Warning: This review contains spoilers!
When Lady Fern Reynolds confided in a sympathetic houseguest that she was considering running away to London to escape betrothal to an unknown suitor, she did not expect him to offer her shelter. And she certainly did not imagine tumbling for him, the Viscount Sandford. But that was the least of her surprises, as she discovered the wedding was to go on as planned–and her groom was strangely familiar. . .
Lady Fern isn’t exactly happy when her parents tell her that she is to marry the Marquis of Warwick. She met the man years ago and had a crush on him (that she thought was love) but she’s a bit peeved that the man would talk to her parent and arrange everything without even talking to her or courting her.
Now her parents have invited the man to dinner and Fern’s mother has trussed Fern up to look ridiculous. Not only that but she won’t allow Fern to wear her spectacles and frankly Fern can’t see a thing.
While the Marquis of Warwick tries to be charming he knows that there’s something off about the way that Lady Fern is acting. She is rude to him but he actually likes her chutzpah. She makes a fool of herself and can’t even see what the man looks like compared to what he looked like the first time she met him.
The next day Fern is convinced that the Marquis is going to cancel the marriage contracts but is saved from her despair by a lovely gentleman who comes to call on her father. The Viscount Sandford is a wonderful man and Fern eventually tells him her woes and fears. She states she wants to run away from the Marquis and the viscount agrees to help her.
The viscount takes Fern to his London home and hires her on as his page (although that is horribly outdated as Fern tells him). Before the night is over, however, Fern sees the mistake she’s made but she decides it’s a good mistake in the end.
This was a cute story. I thought it was horrible of Fern’s mother to make her leave her spectacles off when she knew her daughter was completely blind without them. I realize that they were thought to be quite horrid back then and really not accepted in the ballroom but this was the man that had already offered for her daughter – didn’t he deserve to see the real Fern? I guess her mother didn’t see it that way.
The dinner with the Marquis was quite funny, actually. Fern was trying her best but couldn’t see a thing. She tripped and played the harp horribly and just made all sorts of mistakes. I loved the Marquis for thinking that they were actually cute mistakes rather than thing Fern was a bumbling idiot.
If you didn’t figure it out from the blurb that Viscount Sandford WAS the Marquis of Warwick let me just tell you it is was. Rick (which was short for Ricardo but he told her that it was short for Eric) was a kind man but I couldn’t help thinking that he was taking her reputation very lightly. Ok, yes, he was already going to marry her but if word of her antics had gotten out her rep would have been in the trash.
I felt the characters were made to be overly dramatic for the situation but as Fern was so young (I don’t think we’re ever told how young but she was pretty immature) I guess that kind of went hand in hand – drama and age. Overall a cute book just a bit too over the top for me.
Rating: 3 out of 5
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