This 12th romance from Britisher Fforde (Restoring Grace
) features a heroine as flintily naïve as she is endearing. Upon inheriting 51% of the Stanza and Stanza antique auction business from her uncle Clodio, Flora Stanza sublets her London flat for six months, packs up her pregnant kitty, Imelda, and heads for the countryside hamlet of Bishopsbridge. A chilly welcome and a partial buyout offer await her from cousin Charles, the 49% inheritor who has been running the business for years and is looking to gain operational control for himself and scheming fiancée Annabelle. Despite being banished to a remote cottage and run-ins with Annabelle, Flora decides to stick it out. Acceptance in the local church choir and a growing fascination with the antique business (enhanced by the presence of a number of interesting local men) reinforce her decision. The jejune prose has a schoolgirl quality, but Fforde brings an appealing, bumbling innocence to the age-old formula of a single woman against the vicissitudes of fortune and family, as Flora finds true love on her very own road show. (Apr.)
