I've truly enjoyed all of LLG's works that I've read thus far, and I plan to read more. Her late Victorian/Edwardian settings make it possible for her to create female characters who are believably more modern than the standard Regency miss, and Annabel Mae Wheaton is a perfect example. She was born poor in Mississippi, but her late father left her stupendously wealthy from his gold mines in Alaska. She moves to New York expecting to enter Society, but Society wants nothing to do with her. When an impoverished English earl proposes marriage, she sees an opportunity to force her way into the upper class and ensure that her young sister never has to face the insults that have come Annabel's way.Annabel is smart, strong, determined, and optimistic, even as she contemplates marriage to a man she doesn't love and who does not love her. I liked her a lot. When her wedding is ruined by the drunken ravings of the rakish Duke of Scarborough, she cleverly figures out a way to minimize the attendant scandal and force the duke to make amends. Of course, she falls in love with him, and when he begins pushing eligible bachelors in front of her, she takes drastic action.
Christian, the duke, is an engaging character, but I didn't "fall in love" with him myself. This is definitely Annabel's book.
I must say, though, that when the scene switches from London to Scarborough, the action feels rushed. I would have enjoyed seeing more development of the characters' feelings and motivations. And the ending is downright abrupt.
And now a word about Annabel's accent. I though it was fine that she used American slang and expressions, but stop it with the droppin' of the endin' "g"s. It was distracting and done inconsistently; she would drop the 'g' off of three words in a paragraph and leave it on in two other words. I'm a Southerner native born, and have dropped plenty of 'g's, but it just doesn't work on the written page.
