A Debutante’s Guide to Rebellion
Birch Hall Romance, Book #1.5
By Kathleen Kimmel
IBSN: 9780451487926
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Una
Synopsis:
A bashful botanist and a reluctant debutante are about to discover that there may be a science to seduction after all…
London, 1815: Lady Mildred Weller (Eddie to her friends) has few prospects for marriage. If she can’t attract the available—though considerably older—Lord Averdale, she may be doomed to spinsterhood. She’s even willing to enter into that loveless union, if only to escape her mother’s stifling and increasingly desperate dominance. And she may have found the perfect person to help her achieve that goal.
Ezekiel Blackwood is a botanist as well as Lord Averdale’s nephew and heir. He is also a social disaster. Cross-pollination he understands; the fairer sex not at all. But in Lady Eddie, he discovers a kindred spirit. When she asks for his assistance in assessing Lord Averdale’s interest in her, Ezekiel is crushed. But naturally, he thinks, she could never fall in love with someone like him. Ezekiel’s matchmaking cousin is only too happy to arrange a discreet rendezvous for their conspiracy—a greenhouse. Of course in such a setting, it’s only natural that feelings might begin to bloom…
Review:
I loved this story as it tells the eventual love story of two people who just don’t quite fit into TON Society. What both find out is that they are quite compatible with each other. Eddie is desperate to marry and is even willing to consider an older man to get her out of the house and from under the control of her mother. She knows Ezekiel has input with his uncle so she schemes a way to let him help with the matchmaking.
Ezekiel is a scientist and would much rather deal with his plants than any social situation his uncle is always dragging him into. Eddie is fascinating to him as she shares his love of plants however when she asks him for help in securing the relationship with his uncle he reluctantly agrees to help. They both need help to arrange a meeting with each other in order to conspire, as social etiquette could not have them seen together. The greenhouse becomes their meeting place and there they learn a lot about plants, feelings and love.
The pace of the story and the setting drew me in from page one. The characters are grown so that the reader soon becomes involved and cheering for everything to work out. It is nice to see that the story didn’t need a handsome Prince and a beautiful Princess to fulfil the love story.
A totally delightful light Sunday afternoon read and I know I will look forward to other stories by Kathleen Kimmel.
