Reviewer: Tracy
Chasing Lady Amelia (Keeping Up with the Cavendishes #2) by Maya Rodale
Series: Keeping Up with the Cavendishes #2
Publisher: Harper Collins, Avon
Publication Date: June 28th 2016
Genres: Historical Romance
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Series Rating:

Terribly Improper

Lady Amelia is fed up with being a proper lady and wishes to explore London, so one night she escapes . . . and finds herself in the company of one Alistair Finlay-Jones. He’s been ordered by his uncle to wed one of the American girls. How lucky, then, that one of them stumbles right into his arms!

Totally Scandalous

Alistair and Amelia have one perfect day to explore London, from Astley’s Amphitheater to Vauxhall Gardens. Inevitably they end up falling in love and making love. If anyone finds out, she will be ruined, but he will win everything he’s ever wanted.

Very Romantic

When Amelia finds out Alistair has been ordered to marry her, he must woo her and win back the angry American girl. But with the threat of scandals, plural, looming . . . will he ever catch up to the woman he loves?

Amelia and her siblings have come to London from America because her brother has inherited a Dukedom.  She loves her family but she’s sick and tired of being “proper” all the time.  She used to wear breeches all over their horse farm in America and ride horses astride and she loved it. She’s definitely the adventurous sort. Her brother never seemed to have a problem with it either but now that they’re in London she seems to be chastised every two seconds for doing something wrong. When she decides that she’s worn her pinchy slippers at a ball for far too long she takes them off. She then is asked to dance and since she didn’t have shoes and didn’t know what to do she pretended to faint.  Of course this made everyone see that she had no shoes on and the horror ensues.

Amelia’s aunt is more than displeased with her on the carriage ride home and her once supportive siblings all turn their heads like they’re disappointed as well.  Amelia can’t take it and once she gets home she decides to tell them all what she really thinks.  Her aunt, believing Amelia is hysterical, decides to dose her with laudanum without Amelia’s knowledge.

Amelia is in her room leaning out of her window not long after she’s dosed when she hears singing from the street.  She then decides it’s the best idea ever to go check it out.  She dresses herself and heads on out.  She meets Alistair on the street who believes she’s drunk.  They have a strange conversation and then Amelia proceeds to pass out.  Alistair can tell that Amelia is a proper lady but he has no idea where she lives.  He doesn’t know what to do with her so he ends up taking her home and plopping her on his settee.

The next morning, he answers his uncle’s summons (the reason he’s back in London) where his uncle proceeds to tell him that he must get married and she must have money.  He forcefully recommends that Alistair marry one of the American women who are very well dowered.  On the way home from his uncle’s, Alistair realizes that the woman that he has on his couch at home is one of the American’s.  When he finds her awake he acts like he doesn’t know who she is and she tells him that her name is Miss Amy Dish (instead of Lady Amelia Cavendish) and that she’s escaped from Finishing school.  The pair proceed to try all the wonderful things that Amelia read about in her guide but was never allowed to do because proper ladies just don’t do those kinds of things.

The longer that Alistair and Amelia spend together the more they start to fall for each other.  Alistair knows that Amelia will hate him when she finds out that he knew who she was the whole time.  He also knows that she’ll hate him even more when she finds out he’s a fortune hunter.  Alistair wants Amelia to be his but only if she loves him.  He wants her but he doesn’t want her just for her money.  He knows he can have her because of the day that they spent together unchaperoned but he doesn’t want her that way.  He wants her to choose him.

This was a very sweet story.  I loved the natural way that Alistair and Amelia were together.  Their relationship was just so comfortable from the beginning that it was easy for me to get into the story and it seemed to flow.

Alistair could have easily gotten Amelia after their day together and made his uncle happy – which is something that he’d longed for for years.  Fortunately for Amelia Alistair had a conscience that wouldn’t allow him to go after her for nefarious reasons.

The romance in this was sweet and even though it was such a whirlwind romance it worked.  I haven’t ever read a Maya Rodale story and this one was a great one to start with.  I will definitely be reading the rest of this series and hope it’s just as good as this one was.

Rating: 4 out of 5