Miss Truelove Beckons [Paperback]

Our heroine is sweet but not cloying, a clergyman's daughter with high ideals but a strong streak of self-knowledge - a woman well up to helping a man in torment to find some inner peace and utterly deserving of the deep and abiding love he develops for her.

This is also a novel about mother love. Sadly, the previous reviewer here misses the point - yes Lady Leathorpe is a good "mom" (!!!) but she is firmly fixed in her own regency timeframe and she makes decisions wholly credibly in this historical context and social strictures of the times.

Donna Simpson is an interesting writer; she deals with issues that are slightly different in her books and often not quite what one would expect. I adore the regency genre but sometimes, too often in fact, it is hard to find a novel with a slightly different perspective. This one is different but well pleasing. A satisfying and worthwhile read on a cold winter's day.

Wycliffe Prescott, Viscount Drake, has returned from the wars a weary and broken man. The horrors of the Napoleonic Wars are still fresh in his mind, and his mother's constant reminders that he should marry and set up his nursery, only adds to the his feeling of malaise. He does however attempt to pull himself together, especially as his mother has invited her good friend, Lady Swinley, together with Lady Swinley's beautiful daughter, Arabella, and her niece, Miss Truelove Becket to Lea Park for the summer. Both Wycliffe's mother and Lady Swinley have hopes of promoting a match between Wycliffe and Arabella. However Wycliffe confounds everyone by being drawn to the poor cousin, Truelove Bucket, instead. Her sweet voice and gentle nature is a balm to his troubled soul -- Truelove seems to be instinctively able to sense what is wrong with Wycliffe and to know how to deal with him, much to the horror, chagrin and anger of Lady Swinley and Arabella. Before too long Wycliffe and Truelove have fallen in love with each other, though neither suspects that their love is reciprocated. And then Arabella, suspecting that she is getting no where with the viscount, lies to her cousin that she is in love with Wycliffe herself. Truelove is a humble vicar's daughter who has no expectation of ever winning such a man as Wycliffe Prescott for herself, so that when a letter arrives from her father bidding her to come home, she leaves Lea Park with little ceremony.

Arabella Swinley now makes her bid to win Wycliffe's affections. But she has been trained to be the perfect tonnish young lady, and has no understanding for Wycliffe's humours or the kinds of issues that move him -- making things easier for his tenants, relief for the war veterans, etc. However she must obtain a proposal of marriage from Wycliffe, for Arabella and her mother are quite penniless, and they face a life of abject poverty, unless Arabella marries well. How will things pan out? Will Arabella sacrifice her cousin's happiness for her own self interest? Will Truelove and Wycliffe find true happiness and fulfillment in each other?

I rather enjoyed this novel. The book doesn't boast of a very complex plot, and the characters are all pretty much the average stock of characters: hero, heroine, silly male friend, manipulative older woman, understanding mother, difficult to like younger woman, etc. Truelove Becket is probably one of the gentlest and sweetest of heroines -- I don't think she lost her temper even once in this novel, not even when Arabella was having one of her hysterical tantrums. Wycliffe Prescott is true to form as the troubled and dashing hero. Strangely enough however I was most intrigued by the character of Arabella Swinley, who veered from seeming quite shallow and manipulative to showing some backbone and affection for her cousin. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there is a novel in the works that features the rehabilitation of Arabella. I do hope so for I'm quite looking forward to that!

"Miss Truelove Beckons" is a very tasteful romance novel, and is well worth a five star rating.