Review: A Proper Charade

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Lady Patience Kendrick was born to a life of privilege, and with the London Season looming, she finds herself facing unprecedented pressure to adhere to the rules of society. Unfortunately, the free-spirited young woman is anything but proper. Patience’s elder brother, a former military man, bemoans his sister’s antics—but when he accuses her of incurable frivolity, it is simply more than she can bear. Determined to prove her brother wrong, Patience undertakes a drastic experiment: she will disguise herself as a maid and demonstrate her ability to work as hard as anyone.

Taken on as household staff by her brother’s former general, Patience soon learns that willingness and ability are two very different things. While her plan sounded promising in theory, the reality is that she is out of her depth—and the irresistibly charming son of the house isn’t helping matters. Patience soon finds herself embroiled in a charade far more complicated than she imagined. With both her pride and her heart at stake, she is determined to prove her brother wrong—even as her plans spiral delightfully out of control.

Genre: historical romance

Publication date: May 2020

Mature content: no

Review: A Proper Charade is a sweet historical romance with a fairly original plot. The writing is good and the characters well defined. 

 

There are a few holes in the plot that you need to ignore if you want to keep believing in the story - such as why would a not very efficient maid be kept working in a house where they really didn't want to hire her in the first place, and how she was never recognized in society (even if she was sheltered, someone was bound to know who she was). Some parts of the book are also a bit slow moving. 

A Proper Charade is book two in the Proper Scandals series by Esther Hatch, but I found it can be perfectly read as a stand alone. 

Happy readings!

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