I had to put The Diamond Key down several times to wipe away tears of laughter. If you are feeling down, and I was when I began reading this book, you will feel much better when you’ve finished it. Metzger’s new Regency is a frontrunner for my pick as Favorite Funny of 2003. It goes without saying that this book gets an A+ for humor. As for the romance – well, the grade is not quite so high, but I’m not going to fuss much.

Lady Victoria (Torrie) Keyes is known as The Diamond Key. She is pretty, charming, a great heiress and a prize catch. But Torrie does not want to marry any old sprig of the ton. Her parents are in love and she wants to love her husband. So she’s turned down – well, just about everybody. Oh, she does want to marry, just not someone like her most persistent suitor, the smarmy Lord Boyce.

Torrie is at the dressmaker’s one day when the shop catches fire. She is trapped and vows to marry the man who rescues her, no matter his station. About this time, Wynn Ingram, Viscount Ingall, is out walking is scruffy dog Homer. When he sees the fire, Wynn rushes into the shop and comes out with his arms full of Torrie. When Torrie vows to marry him, Wynn is alarmed: not that she doesn’t clean up well, or that there’s something wrong with her breeding. It’s just that Wynn is up to his badly-tied neckcloth in problems.

Wynn is back in England having been tossed out by his family after a scandalous duel over a woman. Instead of moping around Europe, Wynn took off to North America and became fabulously wealthy. After his brother died, Wynn inherited the title and came back to England, but he is still snubbed by the ton. And as for his aforementioned problems, they include a former mistress who is pregnant by another man, another former mistress who wants Wynn to marry her to pay her bills, and a sister-in-law with an eligible cousin. The last thing he needs is Torrie.

But Torrie’s father takes a liking to Wynn and decides to sponsor his come-back in Society. Wynn decides to go along with it; he can meet and mingle and also get to know Torrie better. But complications ensue.

There are a couple of running gags all thorough the book. One is about Wynn’s inability to keep a valet. This forces him to tie his own cravat (thankfully he never meets Beau Brummell). Another running gag involves Lord Boyce’s attempts to kidnap or compromise Torrie. She is not without her own resources (should she go for the nose, the crotch, or use the little gun in her reticule?).

The characters are delightfully likable. Wynn is the stronger character and Metzger spends more time with him. He’s good, decent, and kind, the type of man who always tries to do the right thing even though he bumbles while doing it.

Torrie is not quite as strong a character. She rather drifts in and out of the story, and she and Wynn don’t spend a lot of quality time together. But the time they do spend together is marked by nice bubbling sexual tension and, as her encounters with Lord Boyce show, Torrie is no simpering miss.

I haven’t read a nice, light, truly funny Regency in some time, and The Diamond Key was a wonderful pick-me-up. It’s spring outside, the days are longer, and many readers are looking for a sunny book to match the sunny weather. I can recommend this one with pleasure.