Barbara Miller’s The Pretender is the story of a young woman who has a lot on her plate. In the course of the story she must find her beautiful sister a husband, contend with an evil relative who lives to cause trouble, and will meet a gallant man with a painful past. I’ve read stories with similar premises before and I have to say that I found little that was new or original in this particular book.

Juliet Sinclair has not had the easiest time of late. Her father was killed, her brother hurt, she and her siblings have had to leave their home, and thanks to corrupt officials, she can provide no proof that her cousin Redmond is responsible for these disasters. Right now, she must find a husband for her sister Ariel and in order to do so, is forced back into society where she will encounter Redmond. Juliet manages to arrange a meeting between Ariel and Captain Draco Melling, one of society’s prime catches, but all does not go as planned. Draco is drunk enough to wager he’ll marry the next girl who walks into the room; and he ends up liking Juliet more than the shy, gentle, beautiful Ariel.

Despite the fact that Juliet also likes Draco and eventually develops feelings for him (over which she ends up agonizing), the matter at heart – keeping the family safe from cousin Redmond’s plotting – takes precedence. Draco is willing to help and in the process, he also unearths the fact that Redmond’s past actions have resulted in painful personal consequences for himself as well. With this double incentive to go after him and evidence to other misdeeds, Draco prepares to go after Redmond.

Draco comes to accept his feelings for Juliet much sooner than she does for him, for aside from the danger that Redmond poses and the fact that she originally meant for Draco to marry her sister, there is something else that worries Juliet, something which is more of a potential danger to any future they might have. At times I wanted to shake Juliet, especially when she does the one thing that could result in the very tragedy that she wants to avoid, and it makes her seem less like the sensible and practical person she is supposed to be.

The pacing of the book makes for uneven reading. The intrigues and danger that surround Juliet, her siblings, and Draco are mixed in with scenes with relatives and friends (the hero and heroine of The Guardian) and the blooming of a secondary romance, which at times, brought the pace of the book to a halt. I have seen action and secondary scenes mixed in a smoother manner. Even at the end there are a couple of extra events that went on until the very last minute, so that the ending of the book is not completely satisfying.

While likable, the hero and heroine are not particularly memorable, and the book itself is one that I couldn’t differentiate from others that also had (mostly) sensible young heroines, evil relatives, and men with painful pasts. The Pretender might make for a good comfort read, but I wouldn’t recommend it to someone looking for a fresh new take on a well-known story.