My Lady Housekeeper (Zebra Regency Romance)

Reading "My Lady Housekeeper" really hammered home just how much indiviual tastes and inclinations shape one's enjoyment of a book. Having read some rather lukewarm reactions that others had had for Jeanne Savery's latest offering, "My Lady Housekeeper," I really wasn't expecting much. But then I found myself stuck with two days off and nothing new to read except "My Lady Housekeeper." So I thought that I'd give it a go; and I glad I did because the book turned out to be a surprisingly absorbing read. Lady Sarah Staunton is livid when discovers that even in death her father is trying to run her life: in order to inherit what is her due and to carry on living in a manner that she has become accustomed to, her father has decreed that Lady Sarah must marry within a year of his death, or else she will have to make do with a pittance of an allowance. But if her father thought that he could dictate terms to her from his grave, he never truly knew his daughter. Determined to marry only for love, Lady Sarah instructs her solicitor to find a way to break her father's will, and takes off for an old estate that her father had used as a hunting box, Hedgerow Cottage, where she's decided to live in seclusion until her inheritance is freed up. All is going according to plan unti,l that is, she learns that her solicitor (who has no knowledge that she's putting up at the estate) has rented Hedgerow Cottage to the new Earl of Sherringham. Rashly, Lady Sarah decides to masquerade as the estate's housekeeper, taking on the name of Emily Walker, instead of leaving the estate. And exactly how foolish her actions are are quickly hammered home when she meets the earl and discovers that he is actually someone she had lost her heart to many years ago. Will the earl discover that her housekeeper and the missing heiress are one and the same person? Equally worrying for Lady Sarah is just how different the "real" Sherringham is from her idealised version. Which version does she truly prefer? Especially considering that "this" Sherringham seems to have thought nothing of inviting the notorious Mrs. Green with him to the hunting cottage. Little does Lady Sarah know however that the true danger may not come from being discovered by Sherringham but from a very sinister individual who has plans of his won for the new earl...What I loved about "My Lady Housekeeper" was that it belonged to both Lady Sarah and Julie Green. The men (like Sherringham) were vital to plot developments and the romance-angle of course, but the story really belonged to the two women. Lady Sarah and Julie Green were engaging, complex and intelligent women with both admirable traits and flaws. And it made for a much "deeper" read to see who both women wrestled mentally with their feelings of jealously and frustration. I also enjoyed the friendship that developed between these two women and was happy that like Lady Sarah, Julie was given a happily ever-after ending. Some readers may get a bit impatient with