Penelope Goes To Portsmouth
The Travelling Matchmaker Series – Book III
M C Beaton

Robinson (Constable and Robinson)
24 February 2011/ ISBN 9781849014816
Historical Romance /1800 The road to Portsmouth and Portsmouth
Amazon US || UK

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde

Hannah Pym’s next destination is the seaside town of Portsmouth as she is eager to see the sea for the first time. Among the passengers is the beautiful merchant’s daughter Penelope Wilkins, returning in disgrace from her academy for giving a music teacher the wrong ideas. Also along is the equally beautiful Lord Augustus Railton but drunk, lazy and penniless. While at an inn, things take a turn for the interesting when they meet an unfortunate footman being escorted to his hanging for stealing his mistress’s brooch. Convinced of his innocence the party begins to make plans to save him from being executed.

I’ve read lots of Regency romances but these are rather in a sub-genre of their own. Mixing romance with humor and adventure and contained in an admirably small but perfectly formed package they are very addictive. Add in plenty of colorful characters, a solid underpinning of knowledge of the period and an ongoing story (which gets added to) and you have a winning recipe for a good read. Fans of her modern detective series will enjoy these books even if they are not normally romance readers; anybody who is will relish the chance of reading something rather different.

Reviewer's Note: