Counterfeit Countess by Lynne Connolly Genres: Historical, Historical Romance
Published by LMC Publishing Publication Date: June 23rd 2013
Pages: 217
Buy on Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Bookshop.org
Find on: Goodreads
John comes back to an inheritance he doesn’t want and a wife he didn’t know he had!
After Waterloo, John Dalkington-Smythe travelled overseas to Canada to find some peace and make his fortune. A frantic visit from his cousins, the Earl of Graywood and his brother brings him back home, but a tragic incident aboard ship leaves John the new heir.
In London, John meets the woman calling herself his widow. Except he isn’t dead and he’s not married. When he discovers the impostor is the woman he’s desired for years, he decides to persuade her to keep the position of Countess of Graywood.
Faith spent years trying to ignore the presence of Lieutenant-Colonel Dalkington-Smythe, her husband’s military commander. Finding herself in dire straits after Waterloo, she poses as his widow. She only ever meant it as temporary. To find that John is alive comes as a severe shock, but her feelings for him are as strong as ever. The passion John and Faith discover together is worth fighting for.
Someone is threatening to expose Faith’s deception and destroy John’s fortune and position in society. If they don’t discover the identity of their unknown enemy and thwart the schemes, John and Faith could lose everything—title, fortune and even their lives.
Michelle’s Thoughts
The hero is John Dalkington-Smythe. He wanted to escape his role as “just in case” heir to the title. He goes into the military and moves to Canada following the war. Unfortunately tragedy strikes and he must return to claim the title and produce an heir with his assumed “wife”. The assumed wife is Faith Smith. She is the real widow of John Smith. As John Smith’s widow Faith would have been destitute, but John Dalkington-Smythe’s widow would receive widow’s benefits. So she pretends to be the widow of John Dalkington-Smythe not knowing that her “husband” is still alive. This was a great storyline that just never took off. The characters were just sort of “blah”. I was never vested in the characters or the storyline. I did like that they had great chemistry and genuinely seemed to respect each other. Each wanted to do the “right” thing and worked together to resolve their plight.
There was no excitement to the storyline. The rejection from society seemed overblown even for a historical novel. Each plot twist fizzled even what I thought would be the main twist which was the man that wanted to blackmail Faith. He ended up being killed and that was that. The embezzlement from the estate was also easily solved. There wasn’t enough intrigue to keep you interested in the storyline.
There wasn’t anything spectacular or memorable about the book. The characters were just average and the pace of the storyline was slow.
