A fun Regency read!

The Persuasion of Miss Kate (My Notorious Aunt #4) by Kathleen Baldwin             

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Charming story that has our young heroine flustered, confused and angry when her fiancé, Lord Grayson Colter, breaks off their engagement in the middle of the Clapsfort-on-Wye assembly ball.

Hot headed Kate Linnet is at a loss, constrained by having to parent her three younger sisters after the death of their mother in childbirth, she swings between the unspoken desire for freedom and her duty and responsibility.

Who sweeps in to save the day but her wicked auntie, Lady Honore Alameda, a rather scandalous doyen of society. She has come to take Kate away for a London season but somehow ends up with all four young women. One of the girls is not quite ready to debut, and Tilly the youngest, all of eleven, is rather precociously wonderful.

Of course things don’t run smoothly, Lady Honore’s plans are not necessarily the most prudent, but seem to get results.

Kate must contemplate some decisions—freely made. The making though is both amusing and frustrating. Kate learns to really listen to her heart, not so much her duty. I rather liked her interaction with the village ladies as her eyes are opened.

I must admit I’m unsure if Honore is a fractured fairy tale godmother, or a stand in for Auntie Mame from Travels With My Aunt. The latter gave me visions of the redoubtable Maggie Smith playing the erratic Aunt Honore, who whips a female relative away to make with them what she will, under the guise of looking for a companion. 

An Ink Lion ARC via NetGalley