Mr. Montgomery’s Quest is one of those “okay” or “pleasant” Regency Romances. It’s competently written and doesn’t raise the hackles, but it’s not exactly a book one can get excited about.

Charlotte Pelham is an unusual female who would like to be able to support herself after her mother’s recent re-marriage. The problem is that Charlotte has no desire to be a governess or a lady’s companion; she’s an avid outsdoorswoman, and would like to make her living doing what she does best. When she sees an ad for a guide to lead a walking tour across the countryside, she applies. She knows that the owner of the touring company would never hire a woman, so she applies as Charles Pelham. She figures she can talk the would-be tourists into following her lead, and when she arrives successfully at her destination with her trip a fait accompli the touring company will keep her on and pay her salary.

Charlotte’s journey brings her into direct contact with Harrison Montgomery, who is on a quest to find his missing half-brother. Harrison has discovered that one of the boys traveling with Charlotte (and posing as her brother) is actually his brother. But there are two “brothers” traveling with Charlotte (one fake brother and one real one), so he joins her tour group in the hope that he can discover which of the brothers is his. They are joined by several other people, most of whom are accustomed to the outdoors. There’s a honeymooning couple, an officious colonel who is overly fond of clichés, two brothers, a clerk, a lady of the nobility, and a man who is an avid bird enthusiast. Most of the travelers are impressed with Charlotte’s tour leading abilities, but when “accidents” along the trail begin to pile up, Charlotte starts to think that perhaps someone doesn’t want her to successfully lead the tour to the end. Meanwhile, she finds herself increasingly attracted to the handsome Harrison. But she still isn’t sure why he joined the tour in the first place, and she doubts that someone with his obvious wealth could be interested in a woman like herself. For his part, Harrison shares Charlotte’s interest. But he’s also absorbed with the task of finding his brother, and he’s not really sure marriage is for him anyway.

The basic premise of this book is pretty cute. I’m fond of house party books, and Mr. Montgomery’s Quest is like a house party that has taken to the road. The same fixtures that you see in a house party – like a set group of characters that must interact with each other – is present, even though the scenery keeps changing. And there is quite a bit of scenery, but the nature descriptions aren’t overly detailed or boring. I also liked that neither the hero or heroine was of noble birth. Sometimes it seems like every Regency has to feature an earl at the very least, but in this case there is only one lady in the group, and she’s a secondary character. It makes for a nice change.

Although I did wonder how likely Charlotte’s charade would have been given the time period (how did she even get hired if her employer had never met her?), I had few substantive problems with the book. Unfortunately, I didn’t find it particularly exciting either. Neither the hero or heroine is all that interesting, and their relationship (such as it is) is not particularly compelling. Harrison in particular suffers from a distinct lack of character development. The secondary characters are similarly bland. The sub-plot involving the accidents could have been interesting – if the villain hadn’t been completely obvious. As it was I felt that both main characters should have guessed his identity long before they thought of doing so.

All in all, this book is best classified as pleasant but forgettable. Avid Regency readers may want to pick it up for the inventive setting, but this isn’t one I’d go out of my way to find.