A Wedding In Springtime by Amanda Forester-a review

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DESCRIPTION-Release Date May 7, 2013

Five minutes into Miss Eugenia Talbot’s presentation at court, notorious rogue Mr. William Grant made her laugh, ruining her debut. To hush up the scandal, Eugenia’s aunt hires a matchmaker to quickly find a suitor— anyone except the infamous William Grant—to help restore Eugenia’s reputation. But amiable Eugenia shows a disturbing tendency to follow her heart, and is again caught in the company of notorious Grant. When a traitor creeps closer, threatening to ruin more than just Eugenia’s reputation, her kindheartedness may be her ultimate undoing

REVIEW

5 out of 5 for this reader folks!

WELCOME to London England 1810 where manners and the way one carry themselves and/or places oneself in a public position could determine whether one is ruined or successful. Welcome to the regency romance genre!

“Ten minutes into her societal debut, Eugenia Talbot was ruined.”

I do love a book that begins with a good ruining don’t you?? LOL

A Wedding in Springtime by author Amanda Forester was CREATIVE and a multi-layered read! This author had so many sub-plots circling around the main plot that I feared at first it was going to get confusing and take away from the main story! Let me tell you something .. Amanda Forester has a talent for knitting all these sub-stories together to make the main story that much more exciting! I have read many historical romances and most follow a simple formula. Amanda Forester has completely ignored this formula and walked down a different path! It made her book stand out and I often was wondering if I was reading a romance or a mystery! In my opinion …. BOTH! 🙂

Our main character is Eugenia Talbot. Genie is the product of a scandal when her mother ran away from her privileged life and married a commoner. Now it is up to Genie to salvage the family name (she has been hosted by her stuck up aunt) and enter society as a respectable lady! Well about 5 minutes into her debut she loses her sense of “respectability” by laughing at the wrong moment in front of the wrong person. I tell you I was chuckling right from the start as her reason for ruin is HILARIOUS!

A large factor of her ruined societal debut has to do with a “good rake” (there is a full explanation of a good vs bad rake in this book ..lol) who encourages this laughter and adds to Genie’s demise. Mr William Grant. Grant is a devilishly handsome young man who embraces all the riches and indulgences of life and refuses to ever consider the sanctity of marriage. He would much rather frolic through his stages of life carefree and he ensures that this is common knowledge among the ton.

To ensure that Genie does in fact become married soonest to salvage what little reputation she has left, her stuck up aunt covets the advice of a dowager duchess (one who’s grandson just so happens to be betrothed to her daughter) and so begins the search for a proper suitor. During all this, a friendship and strong attraction is developing between Genie and Grant. I will not elaborate from there as I do not want to provide any major spoilers!

With the backdrop of Napoleon warring with England, many secrets, letters, codes and villians revealed, romances and the typical gossip of the ton, this story is a page turner. The cast of characters (believe me there are so many that I could go on and on) are so interesting that you cannot wait for more and hope that in the next book you get to meet them again. The wit and banter that Amanda Forester uses in conversation between her characters had me laughing out loud. The mystery and suspense she tangles in with the romance was like a cherry on a sundae!

I am so looking forward to her next book! 🙂

ARC from Netgallery was provided for an honest review.

Reviewed by Rachel