Caroline Lexham lives quietly in a Dartmoor village, and is surely the last person anybody would suspect of being cousin to an Earl.  Her late father married beneath his lofty station and was disowned by the family, with whom she has hitherto had no dealings.  But when her uncle dies and she is mentioned in his will, she travels up to London to witness the reading.  She is amazed when it transpires that she is indeed a beneficiary and will inherit the palatial Lexham House if she has satisfied the conditions of the will within six months.  It is obvious that her uncle has only done this because he disapproved of his son’s profligate ways, but maybe there is a way to inherit after all...

Sandra Heath has a remarkable gift for picking readers up and depositing them in a particular place and time.  When you read this, the London of 1818 opens up before your eyes, from the new fashion of exclusive hotels to the Duke of Wellington and Bonapartist assassins.  In short, you get more than just a novel; you get a real historical novel.  Perhaps less impressive is the fact that everybody in this book is either very good or sneeringly, irredeemably wicked, which renders the scene somewhat black and white.  Those interesting gray characters are what tend to make a story come to life, and they are sadly lacking.  But there are plenty of other things to enjoy in here, and if you enjoy Regency romances, then this is a good one by one of my top five authors in this genre.