“If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.”
Jane Austen
Blurb:
MISS OTIS REGRETS...
The entirely of Miss Elspeth Otis’s inheritance from her wastrel father is a battered old trunk with some scrawled-upon foolscap sheets. Nothing that could free her from a stifling life with her fusty maiden aunties in a musty old cottage in a misty corner of Scotland. Nothing that will give her the life she’s always dreamed of—a life full of kindness and kisses and love. Or will it?
NOTHING...
Mr. Hamish Cathcart wants more than anything to avoid the hasty marriage to a brewer’s daughter his father, the earl, has arranged to revive his fortunes. Hamish’s only hope is his failing publishing company, whose only asset is a scandalously banned book by an infamous, but unfortunately deceased, author. But when a new novel written by the same man lands on Hamish’s doorstep, he’ll go to any length to secure it—any length but love.
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This novella was previously released in the anthology Scandal's Daughters.
On the whole I enjoyed reading the book but in contrast to "The Danger of Desire" by the same author, I wasn't as captivated by the story. It was nice but somehow the characters were lacking some depth and left me wanting, well, more. Just - more.
Oh, alright, not everything should be more, there's enough morality and censure around that make me definitely want for less. The problem is that the heroine is more or less characterized by her upbringing without any real clues to her being more than just nice and creative and woefully oppressed by her aunts. The hero is...well, he is nice and he has a good sense of business. One aunt is really nice and open and very warm while the others are just judging and berating our heroine.
The story is okay albeit somewhat foreseeable but on the whole nice. And despite my cry for "more", I was upset when the heroine was shamed by her aunts and I was furious when "we" realized that they had tricked her and lied to her over and over again. Somehow I don't see how that is morally acceptable but, well, they didn't ask me, did they?
This book is nice but it won't make it on my "Can-be-read-over-and-over-again"-list.
★★★
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