The Pleasure of Bedding a Baroness

Lejeune (Christmas with the Duchess) staffs her latest Regency romance with such farcical stereotypes that they might as well wear Punch and Judy masks. Twin 20-year-old Americans—Patience, a tactless know-it-all, and Prudence, a sulky, stupid brat—take on the mean-spirited London elite to claim a questionable inheritance. The “hero” is Max Purefoy, debauched heir of the duke of Sunderland, who drunkenly assaults Patience in the first chapter and then avoids her to dally with Prudence. Secondary plots and predictable twin-related twists abound. The humor is broad enough to be offensive, the characters have no emotional connection, and the play with strict social codes that defines the genre is discarded in favor of pratfalls. Superficial screwball comedy does have an audience, and Lejeune may find it, but those who love Regency romance will come away empty. (Nov.)