Despite the narrative both in this book and in 'The Heir' making absolutely clear that Devlin spoke as if he were born to the nobility, Langton insists upon giving him an Irish brogue that sounds more like a Boston dock worker than a child brought up in a noble English family. What absolutely destroyed my interest in further books was Mr. Even heads of families could take children sired by a member of his family, however distant, away from their mothers. Fathers ALWAYS had all the rights over children, bi-blows or legitimate. There was no such thing during the Regency period. One of the most egregious flaws is actually a pivot point of the story and that is legal guardianship of a child by a woman.

The upper classes also did not use contractions. This sort of thing may seem trivial, but there are so many good Regency romances out there, the authors of which have clearly studied the period and know the vocabulary, decor, laws, etc. Same goes for idioms and throwing in Latin based words in the middle of prosaic Anglo-Saxon conversation or inner thoughts, especially by women (e.g. One should never mention or describe furniture from later periods in a Regency novel. By this book, however, these problems were so commonplace as to clearly demonstrate that Ms. They had recamiers, sofas, window seats, and couches.), and vocabulary issues, but for the most part they weren't a problem. Instead, a man put his feet up on a footstool.'Fainting couches' also didn't exit. There were a couple of annoying anachronisms (such as 'coffee table,' which didn't exist in homes until the late 19th century nor was it called such. This series started strong with interesting characters, somewhat different stories, and tolerable prose.

The Soldier by Grace Burrowes