The Kydd Inheritance
Jan Jones

Robert Hale
February 2011/ ISBN 9780709091714
Historical Romance / 1815 Northamptonshire, England
Amazon US || UK

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde

Nell Kydd feels that she could manage Kydd Court very well if only her interfering uncle Jasper didn’t keep turning up and making a mess of it all. He seems bent on running it into the ground, and she has no idea why. Her father is dead, her mother appears to inhabit a fantasy land of her own and her only brother Kit has gone missing in India, so she has nobody to turn to. Add to that a lack of money and the marriage that her uncle thinks is a good idea (even if nobody else does including the proposed groom) and it is easy to see why the arrival of her brother’s old schoolfriend Captain Hugo Derringer is so interesting. But he is a strange man, and Nell is going to find that not only he has secrets to hide.

If you have read Fair Deception you will recognize some of the characters in this new novel, but if you haven’t (and I haven’t) then you will be glad to hear that this is a prequel instead of a sequel. If you enjoyed it as I did then you will be looking out for this other book, which was shortlisted for the RNA Love Story of the Year in 2010. This book ticks most of the boxes you can think of for a Regency novel including some intrigue and mystery elements, highwaymen, some engaging characters and a reasonable feel for the period. There was plenty of plot as well as romance, which is something I personally like. If you do as well, then this ought to please. Ms Jones is a fairly new author, but one I hope to be reading more from soon.

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