In this not-quite stand-alone sequel to An Improbable Season, Eleanor, friend to Thalia, Kaliope and Charis, the debutantes who featured in the previous book finds true love. Well-done and sweet-natured, this boon is nonetheless a little less compelling than its predecessor.

Eleanor Lockhart has one big plan for her first season now that a proper amount of time has lapsed since she was widowed – to have as much fun as the ton can offer her. Her late husband’s nephew desperately wants her to marry him so he can use her inheritance to pay off his debts, but Eleanor is in no hurry to lose her independence. Since she was married at sixteen and widowed at seventeen, who can blame her?

To that end, she invents a fake engagement for herself aiming to stop her nephew from forcing her into marriage, and so he will allow her to go to parties without having to deal with an actual companion. But she selects an all-too-real man upon which to pin her lie – Henry Salisbury, her friend Thalia’s crush, which upsets Thalia.

But soon Eleanor soon finds herself spending time with Owen Jones, a jeweler and scientist who happens to be the only man who might be able to translate Eleanor’s late husband’s theories (which the author calls “high level mathematical notations”, but doesn’t explain further). Owen is, naturally, of a completely different station, leaving her to wonder if marrying a commoner – and plunging back into the poverty she came from – is worth it.

Meanwhile, Thalia – who remains single after An Unexpected Season – keeps trying to publish her poetry, and battles her crush on Henry. Will any of them find happiness?

Of course, but An Unlikely Proposition is both interesting and frustrating. How in the world did Eleanor end up at the same elite boarding school as the heroines from the previous book if she was dirt poor? Who was paying her fees? I’m also not quite sure I found it plausible that Owen would have the opportunity to become as scientifically expert as he is given he’s a second generation jeweler. Then again, it was pretty hard for me to buy that he and Eleanor would ever be in the same social circles.

And yet I found the book entertaining. Thalia and Eleanor are fun heroines, the setting is well-sculpted, and the Regency shenanigans very regency-ish. The romances, once we get there, work very well, as all the couples are quite well-suited to each other. We also get an odd side-step into a masked ball where women are selected by men looking for mistresses, where our heroine almost gets assaulted. Well. One can’t have everything, I suppose.

An Unlikely Proposition definitely has its lumps and bumps. But at least their lumpiness is interesting.