Daring Miss Lassiter (Mass Market Paperback)

The only reason this cannot be a 5 star review is because of the blantant misuse of noble titles throughout the book. But if you care little for accuracy in those matters this could be a 5 star book for you.

The Lassiters have fallen on hard times indeed. A crippling illness has forced Mr. Lassiter to retire from his post as vicar, and for him and his two daughters, Audrey and Rebecca, to retire to Saint Duxbury where they live a life of almost abject poverty, growing and selling vegetables at the local market. Their only hope is for Audrey to marry, but in spite of Audrey's beauty, the offers of marriage are few as practically no one wants to take on the crippled Mr. Lassiter and the disfigured Rebecca as well as the penniless Audrey. So that when the mysterious Mr. Turner offers Audrey 10, 000 pounds to impersonate a missing heiress, Audrey is forced to consider this proposition, much as she loathe to do so. However her circumstances are dire, and so, fearfully and with much misgivings, Audrey presents herself at Far Winds as the missing Roxanne Hastings.

Roxanne Hastings, Mr. Turner explains, has been missing from her home these past 7 years; she was 10 years old when she disappeared, and her mother, the rich and powerful Marianne Hastings has never given up hope of finding her daughter alive. And now that she is dying, Mr. Turner wishes to make her last days easier by presenting her with the missing Roxanne. But when Audrey arrives at Far Winds, she finds that things are alot more complicated and difficult than Mr. Turner made them out to be. To begin with there are Roxanne's cousins: the heir to the Hastings estate and fortune, Lord Harry, who immediately accuses Audrey of being a heartless fraud; and Thorn and Lucy, who grew up with Roxanne and who view Audrey with much suspicion and fear -- not long after Roxanne disappearance, Marianne Hastings had drawn up a new will distributing her wealth amongst Harry, Thorn and Lucy more generously. Roxanne's sudden reappearance certainly would invalidate this new division of riches. And Marianne Hastings herself proves to be other than Audrey expected: far from being frail and near death, Marianne proves to be a commanding and domineering presence. Audrey feels her nerves being drawn taught as she tries to balance her criminal actions with her natural inclination for truthfulness, the hostility she faces from Roxanne's cousins with her growing attraction to Lord Harry, and her growing obssesion to discover what had happened to Roxanne. And then someone starts sending her threatening messages. Could Roxanne's disappearance be linked to the messages she has been receiving? Audrey only knows that suddenly she is friendless and alone at Far Winds, and at the mercy of a dangerous stalker.

The way I have described the plot, you'd be correct in thinking that "The Daring Miss Lassiter" reads like a gothic novel. This is only somewhat true, for while the ingredients for a gothic romance are there, this novel nonetheless focuses more on Lord Harry's reluctant attraction for Audrey -- no doubt the reason why this novel was catergorised as a light regency romance! I liked the manner in which Marcy Stewart allowed Lord Harry's and Audrey's romance to develop, with lots of to-ing and fro-ing, as Lord Harry finally works out that life is not all black and white and that his own perception of things were far from accurate. The last few chapters that dealt with the Roxanne disapperance subplot was a little rushed, and I felt that the book could have done with a few extra chapters to resolve this a lot more fully, and so have made the book a five star novel; also except for Audrey and Lord Harry, the other characters in the novel could have done with a little more fleshing out. However this was an enjoyable read, and well worth recommending.