BOOK REVIEW: Fool Me Twice by Philippa Jane Keyworth

A while ago, I reviewed Philippa Jane Keyworth’s Regency Romance The Unexpected Earl for the Historical Novels Review. It was sweet and fun, so when I saw that her current novel, Fool Me Twice, was a kindle freebie I grabbed it.

Caro Worth is a strong-willed, determined young woman of good birth who has been thrown out into the world orphaned, abandoned, and destitute. She does have a brother who should be her support, but he ran off to the West Indies to make his fortune after deciding she was sullied and unworthy of him. (It isn’t exactly clear why he decided that, but he was wrong.)

Given the world she lives in, Caro has no choice but to make her way to London for a Season and find a rich husband. She is accompanied by a single maid and manservant who follow her devotedly and depend upon her for their livelihood. In order to set up a household and appear "independent," it is necessary for Caro to have money. So she invents an alter-ego, an illegitimate half-sister, Angelica, who frequents the gaming hells to acquire cash.

The hero of the story is the wastrel second son of a straight-laced viscount, Honorable Tobias Fenton. Unable to please his father, Fenton has taken the tack of exasperating him instead. Nevertheless, his heart is good and he is cleverer than he seems. He is the first to put two and two together and realize that the demure, respectable Caro Worth and the flirtatious, scandalous Angelica Worth are one and the same.

Beautiful and vivacious, Angelica attracts the wrong man and compounds the error by winning a great sum of money from him. He determines to have her for his mistress and Caro is caught in the web of her own deceit.

Fortunately, Caro has friends, among them Fenton, who is smitten. When she realizes she can rely on friends and doesn’t have to go it alone, her prospects change.

The plot is a bit far-fetched and Caro, when desperate, is inclined to take bad situations and make them worse. Plus, a petty irritant is how often people are described as "saucy" throughout the book, especially at the beginning. However, the story is light-hearted and fast-paced and the banter between Angelica/Caro and Fenton was entertaining enough to keep me reading until I was drawn in by the charming character Fenton grew to be. Fans of clean historical romance with a hint of danger should enjoy Philippa Jane Keyworth’s books.