My Sister's Intended
Series: Serendipity, Book 1
By: Rachael Anderson / Narrated By: Helen Taylor
Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
Predictable was never soooo enjoyable as this!
Oh yeah, I’m a shameless Romance Git, especially of the Regency variety, and My Sister’s Intended has shown me that now I can add Rachael Anderson to my list of favorite authors. I’ve listened to a couple others of hers, enjoyed them immensely, so I admit that I was kinda sorta hoping for the best with this audiobook as there’s nothing I love soooo dearly as discovering a new Regency series.
Big sister Sophia is destined to marry Lord Knave. The parents hatched this affair together with no input of the two, but the two will do what’s expected of them. This has younger sister Prudence (Who is anything BUT prudent) flummoxed: How can you marry without love; how can you marry a total stranger? You see, Prudence is a secret writer of romances (It has to be a secret; considering their dear Mama, even reading has to be a secret), and after an overheard conversation leaves her with doubts as to Lord Knave’s worthiness and steadiness of character, she takes to the trees to spy on the man and what she thinks will be a wanton and shameful assignation.
It’s not, and it’s Prudence who’s ashamed. But it introduces the two of them, Lord Knave and Prudence, and it leaves them on easy terms with each other. Lord Knave, who is NOT smitten with the shy and retiring Sophia, is taken with Pru’s lively and easy manners, her boldness and intrepid spirit, and when she asks him to kiss her so that she might know how to write a love scene—she has nooooo experience with affection—he cautiously does her the honor. It’s more than Pru ever expected, and it turns out it’s soooo NOT what Lord Knave wanted, as now he’s torn between duty and longing.
What I liked is that Prudence will have none of this, and instead she tutors him on just what a wonderful person Sophia is: He’s to suggest racing on their mounts, as there’s nothing Sophia loves more than tossing her bonnet off (She haaaaates bonnets), letting the sun freckle her skin, and dashing away freely and easily on her beloved horse. Actually, Lord Knave is to ask Sophia for help with the dog he’s working with, a large beast of a thing that is wayward and grieving a lost master—so of COURSE I started loving Sophia from all of this. The two sisters are devoted to each other, and this wasn’t a free ride to a Happily Ever After. Because there’s a reason their parents want, nay, neeeeeed Sophia to wed Lord Knave, and Prudence canNOT destroy her family by hoping for a future with Knave.
Yup, I got a lump in m’ throat yet again this week for a silly freaking Regency Romance, but ahhhhh, it’s about sisters, you see, and that makes all the difference. Add to that Helen Taylor doing her usual lovely job with an appropriately heartfelt performance, and I was feeling it, I tell you, feeling it most certainly!
This is kinda a short book, truly it could’ve been longer, especially as tho’ the resolution wasn’t immediate, it was indeed rather quickly crafted. And I could’ve used more on Sophia and who she came to be when all was said and done. But I’ll take this audiobook as the little treat it was intended to be: A lovely, lovely light Listen that tugged at just the right number of heartstrings, with a Hero who didn’t turn into a cad to get his way, and a heroine who didn’t sell her sister short or dismiss her feelings. Just the right amount of push and pull with a great payoff at the end.
And sooooo… will you forgive me if I get to the second book in the series…?
… like, sooooon….?
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