Sweet Disorder

Phoebe Sparks, a widow living in the West Sussex town of Lively St. Lemeston, has strong political opinions and no desire to remarry. Unfortunately, thanks to an ancient law, any man who marries her gets two votes in the town’s upcoming Parliamentary elections. Nick Dymond is ordered by his politically powerful mother, Lady Tassell, to find Phoebe a Whig husband, while charming Reginald Gilchrist pushes her to wed for the good of the Tories. Lerner’s distinctive and likable cast of parents, siblings, reluctant suitors, and political opponents feels integral to the story. The election is small, but the stakes seem large: Lady Tassell will do anything to get her son Tony elected, no matter what it costs Nick, and it genuinely hurts Phoebe to sell out her political convictions, even to help her family. This rich and memorable Regency romance brings its setting and characters perfectly to life. (Mar.)