BOOK REVIEW: The Meddler by Kate Archer

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Kate Archer has a new Regency Romance series: A Series of Worthy Young Ladies. I just finished book 1, The Meddler.

Six matrons of the ton bond over the shared disappointment of having no daughters. They have sons, but it’s not the same. They will never know the thrill of launching a daughter into society. So they come up with a plan to form The Society of Sponsoring Ladies. Each season, they will pick one worthy (meaning wellborn) girl whose family is unable to bring her out. A matron will sponsor the girl, provide her the clothes, the introductions, the chaperonage, and a suitable dowry, and the other ladies will support the effort. 

Lady Mendleton chooses the first girl–Georgina Wilcox, a very distant cousin who is the daughter of a baron. Unfortunately for Georgina, her father married a woman whose father was in trade. The mother is impossibly coarse, but the girl is said to be delightful. So the experiment proceeds.

Georgiana is a lovely heroine. She’s clever and beautiful. Unfortunately, she was raised in the country with very lax supervision and has none of the usual female accomplishments. Yet she adapts quickly to the requirements of the ton and is able to work around her supposed deficiencies. Mostly, she’s intelligent enough and grateful enough to her patron to know that Lady Mendleton’s son, Jasper Stapleton–Viscount Langley--is off limits. His sights are set much higher. But he’s so handsome, polite, kind, and has such an air of quiet competence about him, that naturally Georgiana falls for him.

Jasper has all those great Regency hero traits at the start. Also, he is a busy man. He works for Queen Charlotte as a spy of sorts. King George is incapacitated by madness. The Regent is despised. And the Queen is trying to hold the country together. This requires hiding the extent of the King’s madness. Jasper’s job is to keep the rumors tamped down. When gossipy reports appear in the newspapers, he must track down who is spreading them. And even more importantly, why.

A new rumor appears just after Georgiana is brought to London. The rumor is traced to the Mendleton household. Jasper decides Georgiana is a spy/troublemaker. But he likes her so much, he wants to prove that she isn’t. 

Georgiana shines. She remains clever and considerate throughout. Despite having fallen in love with Jasper, she tries to manage her expectations. She’s honest enough with herself to know that if her feelings are reciprocated, she won’t be strong enough to turn him down. (For marriage, not dalliance. This is clean romance.)

Jasper does not shine so much. Once he has fed himself the false narrative that she is a spy, although he doesn’t want to believe it, he misreads every clue and his confirmation bias kicks in. The real spy is clear as day pretty much from the beginning and Jasper starts to appear dense as he overlooks the obvious. Granted, the reader has the whole story and Jasper does not. But his position as the Queen’s confidante in this matter is hard to justify while watching his imagination run wild. He creates an elaborate fairy tale in order to implicate and then excuse Georgiana, in order that he might rescue her. (In Jasper’s favor, he has a biting sense of humor, though it mainly comes out when he’s disparaging the girl his mother wants him to court.)

The HEA ending is achieved, thanks to Georgiana’s bravery and loyalty. I expected her to be more affronted that Jasper had so little faith in her. He didn’t think she was a traitor intentionally, only a pawn. But Georgiana wastes no time being miffed. 

If all the “Worthy Young Ladies” are as delightful as Georgiana, this new series is certainly one to follow. But I do hope their heroes are cleverer than Jasper turned out to be.