A Bachelor Establishment
by Jodi Taylor, writing as Isabella Barclay
Regency Romance
Audio book narrated by Anna Bentinck

After years of traveling the continent, Lord Ryde goes to his family estate to see what he can sell to finance his travels, only to be almost trampled while examining a ditch in one of his fields. The rider of the horse is Mrs. Elinor Bascombe who jumped the hedge onto his property while taking a short cut to her own. They clash immediately, but when she is shot, he saves her life and takes her to his home. Before he knows it, five more females from her estate descend on him and disrupt his bachelor establishment.

Lord Ryde is a forty-something curmudgeon and Elinor a plump 38-year-old widow, so I liked that the characters were different from the typical teenage girl and older man. They fall in love, of course, as do their respective sidekicks. There are two mysteries in the plot, one involving the question of who shot Elinor and the other related to the death of Lord Ryde’s father and the disappearance of Elinor’s brother-in-law years before. Taylor’s typical witty banter and snarky inner thought plus Bentinck’s stellar performance made the audio book really enjoyable.

Taylor also writes the Chronicles of St. Mary’s, those crazy time-traveling historian books that I enjoy so much. I reviewed the first two books in the series back in 2015.

What are you reading?

Linda

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Dear FCC, I purchased the audio book from Audible.com.