cover image The War Hero's Wife

The War Hero's Wife

Martha Lou Thomas. Walker & Company, $17.95 (211pp) ISBN 978-0-8027-1042-0

Billed by the publisher as ``a Regency with a difference,'' this novel by the author of Waltz with a Stranger features a heroine who is already married, so we are not treated to the familiar rounds of the London ton. Instead, Lady Sarah is subjected to the public displays of her lionized husband, Sir Edward Bledden Smith, hero of the Napoleonic Wars, and his flamboyant, pregnant mistress. In the process of coming to terms with her wifely role, Sarah becomes embroiled with a traveling con artist and performs in rural assemblies, adorned in a blue-tinted face in the alleged style of Britain's ancient Queen Boadicea. But a traveling female is subject to many hazards, and Sarah is rescued from one of her predicaments by handsome Jack Rutland, a reformed gamer, eager to settle down in a newly won, crumbling estate. The relationship between the two runs a predictable course, considerably smoothed by the convenient death of Sarah's husband in battle. Thomas sets a fast pace for two likable characters who display a sprightly sense of humor. (September)