The Accidental Countess

September 22, 2014
Bowman draws on the identity confusion capers of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest in the charming second entry in her Playful Brides Regency series (after The Unexpected Duchess). Capt. Julian Swift, an untitled second son who served in the Napoleonic wars, returns to London in the autumn of 1815. Cassandra Monroe has been exchanging heartfelt correspondence with him, and a deep emotional connection has grown between them, but Julian is intended to be betrothed to Cass’s cousin, Penelope. When an unenthusiastic Penelope uses a house party with the fictional Patience Bunbury to evade meeting Julian, Cass decides to boldly adopt the persona of Patience in order to spend time with her beloved pen pal. Antics ensue. Readers who are frustrated by Cass’s initial passivity and the contrivances and coincidences demanded by the story’s source material will be rewarded by Bowman’s depiction of the intimate caring connecting between Cass and Julian. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

Starred review from October 15, 2014
A group of friends performs a complicated ruse to help Lady Cassandra Monroe woo her cousin's intended in this Regency romance that borrows liberally from The Importance of Being Earnest. Bowman (The Unexpected Duchess, 2014, etc.) returns to her Playful Brides series with an aging debutante who secretly loves Capt. Julian Swift, the man who is all but engaged to her cousin Penelope. Julian has been at war for seven years, buoyed through the horrors of the battlefield by regular letters from Cass. Now he has returned to England, ready to seek out Penelope and tell her he can't marry her after all. But Penelope, who doesn't want to marry him either, and thinks thinks he intends to formalize their engagement, invents a convenient friend in the country named Patience Bunbury and pretends to have gone to visit her in order to avoid seeing him. Meanwhile, Cassandra's friend Lucy Hunt, the new Duchess of Claringdon, concocts a crazy scheme to allow Cass and Julian to spend some time together. She persuades Cass to pretend to be Patience Bunbury and lure Julian to the country for a house party. Lucy is sure that a few days spent in Cassandra's company will persuade Julian that he loves her and that he will forgive their deception once he finds out that Patience is really his dear friend and correspondent, Cassandra. All seems to be working out when Julian doesn't recognize Cassandra, who has transformed from a gawky teenager into a total bombshell in the years he's been away. But as more and more friends and relatives are drawn into the deception, it seems inevitable that Julian will learn the truth before Cass gets up the nerve to tell him herself. The references to Oscar Wilde's play are more of a tribute than a straight retelling, which keeps this hilarious and lively story from becoming too predictable. Bowman is one to watch.

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October 1, 2014
What would Patience Bunbury do? Cassandra Monroe can't believe she is asking herself this, especially since Patience is a figment of her cousin Penelope's imagination. Penelope invented Patience to get out of doing things she didn't want to do. Penelope currently wishes to avoid Captain Julian Swift, whom she believes has every intention of finally proposing to her. Cass, who has been in love with Julian ever since he went off to war seven years earlier, would give anything to spend time with him. If Cass pretends to host a house party as Patience, it just might provide the opportunity for Julian to finally get to know her. Much to Cass's surprise, the plan actually seems to be working, until Cass begins to wonder if Julian is falling in love with her or Patience. The second in Bowman's thoroughly entertaining, Regency-set Playful Brides series (The Unexpected Duchess, 2014) will delight readers with its madcap plot and buoyant sense of humor.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)