Isabella by Loretta Chase

 

I recently thrifted ISABELLA for fifty cents and I was excited to give it a whirl, because this book is apparently Loretta Chase's first book, published through the Avon Regency Romance line (which I think is now defunct, sadly). Copies can get pretty pricey. My friend, Courtney McCaskill (who I BR-ed this with!), said in a TikTok that it's not uncommon for copies to go for $35-50!

ISABELLA is the name of the heroine, a spinster who is-- I believe-- 29. There were a lot of characters so I was kind of confused about what was going on, but I believe she comes from a wealthy mercantile family, and moved in with her cousin and their family to be closer to London, in exchange for the cousins getting a bit of that sweet sweet cash for wardrobes and the like for their own debuts.

Anyway, while they're all dress-shopping, Isabella finds a small child crying under a dress in a dress shop. She is the ward of Edward, Earl of Hartleigh, and has run away because he's super starchy and as with a lot of kids, she thinks he's being mean when he's just being stern. When Isabella takes her back to her guardian, he's short with her and kind of yells at her, which he almost immediately feels bad about.

Meanwhile, Edward's cousin, Basil, is being hounded by his creditors, likes the cut of Isabella's jib, and decides that she's not so ugly he couldn't put up with her face for the sake of her money (no, seriously, this is basically how his logic goes). He starts courting her and even tries to compromise her in an attempt to force her into marriage, with a little bit of blackmail thrown in for funsies, all the while Isabella and Edward are falling for each other but both of them are too uptight to admit it.

In some ways this reminded me of a less exciting version of Edith Layton's THE DUKE'S WAGER. Something about the two rival dudes both making a play for the stubborn and proper heroine's hand, you know? However, rather than choosing between the lesser of two morally bankrupt men, ISABELLA is about a noble but uptight man and his grasping and shallow cousin. Initially I was like, wow, Basil is hot. But Chase very quickly made me hate him. Which is a shame because I think he's actually the hero of the next book. How are you going to redeem that clown, I wonder?

For a debut, this is pretty polished and I enjoyed. I do think there were a lot of characters to keep track of for such a short book and they could occasionally bog the narrative down. There were also some formatting issues which, based on other reviews, seem to have made it into the ebook as well: lots of mid-paragraph POV swaps that make it hard to keep track of who is narrating. But honestly, I'm impressed. I wish my first book had been this neat. If you like closed-door regency, you'll like this.

3 to 3.5 out of 5 stars