Refining Felicity

A new Regency series, The School for Manners, opens with this volume, the first of six, from the author of the A House for the Season series. Featured are the Tribble sisters, Amy and Effy, who, though elderly and impoverished, still hope for release from spinsterhood. In dire straits, they advertise their only employable skillprofessional chaperoningbut their first client is a near disaster. She is Felicity Baronsheath, a hoydenish girl most at home on horseback, whose unconventional manners are a scandal to the ton and a worry to her husband-hunting parents. In the hands of Amy and Effy she is groomed, despite her foot-dragging, for the marriage mart. Although readers know that Felicity will snare the major catch of the season, there are enough amusing missteps and romantic confusions to hold attention in this lively novel. (Nov.)