Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Series: A Bluestocking Belles Collection With Friends
Publication Date: 5/8/22
Period: Regency York

If you read the book synopsis, you know that the Earl of Seahaven desperately wanted an heir, but after 5 wives and nine daughters, he died without that heir. The stories in this anthology show the struggle they went through when they were left practically penniless and how each of them – including his young countess – found their HEAs. Each of the stories is very well written and I think you will like all of them. With this book, as with all books with this premise, I have to wonder how Seahaven, who loved his family but was old, could leave his family with NO protection. Yes, titles are entailed as are major properties, but there is also bound to be some associated wealth and/or properties that are unentailed. Anyway – that aside, the stories are great and I love how each of the ladies used their unique talents to contribute to the welfare of them all.

You’ll find each story unique and special:

Caroline Warfield’s hotel employee, Lady Dorothea (Doro), and her curate Mr. Clark find their future in Lady Dorothea’s Curate.
Mary Lancaster’s musician, Lady Barbara, and Jack Sutton play a merry tune in Concerto
Rue Allyn’s historian, Elizabeth (Bess), and Malcolm K. Marr discover hidden identities in The Butler and the Bluestocking.
Elizabeth Ellen Carter’s artistic twins Ivy and Iris, who have vowed to only marry brothers, race to find that cousins can be as close as brothers in The Four-to-One Fancy.
Jude Knight’s Chloe (A cousin to the sisters) isn’t fashionable in any way but finds that she fits very nicely with Dom Finchley in Lord Cuckoo Comes Home.
Ella Quinn’s Miss Harriett Staunton and Lord Sextus (don’t you love it) Trevor, go to great lengths to out-maneuver the Duke of Somerset in I’ll Always Be Yours
Alina K. Fields’s Lady Honoria Twisden and Major August Kellborn stirs your heart in Lady Twisden’s Picture
Meara Platt’s botanist, Lady Josefina, and the Duke of Bourne find the cure for their lonely hearts in A Duke for Josefina
Sherry Ewing’s young dowager countess, Patience Bigglesworth, and Richard, Viscount Cranfield finally succumb to fate and find their HEA in A Countess To Remember.

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