Review: How to Fake It in Society

How to Fake It in Society by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Titus Pilcrow makes a precarious living as a shopkeeper, mixing colours to sell to artists. His former lover, and landlord, Henry is expressing his displeasure at their break-up by raising his rent - something Titus cannot afford. When visiting Miss Whitecross, a wealthy elderly very crotchety customer with a large order, Titus is sad to discover that she is very ill, unlikely to last the night. However, Miss Whitecross' butler invites Titus in with a proposition. Miss Whitecross had an understanding with Nicolas-Marc, Comte de Valois de La Motte, she would marry him and leave him her considerable fortune in order to ensure her nephew Mr Laxton did not inherit. But the Comte is out of town and in order to thwart her nephew, who deliberately tripped her at the top of the stairs which has led to her current situation, Miss Whitecross needs to marry someone that night.

Suddenly a poor shopkeeper has inherited a house, possessions and a fortune of £8,000 a year. But along with the wealth comes the burden of society and people desperate to relieve poor Titus of his money, including Henry and Titus' estranged older brother Augustus. When the Comte (Nico) returns to London he is devastated to learn he has missed out on Miss Whitecross' fortune, especially since he and his cousin Eve were depending on the money to extract them from the clutches of a vicious moneylender after a dodgy scheme Eve cooked up went spectacularly wrong.

At first Nico just wants to try to shame Titus into sharing some of his fortune, but then he decides befriending Titus might bear more fruit in the short-term. Titus obviously needs help getting rid of the chancers and conmen that are coming out of the woodwork, just as much as he needs help in getting clothes to match his new status; Nico can do both these things. For his part, Titus might not know his way around society but as a tradesman he knows when people are using you for their own ends, and he doesn't mind that Nico is probably extending his credit with the tradespeople he takes Titus to visit.

I love me a historical romance, throw in a fortune-hunter, a long con, a fake accent, Marie-Antoinette, cross-dressers, some fascinating historical details, wonderful characters, and a wicked brother and I'm in heaven. I love, love, love KJ Charles' books and I only wish she would/could write them faster because I gobble them down too fast. Nico was such a lovely character, and Titus was a charming mixture of astute and naïve, loved it.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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