Book: Dedication (H, R)

Janet Mullany's Dedication is my first Regency. (I've avoided the genre because of an impression that Regencies are stuffy in manners and narrow in scope.) I actually picked this story up after snooping around the Risky Regencies blog, where several authors talk about how their novels challenge the very problems that kept me from pursuing in Regency romance in the first place.

Fabienne meets Adam Ashworth twenty years after a failed romantic relationship and sparks begin to fly all over again. Both widowed, they have important secrets and painful memories of their past together, but have also had some good years with other spouses between then and now.

Fabienne and Adam are mature and emotionally well-rounded people who want to explore an adult relationship that moves beyond the youthful lust of their previous liaison. The sexual tension, while undeniably lush, builds slowly and complements the budding emotional reconnection between these characters.

There is a significant cast of secondary characters and a subtle yet important intrigue plot, but these things add to, rather than detract from, the main storyline. These other characters, along with the inclusion of several serious social issues that affected women then and now, allow us to see Fabienne and Adam in the context of real living and like them even more.

I felt very invested in these characters and their relationship. Except for the brief "I love him but won't marry him" stuff at the end, they use common sense and make decisions true to their personalities and their personal histories (can't address the time period). I have only nice things to say about this story and can't recommend it highly enough.

Grade: A+