An Unlikely Countess

Beverley's 11th Malloren World romance, which starts a new trilogy, is a delightful, deftly plotted exploration of social class, gender roles, and romance. Prudence Youlgrave's expectations are reasonable for an impoverished woman in 1765 Yorkshire: she hopes to improve her station by marrying well. When roguish Catesby Burgoyne rescues her from robbers and persuades her to marry him, both are shocked by their impulsiveness and then stunned when Cate's older brother's death makes him the implausible earl of Malzard and Prudence an improbable countess. Prudence and Cate's path to love is rife with obstacles and charming secondary characters such as the formidable Lady Arradale. Though the final confrontation with Prudence's former fiancé is disappointingly anticlimactic, the romance is otherwise charming and refreshingly restrained. (Mar.)