Starred review from January 15, 2013
When Abigail Harewood--sexually innocent yet effervescently determined to live life to the fullest--decides to take a lover, she sets her sights on notorious rake the Duke of Wallingford, who has just resolved on a year of chastity and sober living. Abigail flees London with her sister and cousin for a year in Italy and decides it's a perfect opportunity to explore sensual pleasure. Since she has sworn to never marry yet wants to experience a full, vibrant life, she feels the need to check this goal off her Edwardian checklist. She meets the Duke of Wallingford in an inn and considers him a prime candidate, and when, through a contractual misunderstanding, it turns out that her party and his (consisting of his brother and their illegitimate uncle) are sharing the same Tuscan castle, she sets out to seduce him. However, Wallingford has sworn off his rakish ways, and the road to Abigail's happiness is further hindered by an irritating wager the two sets of relatives make that heightens the stakes if he fails. And then there are the mysterious servants that must be more than they seem, the enchanting setting of an Italian castle and Abigail's eerie sense that there is more magic afoot than Wallingford's spellbinding presence. The third of a debut trilogy loosely based on Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost with a distinct nod to the great operatic works of Giuseppe Verdi, this is a mesmerizing, enthralling romance that starts out with a sparkling, irrepressible heroine and a brooding, damaged hero and only gets better and better page by page. Bright, witty dialogue and superb characterization are the backbones of a fun, intricate historical storyline, and you may at turns laugh out loud and wipe your eyes at this couple's entertaining, tender path to their happily ever after.
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Starred review from February 1, 2013
If the Duke of Olympia thinks that his grandson, the Duke of Wallingford, would be willing to spend a year in the Italian countryside without the benefit of female companionship, he must be crazy. But when he hears about his grandson's latest scandalous exploit with one of the many ladies of London willing to give him their favor, he immediately begins plotting a campaign to see his grandson married before the year is through. Suddenly, a year in Italy doesn't sound like such a bad idea. Of course, Wallingford's little philosophical sojourn at Castel sant'Agata doesn't take into account the fact that he will be sharing his new abode with three Englishwomen, including Miss Abigail Harewood, who decides it is high time for her to take a lover and believes Wallingford is just the man for the job. With this deliciously romantic, wickedly witty confection linked to the splendidly entertaining A Lady Never Lies and A Gentleman Never Tells (both 2012), Gray makes one of the best trilogy debuts in years, proving she is a literary force to be reckoned with. Readers will shout, Bravissima!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)