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The problem with Regency historicals is that, like pickles, you can only have so many before you reach your lifetime limit. It seemed to me that there was more to Western history than knights errant and Lord Byron. Like, oh, the Restoration period – a time that, in all honesty, I hadn’t considered one way or the other until I read Jeane Westin. Who knew that King Charles was so dashing? It surely explains the enduring popularity of certain spaniels.

I digress. Westin’s Lady Merry’s Dashing Champion is the third in her Restoration series, and, like Elizabeth Hoyt, I think Westin’s embrace of non-traditional historical time periods together with her embrace of non-traditional storytelling is just about the best thing that has happened to historical romance in a good decade or so.

Different era, different rules, different story. It’s all good.

Lady Merry isn’t a lady at all. Meriel is a servant. Okay a servant with a bit of a problem: she bears a strong resemblance to the wife of Lord Giles, Earl of Warborough. Granted the real wife is a bit of a slut and, well, a traitor to the Crown; Merry isn’t, so, you see, appearances aren’t everything. Thought Merry isn’t looking to better her station (necessarily), her life changes when the king’s spymaster presses her into duty – she will pretend to be Felice, the evil wife, while the real Felice is locked up. Merry will save the day and all that.

Except she has fool Felice’s husband. And all of Felice’s lovers. And herself. Plus the Dutch, who, unlike the Dutch of today, were real problems to English society. Oh, and for all of her troubles, Merry will likely die as a result of her myriad deceptions. That’s how it went in the olden days: the king said “jump” and you jumped right into the volcano. Life is much better now.

Merry undergoes a crash course in being a lady of King Charles’ court. Luckily, her life of servitude has taught her more than a little about how the upper crust behaves. And she’s smart, reasonably well-educated (having been lucky enough to serve one of the good guys), and far too mouthy for her own good. Oh, and she’s crazy in love with Giles, who is a national hero. Her employer has a carved bust of the man (apparently this was all the rage back then) and Merry confides her hopes, dreams, and love in the marble man.

Giles is trying to hold his head up high, not easy when your wife is pretty much fornicating her way through the entire peerage. When Merry is substituted for Felice, sure he realizes that there’s something not quite right, but his dislike for Felice keeps him from looking too closely. And as Merry, whose personality isn’t the type to be suppressed for long, allows her natural desires and inclinations to be known, Giles convinces himself that maybe Felice has changed. Maybe his marriage has a chance.

Westin likes the dense, obscure plots. Given that she’s working in a fairly unfamiliar time period, the story obstacles she creates feel like they’re lacking in necessary tension. That the Dutch are about to sail into London – a London recently devastated by fire and diseases – and take over everything could be better developed. With the antics of Felice (or Merry as Felice) and King Charles (a lusty lad) and Giles and the court taking up so much page time, I felt like the urgency of the Dutch problem wasn’t fully communicated.

Intellectually, I grasped the importance of rooting out a traitor and saving the world. But the threat didn’t feel threatening. It required an act of faith on my part to believe that this enemy required such enormous – almost unbelievable – machinations. The story unfolds at such a leisurely pace that it was easy to forget that Merry was playing double agent. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. It wasn’t like the Dutch would land on England’s shores the next day.

I simply didn’t feel that the reaction matched the (expected) action. It’s sort of like there’s a meeting, and me and my tall friend are late. There I am, taking lots of short, rapid steps while my companion is strolling along, hardly winded at all. I feel a bit inadequate, like I should be barely glowing when I’m actually perspiring with wild abandon. Shouldn’t we both be out of breath?

The romance between the characters was given more story time than the underlying plot. While I like idylls in old trees as much as the next reader, I also needed a better grounding in history to understand the leisurely pace employed by Westin. To me, the various side interludes seemed a distraction when I knew that the Dutch were sailing as fast as the winds allowed.

On the other hand, Westin is one of those rare writers who has a compelling voice – so compelling that I suspect she could write a phone book and I’d be lulled into her world. Where my gut tells me that the pace of the novel is far too slow, my brain is all, “It’s fine, don’t worry, it’s Saturday afternoon, it’s not like you have race to the finish with every novel.” This brain/gut disconnect is the source of many of my life problems.

And where I would have liked more intensity driving the actual plot, at least I got a very well-written romance. Honestly, how often can you say that? A romance thread that is intelligent, poignant, and mature? Two characters who, while not social equals, are well-matched on every other level?

As we all know, married heroes often create problems in romance novels. Especially when they’re not married to the heroine. Giles is most definitely married to someone else throughout the course of this novel. Westin walks a fine line as she develops the romance: there’s pretty much no way for her to avoid the fact that Giles believes the woman he’s with is his wife. And there’s no way for her to avoid the fact that Merry knows full well that she’s not Felice. And there’s no way to avoid the fact that Merry, knowing her fate, is going to go quietly into the good night.

That the romance unfolds so naturally is a pleasure. Even when Giles knows he’s been betrayed, he’s not totally stupid about matters. And while Merry behaves in reckless ways, she’s also driven by strong motivation. She’s the lamb heading for slaughter. You tend to forego many social niceties when you realize that tomorrow might truly never come.

I will forgive good writers many things. Westin, for all of her polish (and her writing exhibits great polish), writes overlong for my taste; or maybe she writes urgent situations with a lack of urgency that feels at odds with my sense of what’s going on in the story. Or maybe my legs are simply too short.

Of course, this does not mean I won’t read this author again and again,. Her strengths – voice and characterization and even boldness – suck me in. I want to read Jeane Westin. Given how few authors make me feel this way, it’s a very good thing indeed.

You can find Jeane Westin here. You can buy Lady Merry’s Dashing Champion here or here. You can trust that Westin did the right thing by her married hero because, well, it’s romance.