Libby's London Merchant

I've read almost all of Kelly's work and this is among the best. If you're a fan of the Regency genre you'll recognize most of the characters in this book - the rich, handsome, rakish and inebriated duke, his foppish best friend, the pushy mama and older sister, and the intelligent, beautiful, poor-relations heroine. Yawn, right? Well, hang on to your bonnet because Kelly turns it all upside down. It's been a long time since I read a romance novel with a plot that actually surprised me and Kelly does it with such panache, such style, such joie de vive that you'll be smiling as you turn the pages. One of her best and, if you know Kelly, you know that's saying a lot.

Benedict Nesbit, Duke of Knaresborough, is being plagued by his sister to choose a wife. His friend Eustace, Earl of Devere, is pestering him to spy on the woman whom Eustace's family want him to marry - an heiress, but he's never met her and she could be ugly, or a shrew. Anxious to escape his sister, Nez agrees to help Eustace, and duly assumes the role of a chocolate-selling merchant and has an accident in his carriage - but worse than he'd planned - outside Libby Ames' home. She takes him in and, with the help of the local doctor, squire's son Anthony Cook, nurses him. What Nez doesn't know, though, is that Libby has a cousin, Lydia, with whom she and her mother and mentally-handicapped brother live. Lydia, who has just departed for Brighton, is the heiress. Libby is ineligible; her mother was the daughter of a tobacconist, and her father was disinherited and disowned for marrying her. Between them, Libby and the doctor discover that Nez is an alcoholic - he drinks to forget the horrors of Waterloo - and so, while the injuries from his accident are quickly healed, they make him stay so that they can wean him off alcohol. And so the `chocolate merchant' and Libby spend time together, and become close. Libby also spends a lot of time with the doctor - Anthony - during this time, and the overweight, bumbling, somewhat ugly man she's always seen as a figure of fun turns out to be solid, dependable and an excellent listener, as well as a cool hand in a crisis. A kiss from Nez appears to seal Libby's fate... until Anthony kisses her too. And then all is revealed about Nez's identity, and Libby receives two proposals... one later amended to a proposition once the duke discovers Libby's ineligibility. But which man does she love? And, assuming that Nez changes his mind, whom should she marry? It is extremely difficult to `cheer' for one suitor over another; Carla Kelly does an excellent job of making us like both. Both have flaws: the duke's pride, the doctor's tendency to secretiveness and withdrawal. Both have positive, even heroic, traits. One can offer Libby so much more, in terms of material things, than the other, while the other cannot even offer dependability in terms of always being there when she needs him - he is always on call, to the point of sometimes not sleeping for days on end when needed by patients. Nez would cherish her; Anthony is practical and would see her as a partner and helpmate. A memorable, out of the ordinary novel about characters who ring true and who stayed in my head for hours after I had finished it - highly recommended. One of Kelly's best! wmr-uk

How strange to order a book with the title "Libby's London Merchant" only to discover that of all the things the story is about a merchant isn't one of them. I always enjoy Kelly's books because there tends to be an earthiness to them that is rare in Regency novels. She doesn't favor dissolute rakes and "diamonds of the first water." What I found delightful in this book is how she took standard Regency plot and decided to take it somewhere you don't suspect.It opens with the requisite titled aristocrat who poses as a London merchant (hence the title) who when stranded in the country with an attractive "country miss" (standard plot so far, huh?) then falls for the girl and wants to marry her (still pretty standard). When he discovers her less than fine lineage he then makes a less honorable proposal-- which the heroine promptly turns down (still know this plot). The interesting thing is all the while there is a secondary character, a likeable but comedic secondary character that has been infatuated with Libby all along-- a simple country doctor. As you go through the novel where standard Regency romance plot devices are dropped into the plot as required the devices are slowly, deftly made insignificant.It was a nice read.