Hardcastle Books, $2.99, ISBN 978-1-990115-34-9
Historical Romance, 2021 (Reissue)
Will Forrest’s How to Rescue a Baroness was previously published under the name Tori Fehr, or so it says on the copyright page. Don’t look at me, I’m just reporting what I read, and this is the first time I’m reading this thing. I’m not sure, therefore, whether this edition is merely a republication or a revised one.
The lady mentioned in the title is Lady Virginia Denton, the Baroness of Hartbury, and a widow with considerable wealth. Hence, despite the fact that she is supposed to be still in mourning, it doesn’t stop cads like Sir Arthur Carlisle from planting news in the tabloids that they are getting hitched soon and making things so awkward for her to show her face in Polite Society.
Carlisle isn’t so easily dissuaded by her polite ice queen treatment, however, so Virginia believes that it is time for her to cultivate more friends and allies in the neighborhood, just in case she needs someone to rally to her side when the cad crosses the line. Hmm, how about saying hello to the reclusive neighbor of hers? He dislikes Carlisle a lot, which is always a sign of good taste.
Sure, Richard Tresham’s family and hers aren’t exactly on cuddly terms, but right now, the man is more distracted by playing the ever-popular taciturn, angst-filled but oh so handsome “Ladies, I’m secretly needing you to fix me!” hero stereotype. He has money and a nice place too, so how can any sensible heroine resist that fellow?
Now, my synopsis may make it seem like Virginia is some take-charge heroine, but let me correct that before anyone gets the wrong idea: our heroine is one of those nice Polite Society ladies, too polite to run away screaming as Carlisle escalates his increasingly violent efforts to force her to wed him. Sure, she may get scared for her life for, oh, ten minutes, but the moment he is out of sight, it’s like her memory is of goldfish tier, and she’s back to wandering around and making it way too easy for Carlisle to strike at her again.
Meanwhile, Richard is so adamant at being a recluse that the first third or so of his appearances in this story see him ignoring our heroine’s invitations to tea and whatever, just so that the author can prattle endlessly about the mundane little things he does day by day that come of suspiciously like either padding or signs of an author that is way too in love with typing many, many, many words—maybe both or maybe I am missing something here.
Eventually, Carlisle kindly orchestrates things so that Virginia and her maid are forced to waddle to Richard’s place for desperate help, and finally, I think, the story may start going somewhere at last.
Since he’s a man, Richard takes charge and wages a pogrom of retaliation against Carlisle while keeping Virginia safe. That’s nice. He even does it with a smile on his face, and I have to confess, love a guy that is happy when he knows he has the opportunity to commit cheerful mayhem on a villain. The boring and serious hero that he has been up to that point bores me to tears, so hurrah for Carlisle to facilitating this transformation.
However, Carlisle the MVP still can’t do anything about our heroine because the power of the dumb dumb is way too much even for him. Virginia is never scared for her own life, because she’s not a selfish ho like that. No, she’s so worried about her staff that may be harmed by Carlisle, and oh, she feels so bad because it’s all her fault they are so inconvenienced like that. She is also inconveniencing Carlisle, so rude, and no, letting him paw her ladylike undergarments isn’t compensation enough because she is going all out in going cray cray in the name of martyrdom.
Therefore, imagine my shock when our heroine gets kidnapped by the bad guy in the end anyway. It’s not like she’s particularly enthusiastic about taking care of her own safety, so snort, what a surprising turn of events.
Anyway, I like the hero and the author’s narrative style, which is clean and displays some very nice cadence, but my god, I’m certain the heroine fell down a tall flight of stairs when she was a child and hit her head on every step on her way down. This would have been a far better story had it been a frenemy shagfest between Carlisle and Richard!
