Marrying Harriet

Chesney ( Animating Maria ) turns out another frothy Regency romance, whose compulsory figures include Lord Charles Marsham, exquisite from his impeccably tied cravat to his gleaming Hessian boots, who is perfectly contented with his bachelor life of guzzling and gambling, and prim, proper Harriet Brown, Methodist minister's daughter come to London's social season to find a husband. But Capability Brown, as Charles calls her, is so intent on involving him in her ``good works,'' which range from rescuing treed felines to playing Cupid for the outspoken Tribble sisters--themselves matchmakers for misfits on the marriage mart, with Harriet their latest challenge--that her own romance seems to be an afterthought. Chesney, in the fifth and final installment of her School for Manners series, overburdens a short book with copious subplots and offers a paucity of erotic chemistry. There are too many charming characters, too many nefarious villains, all after Harriet's reputation and person, even too many casually committed murders--and thus too many roads for readers to travel before arriving at the expected ``happily ever after.'' (Aug.)