Kasey Michaels, A Gentleman by Any Other Name

A Gentleman by Any Other Name

Kasey Michaels

Mira, Mar 2006, $6.99, 384 pp.

ISBN: 0373771002

In 1811 England, widower Chance Beckett hires Julia Carruthers as a nanny to his five year old daughter Alice, though she has no experience; he simply liked her spunk championing his child. A couple of days later they travel to Romney Marsh, the home of his adopted father, where he plans to leave Julia and Alice while he goes back to work for the War Office. However, his superior wants him to rusticate and uncover who is leading major smuggling operations in the area that abet the French.

Ainsley is elated to see his oldest son Chance, who has not visited in several years as they are estranged. He and his other adopted children and the only one of his seed assume that Julia is Chance's lover. As Julia adjusts to the strange household, she and her employer fall in love. However, Chance refuses to take a chance on this flimsy emotion while seeking to capture the head smuggler.

The zany Beckett extended family turn A GENTLEMAN BY ANY OTHER NAME into a delightful Regency romance. The War Office smuggling subplot comes late into the tale, as readers meet the enchanting and often amusing cast, wonderful Ainsley and his seven orphans, some of his sailing cronies, Chance's daughter and Julia. The storyline is fast-paced as matchmakers galore interfere with the relationship between the wharf rat and the lady. Kasey Michaels is at her historical, make that hysterical best, with this fine you can go home if the heart is in it romance.