The Desirable Duchess

In a nutshell: Alice is informally engaged to Sir Gerald. Her parents orchestrate a break-up and marry her off to the new peer in town, the Duke of Farrant. A talking bird starts off the controversy. Misunderstandings and general nuttiness ensue. My opinion: Quite an amusing read...the first time. It's still funny, even six reads later, but if it is re-read too soon, it's just annoying. The talking bird isn't even the funny part. The silliness of the main characters and several supporting characters is what induces chuckling. The heroine is 18 or so when the story starts and seems in keeping with her age, i.e., naive and trusting. The duke is around 30, a veteran of the Peninsular Campaign, and so a little hardened--something that is not really evidenced in the story except for a very few instances when the duke says/thinks something to that effect. Meanwhile, he has some serious problems with jealousy. Overall: 4 stars because I do really like this very succinct story. I like Marion Chesney's ability to stuff an entertaining story into a very small book... :o)

the theme of this regency-basically an arranged marriage, is thrown a loop when the heroines mynah bird says something about her old love at the wedding breakfast. What follows is a comedy and drama of errors. It was enjoyable, although the two main characters were a bit too stupid to live sometimes. The secondary characters, her irish friends, make the book. I'd recommend this book for a classic regency fan. 4 stars.

Lovely Alice Lacey was a true Incomparable, and her marriage to the Duke of Ferrant was the event of the Season. Few realized, however, that she was secretly in love with another - so much so that she confided her feelings to a clever talking mynah bird who deemed it fit to announce these intimacies right at the couple's wedding! The gossip mongers were relentless. Her marriage was cold and imperson, and her new husband was rumored to be taken with another woman. But before she even realized what was happening, Alice discovered that the man she had thought she loved was something other than what he seemed, and the man she had married was far more than she'd hoped. Her one resort was her lost one - to convine the man she had wed that they were in love...

Alice didn't want to marry the Duke of Ferrant, but it had been arranged, even though her parents knew her heart belonged to another. How sad? Well, you might think so, until you realize an untimely gift of a mynah bird and an unusual sequense of events might make her realize the man she married was something far more than she had hoped for! However, the gossip mongers were persistent! Her marriage was horrible and it was rumored the Duke had taken a mistress... Oh, woe... what to do?