Compromising Situation [Paperback]

The plot for A Compromising Situation has been summed up well by other reviewers so I won't go over it again. I would simply like to agree with others who found this adult story about grown up people a real treat. This book is a little dark; not much in the way of light relief appears. Indeed, at first I thought that the dowager Lady Rothe would be a comic character but we eventually see that she, like the Colonel and Maeve, has her own sadness and regrets.

Another reviewer has mentioned the slightly odd choice of the heroine's surname - Midden - and I have to say I agree; afterall the word means dunghill! However, overlook this little distraction and enjoy some excellent story telling, quality prose, well-drawn characters and follow Maeve and Lord Rothe as they find a deep and unexpected happiness with each other.

I look forward to joining Clarissa in her London debut and hope to meet the newly married Lord and Lady Rothe again in A Dangerous Compromise.

The depth of the characterization in this book is extraordinary. A sentence, sometimes merely one word, conveys more here than entire pages have in other books. Another plus (at least to this reviewer) is the ages of those characters: Maeve Midden is eight-and-twenty, rather old for a heroine, while the hero, Colonel Andrew Derhurst, now Lord Rothe, is ten years her senior.

One of the problems with the primogeniture system is, if something happens to the primo, the secondary is seldom sufficiently experienced, much less trained to step up and into primo's empty boots. Such is the case with the Colonel, a second son who was sent off to the military at the age of eighteen, courtesy of his father who obligingly purchased his colors for him. The fact that perhaps the lad might not have wanted colors had no influence on the father; the older son would be the next Lord Rothe, and there was an end to it.

When that older son dies, the by-then Colonel is sent home to take over the estates and the title--plus the widow and teen-aged daughter of his brother. They seem like empty-headed flibber-tee-gibbets to the battled-hardened Andrew, who has no patience with them, nor the drawing room skills needed to build a relationship with the only family he now has left to him.

Maeve, on the other hand, was born a gentlewoman, but left motherless at the age of four. Hard-headed and stubborn, she willingly cooperated in her own ruination at the hands of an experienced rake. When her father disowned her, she turned to the only person who had ever been kind to her--her teacher, Miss Midden. Soon, however, Maeve is out on her own again, and becomes a governess.

Thus, these two lost souls are brought together in a highly believable manner, and in spite of themselves, are drawn one to the other. Of course, the teen-aged Clarissa protests the title of governess assigned to Maeve, who suggests instead that of companion. And it is thus that this relationship is forged. Clarissa is a rare handful, indeed, and unknowingly brings the two older persons together, in a startling twist to the 'unsuitable elopement' gambit.

This is an outstanding traditional Regency romance; you'll find something marvelous on every page. I just wish the author had chosen a better surname for Maeve to assume. But if that's the only gripe I can find in this most satisfying book--well, then, the author must indeed know best. I'm eagerly awaiting the next book from the very talented Ms. Donnelly, and I'll bet you'll feel the same way, too.