Abducting Amy is the story of a beautiful, hapless heroine who gets abducted repeatedly during her season. Mad with desire, her would-be bridegrooms just can’t help trying to run off with her. It’s a cute premise, and the book has some interesting moments, but neither the hero or the heroine is all that compelling – and that problem makes the book very put-downable.

When lovely Amabel Armstrong comes to London for the season, she really needs to make a good match. Her penniless father is dead, and her mother is chronically ill. She has been taken to London by her uncle, Lord Brinker, a petty tyrant. Lord Brinker inherited his estate after his spendthrift father and older brother had already run it into the ground. He has two daughters who will eventually need dowries and sponsorship, and his plan is to show off his gorgeous niece and marry her off to the richest man who offers. He makes it clear that he will not be too particular about any personality flaws as long as her future husband has enough blunt to reimburse him for Amy’s expenses and provide enough for the Brinker family as well.

Amy intends to do as her uncle asks. Her biggest concern is for her mother’s health, and she wants to be happily married so her mother will be secure. It would be nice if her spouse were a man she could love and respect, but then she’s really not sure how choosy she can afford to be. One of her early suitors is Christopher Ponselle, a young man who has not yet reached his majority. Chris worships at her feet, but he’s really too young for her. Then Amy meets Christopher’s handsome uncle, Lord Maxbridge, and feels an immediate attraction.

Lord Maxbridge has been unlucky in love in the past, and also happens to share an unfortunate past with Amy’s uncle. Several years ago, Max tried to have Lord Brinker court-martialed because of his brutality to the soldiers serving under him. Brinker was cleared, but both men had their military careers effectively ruined by the incident, and neither has ever forgiven the other. Both Max and Lord Brinker believe that any connection between their two families would be completely impossible.

For his part, Max is as attracted to Amy as she is to him, but he convinces himself early on that Amy is nothing but a scheming witch who is out to ensnare him. He decides (without any particular evidence) that Amy’s friendship with Christopher is merely a ploy to get to him. Once Max takes hold of this idea, he hangs onto it with all the tenacity of a pit bull. Every time he starts to believe that perhaps Amy is a nice girl after all, he finds some type of new “evidence” that convinces him of her scheming, money-grubbing ways. Meanwhile, Amy finds herself falling in love with him, even as she fights off the other men who are always trying to kidnap her. Max keeps coming to her rescue one way or another, all the while convincing himself that every move she makes is part of her elaborate plot to get him to the altar.

The repeated kidnappings might sound silly, but they are actually more fun than other parts of the book. Amy’s delusional suitors provide a lot of humor as they try to run off with her, and Amy shows some gumption as she manages to get out of each attempt with her reputation intact. There are also some amusing moments with another potential suitor who has a slavish devotion to hygiene.

Lord Brinker also provides some interest. He’s a realistic villain with a brutish, difficult personality that never crosses the line into the sort of over-the-top wickedness that’s hard to believe. He’s the kind of petty jerk you meet all the time; concerned with his finances more than his niece or daughters, and prone to use his wife as a punching bag if he gets a little annoyed. Amy has to constantly tiptoe around her uncle and think of the best way to manage him, and it’s during these times that her character is most interesting. Other than her diplomatic qualities, there really isn’t much to her.

I simply could not drum up much enthusiasm for either Amy or Max, and I never really got why they fell in love. Amy is attracted to Max early on, even though he is rude to her and tells her bluntly that he thinks she is after his money. Max is pretty unconvincing in his ardor, as he alternately wants to kiss Amy senseless and send her packing. The problem, in a nutshell, is that Max is a conceited ass who thinks it’s “all about him.” As I read the book, I thought about arrogant, conceited heroes – and which authors can make such a hero work. The hero of Christina Dodd’s Rules of Engagement is one example of a man who has an overly high opinion of himself, but he’s a lot more tolerable than Max is here. I think the difference is that Max’s conceit causes him to treat others poorly. His ridiculous assumptions about Amy are so far-fetched as to render him unlikable for most of the book.

Abducting Amy is your basic, average Regency. The writing itself is competent, and the plotting has a few bright spots. Unfortunately, neither the hero or the heroine really inspires esteem or interest.