Lady Fortescue Steps Out

November 2, 1992
The impecunious Lady Fortescue, widowed and alone save for two loyal, unpaid servants, has sold off almost all of the furnishings in her large Bond Street home and faces a grim future as a member of the aristocracy too proud to seek employment or charity, yet too poor to survive on the infrequent largess of wealthy relatives oblivious to her plight. Salvation arrives in the unlikely form of old Colonel Sandhurst, an equally impoverished retired military man who falls at her feet in a hunger-induced faint one afternoon in Hyde Park. The two decide to join forces: the Colonel will share Lady Fortescue's home, and they will invite others of their station and situation to live with them and pool their resources. Thus is born what eventually becomes one of London's most popular hotels, The Poor Relation, to which the nobility flocks to enjoy the novelty of being waited upon by members of their own class. Chesney, author of 24 previous Regency novels ( Yvonne Goes to York, etc.), gives her many admirers a real treat with this first entry in a projected series. She expertly sets the scene, recapturing the bawdiness and color of a long-ago time, and her characters fairly leap off the pages. The ``poor relations'' undergo adventures both hilarious and tragic; larceny, attempted murder, a satisfactory love affair and unlikely alliances make the hotel the liveliest spot in London.

November 1, 1992
Life as a member of England's aristocratic class isn't easy when one has no money. Advertising one's misfortune--even to relatives--would be considered ill bred. But after she is caught stealing silver candlesticks from her wealthy nephew (he thinks she is becoming senile), Lady Fortescue is desperate. So she begins a search for others such as herself--genteel, blue-blooded, and poor. The little band of six she eventually organizes pools its meager resources and opens a hotel for high society, an establishment that soon brings excitement and romance to the lives of its owners. The adventures that begin in this story are the debut of a new series entitled "The Poor Relation." This first entry is a charming and humorous Regency, recommended for those who enjoy light-hearted historical romance.-- Leslie A. Bleil, Western Michigan Univ. Lib., Kalamazoo

Copyright 1992 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 1992
Chesney's fans will cheer when they open the pages of her latest romantic series and find a solid cast of eccentrics who call themselves the Poor Relations. Too impoverished to swim with the social tide, and too high class (and poorly trained) to work for a living, these people typically subsist by visiting relatives who look down their lorgnettes and feed them for a short while before sending them on their way to starve or beg lodging from other high-society kinfolk. Lady Fortescue, weary of such poor treatment, decides that a few poor relations should get together and take care of one another. Once they do, Sir Phillip hatches a plan to start a hotel and so embarrass the flourishing relatives that they will buy out the poor relations, thereby setting them up to live in comfort. Things don't work exactly that way, but "Lady Fortescue Steps Out" proves to be a promising start to a new set of Regency romance novels from the author of The Travelling Matchmaker and three other entertaining series. ((Reviewed Nov. 1, 1992))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1992, American Library Association.)