If it’s possible for a single-title romance to “jump the shark” midstream, then Stealing the Bride unfortunately qualifies.

I thought I’d like this story much better than I did, since it’s a tale of unrequited love, finally to be requited. Even when I realized that I would have to suspend disbelief more than a few times, I was still ready to sit back and enjoy a romantic romp a la It Happened One Night. But then the stilted dialogue, big “little” misunderstandings, flimsy plot and It’s a Mad, Mad World developments turned my mild amusement into increasing annoyance.

This is the sequel to One Night of Passion, in which Lady Diana Fordham first appeared in order to break her engagement to that story’s hero, Colin Danvers. In the prologue of this book, we learn that she had only gotten engaged to Colin after the Marquis of Templeton, Temple to his friends, suddenly changed from ardent suitor to indifferent dandy. But after inadvertently witnessing a scene that explains Temple’s change of heart (he is a spy for the Crown and, she presumes, prepared to turn his back on love rather than subject her to a life of danger and lengthy separations), she is determined to play along with his foppish charade and wait him out.

The story picks up ten years later, when Diana is well and truly a spinster; she’s also a bit of a scandal, having pulled some outrageous public stunts no well-bred lady would consider. But they ain’t seen nothing yet, as the patrons of White’s quickly learn: Lady Diana, her hysterical father announces to all, has run off with a notorious reprobate fortune-hunter who is probably guilty of a prostitute’s recent murder. The Earl of Lamden urges her two dowry-seeking suitors to pursue her, and offers her hand in marriage to the one who reaches and weds her first. Temple, though present, doesn’t join the hunt until his superior arrives on the scene with this order: find the lady and either marry her, or get her married to one of the suitors.

Part of my difficulty hanging with this story (I did finish it, but after a certain point it was a real chore) was its frenzied feel. It was all over the place, to the point that it seemed like a lot of the book served merely as a means to arrive at one frantic scene after another. Along the way, the reader stumbles upon annoying and anachronistic secondary characters, including: erudite innkeepers, a farmer’s mother more familiar with what’s going on than the primary characters, the conscientious Sheriff of Nottingham, a pompous dandy who keeps turning up handily to throw a monkey wrench into the works, and a pair of suitors who start off as incompetent buffoons and develop a good many advantageous skills and attributes between their on-stage appearances. Which isn’t even to mention the French spies who try to abduct Diana or the creatively convenient reason why they are doing so. I knew there was trouble in River City when the masquerade ball scene conjured visions in my mind of Carol Burnett’s drapery-clad Scarlett, complete with curtain rod.

Another problem is that the revelations don’t seem sufficient payoff for all the build-up. Throughout the story, Temple fights his feelings for Diana, despite having loved her for more than a decade, despite her having waited for him to come to his senses all that time (her hope kept alive by the intermittent smoldering glance across a ballroom). It would be an understatement to say that I was unimpressed with the rationale for his sacrifice, or with the events which originally fired their indomitable love for each other. Also of concern is that, for such a stellar spy, Temple is amazingly incompetent (and for those readers who get annoyed by the carnal-embrace-at-unlikely-times scene, you’ve been forewarned).

‘Nuff said; I’m sure you’ve gotten the picture. If not, this is one that I cannot recommend despite being a sucker for second chance at love stories, historicals set in this era and madcap comedies. Somehow the elements don’t combine well to achieve a satisfactory gestalt, resulting in a story that feels scattershot, silly and wafer thin.