In the summer of 1819, upper-class families all over England with daughters of the proper age were holding councils of war. Their daughters were going tobe presented to society, officialy to the court, and most critically to the men who would marry that year. Everyone hoped that one of those men would marry the daughter of the house. The Tarletons want a suitable husband for Anne. She wants a particular man, and she wants him to love her.
Size: 354 KB (66,410 words)
Genre: Historical
Sex Contents: Some Sex
Tags: Ma/Fa, Ma/ft, Slow
Review by Quasirandom [other reviews by Quasirandom]
Reviewed:
Over the years I’ve read a lot of Regency Romances, historical romances set 1810-1820 when the Prince of Wales ruled Great Britain as Regent for his incapacitated father, King George III. There’s a lot of Regency Romances out there, thanks to the enduring popularity of Austen and Heyer, and some of them are … not so good. Formulaic. Ridiculous. Rote. (There’s nothing wrong with either formula or with being ridiculous, as long as you own it — and the not-so-good ones own neither.) (Rote is always bad.) “Councils of War” is neither formula nor ridiculous nor rote. It is also, not coincidentally, a nearly pitch-perfect Regency Romance.
The London Season approaches, being the time of year when Parliament is in session but also, and more importantly to that majority of good society that doesn’t have anyone directly involved with the government, the time of year when young ladies are introduced to society with the intention of marrying them off. Two families face the coming Season with different attitudes and approaches. The Tarletons are looking for a match appropriate to their station for a daughter, Anne, and plan a campaign accordingly. Lionel Grant’s family are working on their own strategies for finding a good match for his sister, Sophia. Their stories intersect in ways neither family expects.
I like this story a lot. The central romance is a delight, and the interactions within and between both principal’s families is excellent. All characters are well-drawn, even the ridiculously silly ones. It’s a romance in the genre sense, without the formulas of Romances — and it never forgets that the heart of a Romance is the romance. Recommended.
Note btw that while this is the first of a series, the other stories aren’t really about these two families — characters from this do show up, but this story is complete in itself.
