Second Chances: 6

I've been hearing great things about this author so I thought to give her a try. In this case they were right! Miss Pickens knows how to write an enjoyable, intelligent, exciting and fun regency romance. The hero and heroine of this tale are both widowers, and Allegra has been secretly hired by the Earl's son to tutor him. Allegra is a fantastic heroine-highly intelligent but loving and compassionate as well. The Earl is what every great regency hero should be-brooding and moody at first-but through the story we learn of the reasons why as well as seeing him open up under the heroines guidence and connection. The story is a tad more sensuous than your typical regency but certainly nothing offensive. The story ends on a dramatic note that was enjoyable. If you like regency's by Balogh, Kelley, Quick or Coulter-then I highly recommend this book. Andrea Pickens is an author to watch. 5 stars:)

Allegra Proctor, impoverished but very well-educated widow, applies for the job of tutor to the teenage son of the Earl of Wrexham. Max, the son, offers her the job without his father's knowledge, and by the time Allegra arrives at Stormaway, their Yorkshire estate, it's too late for Wrexham to return her to London immediately. So he grudgingly allows her to stay on temporarily until he can find a replacement, and in the meantime orders her to stay out of his way. However, it's not long before Max discovers that his new tutor has another agenda in mind: she's out for revenge on a neighbour of theirs for a wrong he did her family. And soon Max is helping her break and enter the villain's home. And Wrexham, following them, is forced to help them escape.Convinced that a wrong has been done to Allegra, Wrexham agrees to help her. But that means spending more time with her, and even getting to see a side of her he hadn't expected - and showing her that he's not such a toplofty, arrogant aristocrat as she thought, either. And suddenly two people who had assumed that they would never marry again find themselves reassessing their priorities...This is a delightful romance, of a very high quality. The characters are appealing - especially the fifteen-year-old Max - and Allegra and Wrexham make a lovely couple. A few minor nitpicks: I find it hard to believe that a woman could have been taken seriously as a gentleman's tutor even for a second, but I let myself ignore that as I got sucked into the story. Second, when Allegra was pretending to be Wrexham's distant cousin and they started using first names, I felt that they were more likely to remain formal with each other. Certainly, she would have called him Wrexham, not Leo, if she was avoiding 'my lord'.That aside, this is a keeper :)

Max the Earl of Wrexham's son had been allowed to choose his own tutor. His father had not expected Mrs. Proctor, a widow whose most valuable possession a valuable book, had been stolen by the dastardly Lord Sandhill. Allegra decides to resort to burglary to recover her lost book and the Earl becomes involved.