Kay Hudson

The fourth installment in Cheryl Bolen’s Brazen Brides series, Miss Hastings’ Excellent London Adventure, begins with Miss Emma Hastings’ arrival in London.

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Emma has never met her Uncle Simon, but they have corresponded for years, and he wants her to join him in the Ceylon Tea Company, of which he is a proprietor. She’s eager to accept his offer, to escape her sheltered life with an elderly aunt in Upper Barrington, and to see London. In all her twenty years, she’s never had such an adventure.

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But when she steps off the mail coach at the George Tavern, it’s raining, she has no money, she’s burdened with an enormous portmanteau containing all her possessions, and the uncle who has invited her to live with him is nowhere in sight.

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Emma is a very determined young woman, if perhaps not as cautious as she should be, so she sets off on foot to find her uncle’s house on Curzon Street. She arrives, soaking wet and exhausted, in front of a dark, clearly unoccupied house. This adventure is not going well.

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But along comes the neighbor, clearly drunk, but with a kindly air about him, offering help.

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Adam Birmingham has been drowning his sorrows. His mistress, a beautiful opera singer named Maria, has run off with—and married!—an Italian Count. Surely she was The One, and he will never find another woman to love, never have a happy marriage like his brothers, Nicholas (His Golden Ring) and William (Oh What a (Wedding) Night).

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Soused as he is, Adam invites Emma to spend the night in his house. As if that weren’t improper enough, he falls asleep on the chaise in her bed chamber! After hearing her story the next morning, Adam sees a new project for himself: If he’s doomed to be miserable, why not make someone else happy? Why not take care of this poor little country girl he found standing alone in front of the house next door? And since he’s already compromised her reputation, why not offer her a marriage of convenience?

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Emma the country mouse and Adam the wealthy bachelor are an unlikely match, but together they set out to solve the mystery of Uncle Simon’s fate. As they investigate, they also come to suspect that a marriage of convenience might not be so convenient after all.

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As always, Bolen gives the reader a delightful look at Regency London, this time from the wide-eyed viewpoint of a respectable but not at all aristocratic young lady from the countryside. Along the way Emma holds her own, meeting characters from Bolen’s earlier books and making a place for herself in their world.