The problem with this plan, of course, is that Harriet still has major feelings for Wyn-feelings that only get stronger as they pretend to be blissfully in love. Determined to make sure everyone has the perfect last trip, Harriet and Wyn resolve to fake their relationship for the week. Telling the truth about their breakup is out of the question, because the cottage is up for sale, and this is the group’s last hurrah. But (surprise!) Wyn is there too, and he and Harriet have to share a (very romantic) room and a bed. She’s ready for a vacation at her happy place-the Maine cottage she and her friends visit every summer. So they keep it a secret from their friends and families-in fact, Harriet barely even admits it to herself, focusing instead on her grueling hours as a surgical resident. They’ve been part of the same boisterous friend group since college, and they know that their breakup will devastate the others and make things more than a little awkward. Wyn Connor and Harriet Kilpatrick were the perfect couple-until Wyn dumped Harriet for reasons she still doesn’t fully understand.
But the rules explain the characters and their actions so seamlessly that we never laugh at them but rather at the shenanigans of this kooky universe.Īs if The Parasol Protectorate series met "The Princess Bride" and a corseted "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider."Įxes pretend they’re still together for the sake of their friends on their annual summer vacation. An additional comic effect comes from the ironic distance between readers’ expectations of the proprieties in historical romance (including steampunk) and the topsy-turvy rules of Cecilia and Ned’s universe.
Familiar romance tropes appear but as if in a fun-house mirror, with broad winks at their origins, while characters make sarcastic references to passionate novels in the Victorian canon. In this joyride of a debut, Holton draws us into a madcap world of courtly corsairs, murderous matrons, and pity-inspiring henchmen. Tagging along are Ned Lightbourne a man who may be a pirate an Italian commissioned to kill her and a royal agent trying to protect her. But when her mentor is abducted along with the rest of the society, Cecilia sets off to rescue them from a nefarious villain, who just happens to be a frustrated poet (among other things). This is a woman-only group of scoundrels and thieves who plunder the country in their magical flying houses while nursing intragroup grievances ranging from the petty to the lethal. A lady scoundrel goes on a road trip with a smooth-tongued assassin in an alternate-universe Victorian Britain.Ĭecilia Bassingthwaite is anxiously awaiting her induction into the highest ranks of the Wisteria Society.
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