Every once in awhile I will pick up a romance that lives up to the critics’ claims of being written to a formula. The Regency formula for this one would read something like this: Take hero who is good looking, wealthy, heir to a fine estate and is a spy for England during Napoleonic War. Must belong to group of equally titled gentlemen working as spies. Group should have catchy name, like Drake’s Rakes. Mix with heroine (she should be beautiful but impoverished, come from a family with good name, be pure as freshly fallen snow, feisty with a scandal in her past that was not her fault (or is faux) and allow hero to walk all over her). Add quirky secondary characters such as an eccentric elderly person, a duchess beyond the pale but still welcomed in society, an evil cousin/brother/neighbor determined to deny our hero happiness/steal his inheritance. Beat until consistency is smooth as English cream.

As a young woman, Olivia Grace, parson’s daughter, falls hard and fast for Jack Wyndham, Earl of Graybush. The feeling is mutual and their whirlwind, passionate romance ends with a wedding. And it truly does END there, for before the honeymoon is over Jack begins to listen to all the nasty things his family says about Olivia and ultimately ruins her completely through a scandalous divorce. Thrown out of her parents’ home for her disgrace, Olivia is forced to work incognito as a chaperon for three obnoxious young women and their even worse mama in Brussels. She is happy to have any job, fallen woman that she is, and willing to do almost anything to protect the secret she keeps hidden safely in England. She is determined to hold her tongue, mind her manners, and stay safely in the shadows.

But then everything she built in years comes crashing down around her in days. Her employer leaves Brussels without her. Gervaise Armiston, her husband’s cousin and orchestrator of her downfall, has arrived in town hot on her heels. And she finds Jack on the field of battle, dressed in a French uniform and convinced they are still wed. As she and her new friends struggle to find out why an English earl would be in a French uniform, Olivia finds her heart in as much danger as it has ever been to Jack’s romancing.

In many ways this book was perfectly executed. Every step happened exactly as one would expect. But since this is a novel, as opposed to a writing assignment, that becomes a problem rather than an asset. Nothing really set this book apart from anything else on the shelves. Everything from characterization to plotting has a been there, done that feel. Even the divorce, which could have been an issue, is handled in the typical “scandal in her past” style. The bright spot in all this is that Dreyer is an experienced author and the prose is well done; there are no serious plot holes and the action is conveyed in a smooth, concise manner. The expert writing made it an easy if predictable read all the way through.

Where it might be difficult for some is in the treatment of the hero towards the heroine. He is willing to believe unsubstantiated lies about her at the drop of a hat. I have seen this happen so often in romance novels it didn’t even cause me to blink, but for those trying to avoid this plot line, be warned it is here in abundance. By the time he finally grows a set, figures out what is going on, and gives the heroine her well-owed apology, the book is very nearly done. It felt a bit too little too late for me, but then it most often does.

The book also uses the lust as love shorthand. These two are hot for each other but I never saw anything that showed me there was much more to their relationship.

Head Games, a suspense novel written earlier in this decade by this author, was a terrifying read. It stayed with me long, long after I set it down. A Rose for Maggie under her pseudonym Kathleen Korbel was one of the most touching and profound category novels I have ever had the pleasure to read. I would recommend both of those heartily. This one I can neither recommend nor urge you to avoid. The book is well written, and the fact that it resembles many, many others on the shelves means this style of book is popular. It will all be a matter of taste. If you love this plotline and feel you simply must add to your collection, go for it. Otherwise, I would give it a miss.