After reading A Painting for the Viscount, I didn’t think Sariah Drake could top herself in this next Regency romance novel. But if Painting was one of my favorite novels, now Sonata would have to be my favorit-ist. Even though these books are stand-alone, they are part of a series, and such a delicious series it is. So, if you haven’t read any of the others, you MUST get them now.
In Sonata, we are looking at the character of Augusta Thornton, who is the solid, stable, overlooked, not-as-pretty-as-everyone else, sibling. She always dresses in partial mourning clothes and hopes no one will notice her. All her real feelings go into her talent on the pianoforte. She is wildly and truly gifted but chooses to hide her ability. When she has to chaperone her gorgeous sister Catherine at a gathering at the wealthy and reprehensible Lord Seymour’s house she meets Lord Anthony Windham, a devilishly handsome cellist. Anthony, who has been disowned by his father has been hired (the only job he could get) by Seymour to be a rake during the week-long party at Seymour’s house. Seymour is trying to figure out which of several ladies he should wed, and he wants to know who will be faithful.
Anthony has been a scoundrel in the past but really only wants to continue his career as a cellist and he needs a patron, so this arrangement, while creepy, is the best he can do. Of course, he never expected to meet Augusta, a true talent who absolutely seems to despise him. Augusta, while terribly attracted to Anthony, discovers his true purpose for the party and ignores and treats him scathingly which only encourages him because no one has ever NOT fallen for his charms. In the meantime, Augusta doesn’t let on to her true talent, only using her most mediocre abilities to play while people dance.
With this setup, Anthony and Augusta play cat and mouse with each other while others in the party are trying to vie for Seymour’s attention. Catherine, Augusta’s sister wants to win the affection of Seymour, not out of love but out of desire for money and stature.
Sariah deftly handles the multiple characters perfectly. The enemies-to-lovers story for Anthony and Augusta is fraught with twists and turns and obstacles and disastrous consequences. It is a nail-biter to figure out how this couple can ever possibly get together. This is a page-turner of a book, that left me hovering over it late at night and then dreaming about it until I could get back to it. Sariah handles everything in an appropriate Regency fashion and still manages to keep the characters and situations fresh and real. A delightful read.
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