Phoebe Smith is a governess with a problem. Her three charges are out of control and their guardian refuses to answer her requests for help, so Phoebe loads the children (teenagers really) up and takes them to London. There she plants herself in front of their guardian, Lord Sebastian Deverell, and demands he do something. Deverell takes one look at the beautiful Phoebe in her prim dress and mistakes her for a potential mistress in disguise, and makes a move on her. Phoebe scolds him, then fills him in on his wards: Theodosia, who dresses in men’s clothing and attends boxing matches; Cressida, who attempted to elope with an actor; and Gerald, who strung women’s unmentionables from every pole and fence post in the village near the country estate. Phoebe informs Deverell she intends to quit since he won’t take a firm hand with his nieces and nephew. During her rant, Deverell has decided Phoebe would make an excellent mistress and blackmails her into remaining as his nieces’ companion. Now all he has to do is convince Phoebe that she wants to be his mistress.

Already Deverell has shown he is not a man of honor. He only sees Phoebe as a source of pleasure and thinks nothing of her reputation. Even after Phoebe corrects his error about her true employment he continues to play with her, under the guise of teaching her a lesson about entering a man’s study without a chaperone. He then blackmails her to keep her in his company. Granted, he does rent Phoebe a house to give her the appearance of propriety, though it is more likely he would have kept his wards under his roof. He constantly treats Phoebe as a small child without any sense and threatens her with physical violence when his temper is short (he never follows through and is only blowing off steam, but it’s not very romantic).

Phoebe for her part is not much better. She appears to have sense and a backbone right up to page eight, when Deverell enters the room, whereupon she turns into a blithering idiot and never recovers. She clearly is not in control of her charges, and with only 8 years between her age and theirs it’s little wonder they don’t treat her with respect. One example of her lack of suitability as a governess occurs when the girls attempt to get Cressida a job at a London theater. Instead of asking for help, Phoebe goes to every theater in London (including the Regency period’s equivalent of a strip club) looking for the girls, and is surprised when she’s accosted by someone who’s less than a gentleman. Deverell has to rescue her before the villain, Crowhurst, takes liberties with her. She’s also keeping secrets from Deverell. He has no problem blackmailing her into staying because she has lied about why she left her previous employers and if she leaves his employ has little hope of finding another job.

The fact that the leads were annoying merely makes the book rustrating, but what truly disturbed me was the unspoken lesson Ms. Byrne was teaching. That if a woman is beautiful men can treat her as a sex object. Though there is a compelling argument to be made about what men considered important during the Regency; the author fails to make it by going overboard. Every man in this book looks at Phoebe as possession or as a possible mistress solely because she is pretty. None of them, not even the hero, try to get to know her. Crowhurst at least had the excuse that he confused Phoebe with her mother.

Though author Byrne tries to convey that Phoebe is a virtuous young woman, nothing like her scandalous mother (who cheated on her husband with Crowhurst and Deverell’s late brother), she undermines her efforts by having Phoebe sleep with Deverell without benefit of marriage. Phoebe doesn’t even think Deverell will marry her and is prepared to be his mistress when she goes to his bed. Perhaps by today’s standards it’s not a big deal, but back then there was a reason they called loss of a woman’s virtue “ruination.”

The book was intended as a romantic comedy, but my funny bone was never tickled. The jokes always seemed to come at Phoebe’s expense when she and Deverell were going head to head. The antics of the three teenagers were not amusing; instead they were the sad cries of three orphans desperate for some adult attention. Even Deverell, who was supposed to have the charm of Cary Grant, came across as petty and frustrated instead of suave and sophisticated.

Ms. Byrne has talent as a writer. The story flowed smoothly, was easy to read, and nothing jumped out as incorrect. The problem was with her plot and characters. Instead of enjoying them, I just felt sorry and sad for them. They never won me over and neither did the book.