Madeline Hunter has been an auto-buy for me for many years, but I'm sorry to say that I wish I had waited to check this one out of the library instead of buying it. Based on the first book in the series, The Surrender of Miss Fairbourne, I was really looking forward to Cassandra's story. She had all the qualities I usually like: older, wiser, calm, little mystery, etc. Unfortunately, there was way too much mystery (most of which could have been solved with a short and sweet conversation with her Aunt) and whole lot less of wise.
I admired Cassandra for her calmness and lack of hysterics, but it seemed to me that she was too willing to wait and let Ambury dictate terms. I think a little hysteria and urgency would have solved everything much quicker, but then we would have missed the great descriptions of Amburys tight bum over and over again. By the middle of the story, I was frustrated at the slow pacing of the story. This is weird because I am usually thinking that things happen too fast, but the constant back and forth of Ambury and Cassandra to their family members seeking out information but yet coming up with nothing was very frustrating...at least to me but not to them.
The secondary characters were also frustrating. I can only think that the inclusion of Southwaite's sister, Lydia, was only to set up a book for her. I hate that because she really had no place in the story and I don't think I would read anything about her because she wasn't written as a very good person. Also, Kendall was just really, really annoying. At some point, I began to think that maybe he had a thing for Lakewood and that was why he hated Cassandra so much. I almost hope he is paired with Lydia in a book so I can skip it completely.
Which brings me to my main beef with this book. Why did Ambury, Kendall and Southwaite carry such a grudge against Cassandra. I mean, usually, the friends would be upset if she did trap him in a marriage, but in this case she didn't and refused to marry him. According to Kendall, Lakewood loved her and continued to pine for her, but on what planet are girls obligated to marry every man who professes love for them. Obviously she didn't want anything to do with him since she forfeited her reputation rather than marry him. And the scene where she tells Ambury (or Yates depending which chapter you are reading) about why she refused to marry him was so late in coming I had really ceased to care.
I'm not going to even touch on the whole drama with brother Gerald, Ambury's parents and Aunt Sophie's secret. That was a seriously messed up plot.
So in the end, I couldn't wait for this book to end. I'm very sorry because Ms. Hunter is usually better than this mess. It was almost a DNF with a side of Wallbanger, but I did finish it because I was trying to stay awake for the Red Wings game that didn't start until 10 pm. I should have just gone to bed.
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