A Stroke of Luck is Andrea Pickens’ last traditional Regency. She closes this part of her career with an enjoyable story that pairs a very proper Duke with a free-spirited woman, both of whom eventually discover they are not so different after all.

When we first meet Deverill, the Duke of Prestwick, he is a prime candidate for the title of Upper Class Twit Of The Year. When Preswick’s valet, Stump, falls overboard from his yacht during a violent storm, the duke jumps in after him, and they are both lost in the waves. Fortunately, they are rescued by a passing ship crewed by Zara Greeley and her young brothers Nonny (Parthenon) and Perry (Pericles). Upon rescuing Stump and Prestwick, the Greeleys’ craft runs aground, but they all make it ashore, where Prestwick proceeds to whine and complain about everything.

They find themselves in Scotland where, for the price of a day spent cutting peat for a local brewer, they earn passage to the nearest town. Prestwick and Zara clash and clash. She thinks he is a useless, pampered layabout, while he thinks she is a wild Amazon. After they part, Prestwick makes his way to Highwood Manor, where he has to mediate a problem involving the succession to the title of Baron Kenworth. One candidate is his odious cousin Harold, and if you can’t guess who the other candidate is, you have never read a romance novel.

Prestwick’s actions at the beginning of the book were way over the top. He whined, pouted, and acted childish – especially when he refused to eat the roasted rabbit Zara had caught because there was no cutlery. A few pages later, he works all day cutting peat and handles his implements so well, the boys dub him King of Spades. I know the Regency format is short, but that’s too quick a metamorphosis for me. Fortunately, Preswick’s petulance is very short lived and his true nature shows itself. He is very kind, sensitive, fond of books and music, and loyal to his friends. Prestwick keeps his one-handed, clumsy valet Stump with him because Stump was the one who raised him from childhood, not his haughty father. Prestwick’s teasing, fatherly relation with Nonny and Perry is one of the best things in the book – he emerges as a kind and loving man.

I found it took some time for me to warm up to Zara. She is the kind of heroine I normally like very much, an intelligent and forthright one. But for a long time she came across as a character who exhibited an odd mixture of haughtiness and “I’m not worthy of him” attitude. Add to that her humorlessness and you have a character whom it was hard to like. However, just as Prestwick lost his haughtiness, Zara lost her bad attitude toward him. They slowly realized they were quite alike – two cultured people who both felt out of place among the superficial members of the ton.

A Stroke of Luck grew on me. It began with way too much of Preswick’s silly behavior, but when the story moved to Highwick Manor, and we got to see more of the real Prestwick, the book improved immeasurably. Andrea Pickens has a knack for fast-paced adventure stories populated with larger-than-life characters. While I have enjoyed her traditional Regencies, I have sometimes felt she was constrained by the form. I think she will do well in the Regency-era historical romance. Meanwhile, she has ended her traditional Regency career on a pleasant note.