The Secret Diary is a pleasant enough Regency Romance with lots and lots of local color, nice characters, a totally transparent mystery, and some rather tepid sexual attraction between the hero and heroine. It started off very slowly, but finally picked up speed and moved along very nicely. Kirkland’s latest lacks originality or distinctiveness, but provided reasonable “filler” for a few hours.

Olivia Mallory’s parents were killed in an accident while she was having her first Season. She and her sister Esme were taken in by their puritanical uncle Raeford Frant, and they have lived quiet country lives with only their cousin Jane for company. When Jane and Raeford die in an influenza epidemic, Olivia and Esme find themselves in possession of a comfortable fortune.

Olivia decides they should go to London so that Esme can experience some joy and to visit the publisher who expressed interest in her late cousin Jane’s poems. Jane had a passionate epistolary relationship with a man who signed himself D; she was his muse and he inspired her to write some truly excellent poetry. The publisher would like to publish Jane’s poems, but he wants more information. Who is the mysterious D? When the two sisters arrive in London with their maid, they take up residence at Grillon’s Hotel.

Olivia meets David, Baron Crighton, on her first day in London. There is an immediate attraction between them. She continues to meet him during various activities in London and the attraction between them deepens. When Jane discovers that David’s nickname was “The Poet of Eaton,” she wonders, could he be the mysterious D? As Olivia reads Jane’s diary, she finds more clues and also finds her heart is breaking, because she has fallen in love with the handsome and intelligent David. She could not bear to be second best, since it is quite clear from the diary that Jane and D were that rare thing – true soul mates.

The identity of the mysterious D is not hard to figure out at all. Even though I read a lot of mysteries, I am very easy to fool and generally never figure out the identity of the culprit. I guessed D’s identity from the very beginning.

There’s a lot of local color in The Secret Diary. There’s not a lot of tonnish stuff – neither Esme nor Olivia goes to Almack’s, but they do sightsee quite a bit and go to parties. All of this is described in lavish detail. We know down to the last flounce what Esme and Olivia wear to every party and every outing. All this local color is a big part of the book, so much so that the romance takes a back seat for quite a while.

Olivia is portrayed as an intelligent and pretty woman. She isn’t missish, and she isn’t a stereotypical bluestocking either, and I can see how David would be attracted to her. David is an attractive and intelligent man, not one to fritter his time away on tonnish pursuits and silly mistresses. He and Olivia should make a wonderful pair.

But for all their nice qualities as individuals, David and Olivia do not catch fire as a couple. The sexual attraction between them, while supposedly immediate, was instead very tepid until nearly the end of the book, when it began to smolder and flame. There’s a lot of stuff going on in this book, aside from Jane and D, and lots and lots and lots of secondary characters. Some appear for a couple of sentences and then disappear forever. At times I wished for a scorecard.

Readers who like lots of description will enjoy The Secret Diary; author Kirkland describes Olivia and Esme’s activities vividly enough that for a few hours, I felt like I was in London. But the lack of chemistry between Olivia and David throughout most of the story put a damper on this as a romance novel. All in all, this is an average Regency read.