Escapade - Hardcover

A rather talky romance from veteran Hodge: here, it's 1811 and a young English girl (daughter of the heroine of Windover, 1992) and her friend, a renowned beauty and popular singer, find themselves on the political anthill of Sicily during the Napoleonic wars. Seventeen-year-old Charlotte Comryn, of Hull, has just refused the proposal of John Thornton, whom she suspects of having an eye on the Comryn family bank. Ill and miserable, she flees to Beth Prior, her mother's former servant, now established as a performer and able to be choosy about her men. Beth has been persuaded to sail to Sicily to cozy up to the former Queen of Naples, presently the ruling hand in Sicily (a queen ``given to opium and hysteria''). The British are in shaky control--but the queen's granddaughter is married to Napoleon. Off to Sicily go Beth and Charlotte, and, naturally, men gather: Charlotte's charming German tutor, Beth's current lover, Nathan Peabody, and--of all things, John Thornton. While Beth and the elderly queen hit it off, rumors fly; silly Charlotte goes where any sensible girl would fear to tread; and there's a kidnapping (Charlotte winds up at something naughty called ``The House of Persephone'')--plus a very dangerous festival--before the good chaps bucket back to Hull. The spying that circles around the political mess here is too scattered and implausible. The Windover crowd had more pep. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In this lively new offering by a veteran writer of historical romance, sheltered heiress Charlotte Comyn flees a marriage proposal, a nervous stomach and misunderstandings with her parents. Disguised in her brother's clothes, she appears at the London home of her mother's estranged best friend, the famous actress Beth Prior, who, though short on reputation, is long on beauty, talent and brains. With Napoleon at the height of his power, Beth also has a mission: through an intermediary, the English Foreign Secretary has asked the actress to befriend exiled Hapsburg queen Maria Carolina of Naples and convince her to remain allied with Britain. Charlotte accompanies Beth into the roiling political cauldron of Sicily for an escapade of intrigue, excitement and danger that ultimately throws each of these capable, independent women into the appropriate arms as all is happily resolved. Hodge ( Wind over ) works her usual magic as believable characters do plausible things, seamlessly incorporated into the history of their period setting.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.