Book Smart Kate

Book: 🌟🌟🌟🌟  Audiobook: 🌟🌟🌟🌟  Spice: Closed Door

By Suzanne Allain

This was my first Regency romance, and I picked it because of the storyline about them in The Bromance Bookclub (if you haven’t read it, you need to!), and I wasn’t sure what to expect. 

Diana Boyle is a wealthy young widow and intends to stay that way. Her first marriage was to a much older whom she didn’t love, and it soured her on the concept of marriage. One evening, she had multiple gentlemen callers and thought something was up. She soon discovers that her name and many others are included in a bachelor’s directory of wealthy single women published by Maxwell Dean. When she confronts Dean, he tries to explain that men without wealth themselves must marry a woman of means, but Diana isn’t buying it. Soon, she brings together the women on the list to turn the tables on their suiters and defy the gender norms of the era, taking the upper hand in courtship. As she and Dean navigate in each other’s orbits, they each question their individual motives and beliefs, leading to a fun, sweet, romantic adventure.

I don’t think Regency romances will make it into heavy rotation within my reading list, but I found this to be a charming, lighthearted story with lots of humor and character growth.

The audiobook narration by Elizabeth Knowelden brings out the classic Regency-era mood and makes this a quick, entertaining read.