunt and consequently have very fixed ideas on what their future husbands should be like. Learning from her elder sister’s apparent failure of the last season, Rosalind decides that she will have only one quality on her list: bravery.
I had been a little disappointed in the first book of the series because I thought the humor overbalanced into farcical, but it works much better in this book. Rosalind and Balthazar are a fun lead pair, and I enjoyed their banter. The Benningtons are still over the top, but I liked them better and saw why they would be popular in London this time round. And the external plot regarding the secret identity of Shrimps was entertaining and dovetailed neatly with Rosalind’s scheming.
However, I did think that Balthazar fell surprisingly fast for Rosalind – and some of what drew him to her was that she was not like the other debutantes – but neither was Beatrice, who he was only friends with. As a result, I wished his interest in her was better articulated. I also wish that his role in the Queen’s Knights had been fleshed out more, as it felt a bit more like an excuse to tangle him up in the scheme surrounding Shrimps and introduce new secondary characters than anything else.
That said, I’m very excited for the next book in the series! Like Viola, I too have a fondness for red hair, and am curious what will be done with a heroine whose chief quality thus far has been an inordinate liking for ham.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.