A nice regency from Carola Dunn. I ended up reading it in one sitting because I didn't want to put it down. The characters were interesting and the plot was a little something different without being TOO unbelievable. ( )

Lissa has a good education but no access to money or connections. She supports her young brothers as an opera dancer, but they're rapidly running out of money. Literally starving, she agrees to have supper with the notorious Lord Ashe--but swiftly decamps the room when he suggests they move on to more physical entertainments. He runs into her brothers later, and is so impressed by their deportment and her high standards that he offers her a position as his nephew's governess instead of as his mistress. They fall in love and, after a few wacky hijinks and a near-death illness, confess their feelings to each other.

Sweet, well-written, and I liked both the main characters. I love Dunn's work because it's everything I like about Heyer but without the extremes: there's just a little slang, no one is a gem of the highest water or the richest man in town or whatever, the children are neither falsely stupid nor precocious...just overall, a good afternoon's read. ( )