Never has a book been so aptly named. Lady Amelia’s Mess and a Half is a mess and a half.

Jake Hillary has been in love with Lady Amelia since he first laid eyes on her. But nasty friends and bitter rivals intervened and separated the two love birds. Instead of marrying Jake, her one true love, Amelia married his best friend and spent some time in a miserable marriage before the questionable Lord Audley passed away. Now Jake is a heartbroken fool and Lady Audley a wealthy widow.

Just to make things more interesting, apparently Lady Audley spent some time chasing after Jake’s future brother-in-law in a previous book. This resulted in Jake lashing out at her in the need to be protective, but which she saw as being critical. As a result the two haven’t spoken in a while and both are convinced the other has nothing but contempt for the other.

And this is no simple chasing. Amelia and her best friend Bibi are both wealthy widows, not innocent debutantes. Amelia has been painted with the same brush that has labeled Bibi a harlot and, though he thinks she hates him, Jake is trying to improve her reputation in the ton. If that involves sponsoring Amelia’s charitable project with an orphanage, then Jake is more than willing to spend his inheritance on her good deeds.

Does this all sound disjointed? Yes, it does. And that is because it is. There were so many side plots going on, that it was a bit confusing at times. While Bibi was jumping from bed to bed, Jake and Amelia were in love and engaged before the book was even half over. This clearly set up that the remainder of the book would focus on a Big Misunderstanding. But in this case, it was more like three Big Misunderstandings and a few small ones. There was the past letters that Amelia never received from Jake, the abusive marriage that Amelia suffered at the hands of Jake’s best friend, the conniving ton ladies out to get Bibi and Amelia, the jealous pettiness of both Jake and Bibi as they fought for Amelia’s attention, and it just went on and on and on.

For the most part, the book read like a bad Young Adult book. The characters acted like middle school kids, not sophisticated twenty-somethings of the Regency ton. The only way these people were sophisticated was in their sexual exploits, as the women were all widows and the men typical London gentlemen with more money than sense. At one point, while Bibi “entertained” in a drawing room and Amelia was in the dining room, I was more in mind of a college frat party than a Regency romance.

The dialogue was trite, the plot meandering, the misunderstandings annoying, and the characters immature. As much as I would like to say that there is a spark of something good in this book, I really can’t find much about it to recommend. Lady Amelia’s Mess and a Half was really just a mess. And a half.