The Songbird’s Seduction

Bestseller Brockway (No Place for a Dame) delivers a deeply delightful travel-centric romantic comedy. In the fall of 1908, charming operetta chanteuse Lucy Eastlake assists her elderly aunts as they travel from their home outside London to a small town in France, where they intend to claim a treasure. Prof. Ptolemy Archibald Grant, the grandson of Lucy’s aunt’s old lover, has been volunteered by his grandfather to help the ladies with their mission. When bad weather divides the party, Grant and Lucy brave folk tradition in the Channel Islands, the inevitable loss of their traveling funds, and the dubious joys of hitchhiking through the French countryside. Despite the Edwardian setting, this book is rooted firmly in mid-century screwball comedy, and its banter, slapstick, and lighthearted good spirits are irrepressible. The deftly written protagonists find a touching depth of understanding at the heart of the merriment. Brockway’s well researched settings, costumes, and attitudes allow the few bits of anachronistic banter to slide by without grating. This one’s a keeper. [em](Sept.) [/em]