Review: The Proposition of the Season

The Proposition of the Season by Michelle Kenney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Josephine Fairfax is a bespectacled, bookish young woman of twenty-eight. After three failed seasons she is most definitely on the shelf and has retired to live in the family home with her eldest (insufferable brother) and younger siblings. She spends her days writing romantic fiction and letters to her imaginary beau.

When she discovers her brother is determined to marry off her younger sister Matilda to Lord Huntingly, a man none of them have ever met, about whom there are murky rumours about a duel which resulted in him and his opponent fleeing abroad, Josephine knows she must act. Matilda has no interest in marriage or children, she wants to be a pirate! Marrying her off to an unsuitable man would be cruel. So Josephine suggest to Lord Huntingly that if all he needs is a wife with the Fairfax good name he should take her instead. Surprisingly, the rather drunk Lord Huntingly agrees.

However, Josephine is determined to discover the truth about the duel and her investigations start to point at her fiancé as being not only in the wrong but also pursuing him and killing him in a street brawl in Italy. If that is true how could she possibly marry him?

This is the third book about the Fairfax sisters, although I haven't read the others. Initially I found the writing a bit stilted and it also felt like a mash-up of several books by Georgette Heyer (Frederica where she suggests Alverstoke should marry her instead of her sister, and Huntingly is a bit like Damerel in Venetia) and probably a bit of Jane Austen as well. That feeling wore off as the story progressed but I must say I found Josephine's character a bit confusing. After coming across like Mary Bennett to start with she suddenly starts berating Huntingly and her older brother which seemed out of character.

Anyway, this was pleasant enough and perhaps if I had read the two previous books I would have had a better understanding of Josephine's character.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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