Pub Date: July 2010
332 pages
ISBN: 9780312605391
Format: Mass Market Paperback
I am rarely moved by a historical romance anymore. Most are either too light and superficial or too dark and depressing. But Kleypas's Love in the Afternoon was funny, moving, poignant and best of all, memorable.
Beatrix Hathaway is considered a bit of an odd duck. She gathers wounded animals around her that are shunned by others. She eschews the ton gatherings in favor of staying in the country, and while admired by many men, she has yet to meet one she would consider marrying.
When Beatrix Hathaway discovers that her friend, Prudence, is not going to write to one of her suitors (Christopher Phelan, a soldier at war who had written begging for words of encouragement) Beatrix asks that she be allowed to pose as Prudence and write the letters herself. Despite the fact that Christopher had once called her "peculiar" for bringing a hedgehog to a picnic and said she belonged in the stables.
Through their letters, Christopher and Beatrix fall in love. But things become much more complicated when Christoper returns home, eager to find Prudence, only to discover that she was not the person her letters made her appear.
