A Grand Design [Paperback]

Cate is the true backbone of the firm, of course, from managing the finances to designing the changes to ensuring that her uncles are present when needed to continue the myth of their involvement in the business. She sees that the family does not want, and tries to instil in her flighty and romantic sister Lucy some sense of reality and economy.

The marquess tries to ignore the negative response from society while he searches for a bride. He would rather not have anything to do with the renovation of the town house, but finds himself increasingly drawn there by his growing fascination with Cate. Cate, meanwhile, is beleaguered by financial worry, an unpleasant man from her past, and the fear that the Marquess will discover the truth behind the façade of Buchanan and Buchanan.

This is a well-paced Regency, with engaging characters and unusual situations. The architectural detail is interesting (and makes the heroine's role more convincing) without being tedious or irrelevant. The romance develops slowly, due to the preoccupations of the hero and heroine, but is all the more convincing for that. The minor characters, Cate's uncles and sister, are humorously drawn.

Ms Jensen's prose moves at a lively pace and her style is certainly distinctive. No obvious anachronisms here, though the plot itself demands a stretch of belief, and the author (or her editor) needs to look the word "disinterested" up in a dictionary. Those are small concerns, however.

All in all, it's a fine regency romance, one of the best in the genre. I understand now what all the Jensen fans have been raving about.

His town house is a mess; it's been empty for eight years and is falling apart inside. Tregarron hires Buchanan and Buchanan, architects, to set it to rights. What he doesn't know is that plain and freckled Cate Buchanan is the real architect, while her uncles are merely a front for her business. Cate knows that if anyone finds out the truth, the business will be destroyed, so she goes to great pains to prevent Tregarron from finding out. She shouldn't really be seeing much of him - yet for some reason he keeps coming back to the house, and anyway, Cate's younger sister and the patronage of the Hythes (from Best Laid Plans) militate against Cate avoiding Society entirely.

For his part, Tregarron can't understand his fascination with Cate. She has a sharp tongue and she is not at all pretty. And yet he finds himself irrestibly attracted to her...

I do enjoy heroes with a murky past and tortured soul, and Tregarron is certainly that. He's also chivalrous even despite himself, which endears him to me even more. As for Cate, she's amusing and entertaining, far from being a simpering heroine. These two make a great couple.

Some nitpicks: Tregarron is a Cornish name, and yet his main country seat is in Wales? One or two anachronisms crop up here and there in dialogue. More importantly, Jensen has a habit of glossing over some interesting and important detail, so after what was a (very nicely) slow-moving romance, it's all tied up in about three pages at the end. Likewise, she doesn't tell us just when and how Tregarron worked out that Cate really was the architect, nor how he guessed who was sending the apparently threatening notes - for something which was causing pain and fear to both Cate and Tregarron (both of whom thought the notes were aimed at them), this element was skimmed over far too quickly.

Nevertheless, a very enjoyable book; it's a shame that Jensen's more recent work isn't up to the standard of her earlier novels, such as this and His Grace Endures.