Although I enjoy an occasional Regency Romance, I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m not a slavish fan of the sub-genre, or books with a sensuality rating of Kisses, but I found The Marrying Man to be well-written and charming, with likable characters and a rather unique plot. There’s not a lot of depth to this book, but St. John and Alethea are a fun couple, and just the thing for when you need a nice, light read.

Sir St. John Pennworthy is looking for a wife. He decides this while at a friend’s wedding, when he lays eyes on a charming young woman named Alethea. Never mind that he is so distracted by this vision that he quite forgets to hand over the wedding ring at the proper moment; he has decided to be engaged within the hour. Now all he has to do is get himself introduced.

In fact, the introduction turns out to be the easy part. St. John follows the introduction immediately with a proposal, which is not particularly appealing to Miss Alethea Pierce. Having recently had her heart broken by her now-former fiancé, a scoundrel named Bertram, she assumes that the rather odd gentleman before her must be plaing some cruel joke. She declines politely, if a bit stiffly.

Having made up his mind to be wed, St. John refuses to let a small setback such as rejection by his first choice deter him. He proceeds to propose to nearly every unwed female who will give him the time of day, with absolutely no success. This twist on the far more familiar Duke of Slut is both refreshing and amusing; instead of attempting to get anything and everything in skirts on her back, poor St. John is simply trying to get them down the aisle.

For her part, Alethea is an interesting reversal of that overplayed romance character, The Hero Who Can’t Let Himself Love Again. Having been played false by her fiancé Bertram, she vows never to marry, a pledge that becomes more and more cumbersome as she finds herself forgetting Bertram’s handsome waistcoats and thinking more often of the handsome but luckless suitor she has rejected. She is a likable and intelligent character, although almost too well-behaved – aside from a memorable scene in which she becomes jealous of St. John’s latest prospective fiancée, and comments loudly to her own escort about how some people deport themselves in public. Although we see far less of the action from her point of view, it’s easy to sympathize with her plight as an intelligent young woman who belatedly figures out what she wants, but is constrained by Regency standards of behavior from going after it when the opportunity seems to have already passed her by. Although something of a rebel, at least in her decision to become a spinster, she is far more the well-mannered Regency miss than most romance heroines, and I found her to be a refreshing change.

The greater part of the story is told from the hero’s viewpoint, which is gives the book a rather unusual flavor, since, while he is certainly endearing, the reader must wonder if St. John is in fact all there. As the book progresses, St. John finds himself more and more often in Alethea’s enchanting company, but even as he grows more attracted to her, he never considers asking her to rethink her answer. Whether this is due to his pride or because it simply does not occur to him, we don’t know. And when he runs out of respectable young ladies of the ton, he finds himself proposing to some unsuitable sorts. As experienced readings of historical romance, we know these women are not marriage material and expect St. John does as well. When he doesn’t, we must worry just a little about his wits.

Worrisome marital misadventures aside – or perhaps included – The Marrying Man is a delightful and original book which, while it may not probe the depths of emotion that we often expect in romance, is sure to charm – or at the very least amuse – Regency fans, and the rest of us will enjoy it as well.