I’ve always appreciated an author who goes through the trouble of intensely researching the period he or she is writing about. Little snippets of historical detail throughout a book make it more believable and realistic, but too much detail can take away from the story. Unfortunately, Dangerous Lady by Amanda Scott has way too much detail. She had obviously done her research, but I found myself overwhelmed by all the historical facts. This is especially true of the first third of the novel, which seems to be more of an account of the Court of Queen Victoria than a romance.

Lady Letitia Deverill is sent to London to be a maid of honor to the young Queen Victoria. She has been brought up to be independent and self-reliant by her very liberal parents, which makes her a bit of an oddity to begin with in a time when women still weren’t seen as actual persons. As a Tory in a predominantly Whig environment, she must endure slurs and petty treatment. She has also inherited a house on Upper Brook street which is inhabited by two elderly women. Imagine her surprise when she learns the house is actually a love nest for several of society’s most influential men and women!

Justin, Viscount Raventhorpe, doesn’t know why his Uncle Augustus didn’t leave him the house on Upper Brook Street, but he has enough to worry about, since he has inherited most of the old man’s fortune. As another member of Victoria’s entourage, he sees Lady Letitia on a regular basis. He finds the young chit maddening, yet he cannot stay away from her. When he discovers that his elderly aunts are running a house of ill repute, he decides to rectify the situation. But will they be able to avoid a scandal?

I enjoyed some of the characters in this novel – but not the hero and heroine. The old aunts were entertaining and provided comic relief. I found Justin’s friend Puck and fellow maid of honor, Lady Catherine, to be far more interesting characters than either Justin or Letitia. I liked Letitia’s spunk, but I had no idea why she loved Justin. The only thing he had going for him was his good looks. His overbearing attitude and unwillingness to admit that Letitia just might have a brain were annoying. His need to control everyone and everything got a bit tedious, and it was a rare occurrence if he got through a scene without being mean to someone. Letitia was generally much more easy going until someone tried her patience, and then she did seem to become the over indulged brat that Justin believed her to be. Needless to say I wondered what the attraction was between these two. There isn’t even any physical contact between them other than a kiss or two and the odd caress.

Scott set a nice easy pace and for the most part I enjoyed her writing style, even though there were a few dialogue scenes that seemed jarring. For example, in one scene Letitia is threatening to shoot a villain. Instead of just telling him the gun is still loaded and that she’s an excellent shot, she actually takes the time to explain to him that her parents were very liberal and thought she should learn to shoot. This detracted from the scene and seemed unnatural.

But my main disappointment was the lack of love story. The budding relationship between Letitia and Justin just doesn’t seem realistic when all they did was verbally spar. And, how can a relationship grow at court? It was hardly proper for the two of them to speak there, so they met up at other places – where they argued. The historical details that have been so painstakingly researched overshadowed the love story. Between the attention to this detail and the sub-plot of Justin trying to protect everyone involved from the scandal of the aunt’s house, the romance was left in the dust. There was no passion between these two because they were too busy arguing or involving themselves in the lives of other characters. Oh of course, there is a happily ever after and everything is resolved satisfactorily, but I just didn’t follow how Justin and Letitia got there.

Dangerous Lady is not a terrible book, in fact, as a mainstream historical novel it probably would have been quite good – especially with all its detail. As a romance, however I found it somewhat lacking.