By Julie F.

Are you a historical romance fan who is waiting impatiently for the next season of Bridgerton? A reader of Loretta Chase or Sarah MacLean on the hunt for a new author? Look no further than Martha Waters and her Regency Vows novels.

There are five books in this loosely linked series. The first two, To Have and To Hoax and To Love and To Loathe, are delightful stories with witty conversation and clever turns of plot. To Marry and To Meddle, however, is my favorite so far. Not being a regular romance reader (I’m more of a British police procedural fan), I’ve been pleased to find them all so clever and enjoyable.

Lady Emily has always deferred to a very proper mother who is full of (unreasonable) expectations for her daughter; Lord Julian is a ne’er-do-well who owns a theatre and is practically disowned by his father for doing so. When the two acquaintances are thrown together at a country house party, a hasty marriage of convenience ensues. Julian helps her escape her domineering family, and Emily cloaks him in respectability – but will their relationship develop further, and will their families come to accept them as they are? Of course, the lovers are at cross-purposes for much of the novel; Julian, who initially views Emily’s interest in his business as her opportunity “to meddle,” may or may not come to accept and even value Emily’s innovative ideas and contributions to his theatre. Emily, in turn, hopes that her status as a young bride will give her time with her new husband and a chance to make a difference outside the traditional, accepted realms of ballroom and drawing room.

I liked the sharp wit and also the gentle playfulness of the story – including antics involving a stray kitten nicknamed Cecil Beelzebub Lucifer by his lordship. The main characters, who are winsome and intelligent, are exceptionally strong and well-rounded; even though they live in a very different time and place, the author is skilled at making them relatable, creating deft portraits of real people with both dilemmas and personal triumphs through dialogue and description.

Author Martha Waters does a great job of tying the series together through each set of lovers in a broader group of aristocratic English friends, and I’m already looking forward to the next one, To Swoon and To Spar – which will feature Viscount Penvale and his uncle’s ward, Jane Spencer – followed by To Woo and To Wed.

To Marry and To Meddle is available in print and as an e-book from Libby.

Julie is an instructor and research specialist at HCLS Miller Branch who finds her work as co-editor of Chapter Chats very rewarding. She loves gardening, birds, crime and espionage fiction, all kinds of music, and the great outdoors.