Karen Lingefelt makes her debut with True Pretenses, and though there are some major plotting problems with the book, I was nonetheless charmed by the dialogue, the humor, and the zest with which the book was written.

Trying to win the heart of someone who has spent years despising you is no easy task. Ruined by rumors that he once forced himself on a woman, Kit Woodard, Duke of Fairborough, is loathed by the niece of his alleged victim – a woman who is also his betrothed, thanks to a long-standing arrangement between their families. Despite her apparent hatred, Kit wishes to marry Serena Langley for various and sundry reasons (some good and others not so good), so he disguises himself as the coachman Alfred Gibson in order to win her hand.

Kit manages to get himself hired as coachman by Serena’s delightfully snobbish cousins and immediately attracts Serena’s attention. Determined to avoid marrying the Duke of Fairborough, Serena finds herself drawn to Kit (in his guise as Gibson) and soon enough decides that ruining herself with the coachman in order to avoid an unwanted marriage might not be such a bad idea.

As one can imagine, the plot is filled with all manner of unbelievable twists. Without throwing in too many spoilers, suffice it to say that Kit does not make a very convincing coachman. He is far too eloquent, too educated, and way too chummy with his employers and their peers. No coachman of the time could have behaved as Kit does without raising suspicions. For her part, Serena seems to be a relatively intelligent and spirited heroine, but has a borderline TSTL spot where her coachman is concerned. There are too many points in the story where she should have figured out that Kit was not who he seemed, but somehow she misses it. When Kit does something that would strike most as odd, she simply shrugs it off as “Oh! There he goes being insubordinate again! How cute that my coachman is friends with a duke!”

Then there is the matter of sheltered, upper class Serena not having many problems with the idea of being friends with (not to even mention having an affair with) someone whom she believes to be a servant. An upper-class lady would never have been buddies with her servants in the way that Serena is with her maid, and they certainly would not have dreamed of getting romantically involved with someone who was a mere servant – and not even one of the upper servants. Because of this, Serena’s quick fall for her coachman just did not ring true. Even her apparent desperation to escape her betrothal does not explain her frequent blindness to the mores of the time and place in which she has supposedly lived her entire life.

Normally, the contrived nature of this plot and its accompanying anachronisms would have had me grinding my teeth in annoyance. However, the author creates such engaging lead characters and has such a good ear for dialogue that I found myself genuinely enjoying this tale. Kit and Serena are both appealing and they are surrounded by a secondary cast of characters who are a touch one-dimensional, but fun to read about. Even though there are some technical problems with the plot, the dialogue flows nicely and the hero and heroine are often quite funny together.

All things considered, this is a very fun debut novel and I would be curious to see more from this author. It’s obvious that she is writing because she enjoys it, and her enthusiasm shows throughout the entire story. Even with some technical flaws, she has produced a humorous and delightful book. The ability to suspend disbelief is a definite requirement here, but if you can, the book should provide definite enjoyment.