Deborah Goes to Dover
Series: The Traveling Matchmaker, Book 5
By: Marion Chesney / Narrated By: Helen Lisanti
Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
Threeeee romances to follow in this one!!! A review chock-full of questions!
Oh huzzah! As if an MC Beaton/Marion Chesney regency romance couldn’t be good enough, the author went off and gave us Deborah Goes to Dover where we get to see threeee couples as they struggle with the ups and downs of love and affection.
The book opens with Miss Hannah Pym, ex-Housekeeper, current spinster, traveling matchmaker extraordinaire, in an absolute dither because Sir George Clarence, that noble and distinguished old bachelor, has just dodged a bullet—narrowly avoiding getting engaged to a young woman (Well, younger than Hannah, that’s for sure!) who he discovered was simply on the make (And trust Benjamin, her loyal and somewhat crude footman, to find the means to dig up the dirt on her, to fling it back in her face in the language of guttersnipes). Hannah can’t stand this flighty, heart in the air, down in the doldrums, up and down of being in love. And she neeeeeds to travel some more so she can get the adventure stories Sir George loves to listen to.
At first she thinks she’s not going to have any prospects for matchmaking with the folks on the stagecoach that goes to Dover, that she and Benjamin are just going to be padding her legacy money with the ill-gotten winnings from his gambling. She thinks all will be dull, dull, dull. What will she tell Sir George?
NATURALLY, there’s a coach mishap which lands her and all the passengers at an inn, and there Benjamin’s gambling ways come to bite him in the patoot. He disappears, owing nine hundred guineas. How will he ever get the money? Will Hannah ever see him again? And what’s with this plain-faced girl who’s crying all the time? And why is there a Captain who’s all somber?
On this trip, all those questions are answered with boxing matches of the century. With Hannah’s careful plotting. And with the introduction of a brother/sister set of twins, Lord William and Lady Deborah (Lady Deborah dressing in mens clothing because she can hunt, shoot, ride, just as well as any man), we get a mischievous pair who tempt fate and cause all sorts of mayhem.
There is the trauma and drama of the return of Lady Carsi (You’ll forgive the spelling as I don’t have this in kindle version), Benjamin’s old employer who tried having Benjamin hanged, then abducted, then Hannah burned down her house (It was an accident!), who tried having the pair drowned. Yes, she’s back, and now she’s dodging creditors, her finances in disarray, and she’s still miffed at Hannah and Benjamin, all the while trying to lure the earl of Ashton to a marriage bed.
There are hauntings and inheritances, matchmaking mamas who aren’t anywhere neeeeear as smooth in their machinations as is Miss Pym.
And then there’s back to London to tell Sir George aaaaall about it.
But Hannah is nearing the end of her adventures, is starting to think about how she’d like to settle down, and this has Benjamin (yeh yeh yeh of COURSE he’s back!) feeling doleful—what is life in the country when you can live in London? And what’s a sad and lonely Miss Pym going to do without Sir George?
It’s up to Benjamin to wildly take matters into his own hands, and if you can cast bread upon the water? Well, Benjamin can cast “the whole bleedin’ loaf”! Has he lost his mind?
Will Hannah survive the shame?!? And what’s this? Can her ex-employer, Mrs. Clarence, really be in York, along with the footman she ran off with?
Onward, fellow Accomplice! It’s off to the final book in The Traveling Matchmaker series! And I’m so excited because this time Benjamin may’ve gone tooooo far!!!
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