Lady Mercy Danforthe Flirts with Scandal

Fresina returns to the 19th-century English village of Sydney Dovedale a dozen years after the events of The Wicked Wedding of Miss Ellie Vyne. Lady Mercy Danforthe and Rafe Hartley are all grown up now and totally over an infatuation that once led them to a three-hour marriage. “Lady Bossy-Breeches” dodges her easily managed, 40-year-old fiancé to attend Rafe’s marriage to her lady’s maid and friend, Molly. After Molly leaves Rafe at the altar, he blames the blameless Mercy. Naturally Mercy and Rafe return to old habits of bickering and thinking passionate thoughts, and it’s only a matter of time until the collapse of Mercy’s neurotic, Emma-like attempts to control everyone around her and maintain her well-ordered existence. Clever storytelling, strong wit, and eccentric villagers almost make the book, but arguments and lust simply don’t add up to love. (June)