House for the Season #2: Plain Jane

Book 2 in Marion Chesney's A House For The Season series finds us back with the close knit "family" of servants at 67 Clarges street. Back in the red because of the houses shifty man of affairs, the servants are pleased to learn that the house has been let. But to who? The Hart family has two daughters-beautiful but spoiled Euphemia and sweet be plain Jane. The girls mother is a horrid, unloving harridan-who has neglected Jane and belittled her always for being plain-never acknowleding her goodness, and in fact, has no plans to give Jane any come out. Fortunately, Jane's father-a war hero, but highly henpecked by his wife, finally gets a backbone and insists Jane been taken to some events. At one such rout, Jane sees Rupert, Lord Tregarthan-the very man Jane has secretly had a crush on since childhood. Would the dashing Corinthian want the beautiful but vain Euphemia or would someone finally see Jane for the beauty she really is? We also see romance with the downstairs set-which of the servants will be swept off their feet by the arrival of a new, exotic servant? To find thesse mysteries out you must read this charming Chesney regency romance for yourself. Not quite as good as book one, but still better than most regencies out there. Recommended. 4 stars

And the four stars is mostly for the vivid descriptions of *below-stairs* life, rarely seen in a regency novel. Jane is the plain younger sister, so commonly the heroine in Regency fare. She also has has the prerequisite "dysfunctional family" so common in these Regency novels, and since Marion Chesney can write *nasty* very well, I thought this family could really capture a prize. Jane's mother hired this "house for the season" for the coming out for Jane's older sister, and incidentally Jane too, comes along. The house they are renting was unusually cheap, and Jane's mother, never one to ask questions, is quite happy with this arrangement, but why indeed, was this "house for a season" so reasonably priced? It seems that this house is haunted. Jane tries to uncover the underlying mystery, and in so doing, involves the Earl in her schemes. She captures his interest, and they eventually fall in love, as expected. This is the limitation of this novel - as in most of Ms. Chesney's Regency novels - they fall in love and get married so suddenly, that the reader is left wondering how it happened. The romance is hardly fleshed at all - sort of like - they fell in love and they got married. Still, a fun read.

It was a pleasure to read. Jane was normal, and overshadowed by her beautiful, unpleasant older sister. But how many of us actually fall in love with our childhood crush, and they with us- so much as to want to marry us, even with our "unfashionable" upbringing? Good light reading, and more realistic than the first.