There were two things about Amethyst that led me to believe that I would really like it. One is the time period; I like books set in time periods outside the usual medieval-Regency-Victorian romance novel triumvirate, and this book takes place in the Restoration period of the 1600s. Secondly, the heroine, Amethyst (Amy) Goldsmith, is of the merchant class and is an accomplished artisan in her own right. Unfortunately, both of these factors recede into the background early in the story and are replaced by overused or uninteresting plot devices.

As the only daughter of a merchant jeweler and the descendant of a long line of jewelers, Amethyst has been fully trained by her father to continue the family business after him. To ensure her security and that of the family trade, he has betrothed her to another jeweler, despite Amy’s protests that she doesn’t love him. When the Great Fire of 1666 destroys the shop and throws London into chaos, Amy has the opportunity to escape from the life she does not want to lead. In doing so, she places herself solidly into the life of Colin Chase, Earl of Graystone, and his family.

Once Amy is out of the jewelry shop milieu of the first fifty pages or so, she seems to lose most of her personality. Where I was hoping for details of 17th century jewelry making and middle class life, I got Amy mooning around Colin’s various households, wondering whether she was in love with him. Amy the accomplished jeweler never reappears until the epilogue, and that absence leaves a large hole indeed.

Amethyst is set in a fascinating and very lively period of English history, in the years immediately after the end of the Puritan Commonwealth. After years of enforced sobriety, the playhouses were open again and a high-living King was back on the throne. Social mores loosened a great deal; the King himself openly kept mistresses and recognized his numerous illegitimate heirs. Yet even when the King and his mistress themselves put in an appearance, the book can’t seem to come alive to this time period.

Instead, Amethyst seems to be trying hard to be a Regency Romance in disguise. The heroine daydreams over “French novels” and wants to marry for love. The hero needs to restore the family fortune and has resigned himself to a loveless marriage. The brothers and sister of the hero love him dearly, clasp the heroine to their collective bosom, and scheme to get the two together. I also had a problem with dialogue. One minute the heroine is exclaiming, “Marry, come down!” like a Shakespearean character; the next, an adorable child squeals, “For real?” like a Rugrat rather than a seventeenth century tot.

Finally, this book suffers from a badly sagging middle. After a ripping start, the plot devolves into wanderings – from London to Colin’s brother’s estate, to Colin’s estate and back to Colin’s London townhouse, for no real reason than the plot requires the hero and heroine to be alone together with a bed handy for the inevitable lovemaking. When at last the action cranks up again, it’s in the most trite fashion, as a character who was previously simply annoying suddenly turns into a salivating psychopathic kidnapper.

I admire this first-time author for taking on an unusual setting and a potentially unusual heroine. Lauren Royal really had me hooked and excited about the first few chapters of Amethyst. If she can carry that through in her next book, she will be a writer to watch.