The Counterfeit Countess

by Diana Campbell

The Perplexed Pretender
Lovely Miss Selina Hewson agreed to pose as wife to the handsome, high-living Earl of Worsham in order to gain access to the aristocratic society from which her wastrel father had been ejected years before.

The Earl, for his part, needed Selina to act as his most proper wife to gain approval of his very strict and very wealthy grandmother-or else he would lose his chance at the fortune he needed to wind the wildly extravagant woman he really wanted.

Playing the part of the Earl's wife in public was easy enough for Selina-but there was a private problem she had not forseen. Living a lie with this lord who so clearly lusted after another, she had to pretend at all costs not to be falling in love...

Genres: Historical Romance, Historical

222 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 6, 1983

Reviews

[Preeti ♥︎ Her Bookshelves · Rating 4 out of 5]

An almost 4*.
A traditional regency that's almost not because of the easy deviousness of the h and her father and later the easy sharing of bedroom by the unmarried h/H.
The sparsely interspersed, subtle but oh-so- skillful humor is worth reading. It makes one grin and gives a feel good factor in between the other 'havey cavey' goings on.
There's some angst - provided by a careless parent and their impoverished state in the beginning, and also by the careless dismissal of her by the H and later by the unnecessary misunderstanding and asshattery of the H.

And the synopsis is mighty misleading. Unlike conveyed, the H has nothing to do with her charade. She and her devious father come up with the plan all by themselves. The H is an earl and the h/h meet just once when her father holds a ball (one they can hardly afford) for the visiting (to Virginia) nobleman and the patronizing H looks down upon them and their gathering and their town as well. The h/h have an altercation when the H tells her to tell her father to stop the very obvious matchmaking as he has a fiancee back home. It was quite humiliating, if you ask me. The H supposedly leaves for England the next day and the h's father learns that his ship capsized in a storm. He comes up with the idea of the h posing as the H's widow so that they can enter (re-enter after a humiliating exile, in his case) the English society. And as a widowed countess, she would have plenty of opportunities to make a good marriage. The h's father is a lying, sneaky fraudster but he grows on one.

So, they leave for England, ensconce themselves with the H's family and in his house when who should make an entry? The H, of course. After an initial angry and mad frothing at the mouth, he decides to play along for some time till they can easily 'kill her off'. One thing leads to another and they never get to that point. They inhabit the same room (if not the bed) on many an occasion
Other characters like the 'fiancée', his controlling (the purse strings) grandmother, his precocious 10 y.o. brother, 'Black jack' (her father), a wannabe om who pursues her to England, the servants - all join in to make this a crazy caper-icious story. There were times when I felt that the h/H interactions were bit minimal but they do make up in substance.

[Nelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Looks like I've been quite unlucky during this Labor Day weekend -_-

Another fail!
This book started out so good: Black Jack Hewsome, a scammer who fled England to emigrate in Canada then in the USA, lived with his daughter Selina.
He works for Sir Matthew, a fellow english guy who is really wealthy and helps the family (with a house in addition to the job). Sir Matt also wants to marry Selina so with her dad they have to be careful around him.

Enter Alex, Lord Worsham, an earl who is touring the world and met the Hewsomes. He briefly chats with Selina, revealed some personal details and boards the Nightingale the next day to return to England. But the ship sank and Black Jack, who believes Alex died, plots to have her pose as his widow and return to England to live with his family.


Of course Alex is not dead and when he reappars around 30% the story really start and I anticipate some angst, romance, tension between them right? Nope, it fell flat. Sure the book was funny with all the 2nd characters, Grandmama Seymour being such an invasive tyran lool but there was not really a romance. No connection between Alex and Selina, no characters development.
We had the other woman Alex was planning to marry, Isabella, who tried to spice things up but she lamentably failed.


The ending was unsatisfactory, their ''I love you'' quite lukewarm and I was left disappointed.
Just 2 stars for the humor, but this was not fullfilling on the romantic scale, absolutely not