LOVE IS ALL TRUTH

In a romance set in the latter part of the 18th century, life is far from smooth sailing for British aristocrats and their acquaintances.

Field focuses on the family of the third Earl of Stoneleigh, Geoffrey Chatswell-Brawley, and his wife, Anne. Anne is devastated by the death of their daughter, Alice. Lord Stoneleigh has no sooner begun to lovingly cajole Anne to move past Alice's death than Anne finds her rusticated brother, John Melton, weaving through London society to find a suitable wife. At the same time, the book reveals that Geoffrey’s father, Robert, the second Earl of Stoneleigh, had an early marriage to a commoner that produced a son, Robert—Geoffrey’s half brother—and that Robert’s son, Harry, might be a claimant to the earldom because Geoffrey and Anne have yet to produce a son. Geoffrey and his half brother warily begin a friendship, and the awkward John falls in love with Harry’s sister, Kitty. In the end, a faraway shipwreck changes multiple lives, and a host of other characters add color and interest to the plot. They include the dashing Capt. Hardwick and ravishing young women like 16-year-old Joanna Chatswell-Brawley, who’s in love with him. Field understands the Georgian era—this is the second novel in a series—and makes fine use of its conventions: the rigid social structure, the almost impossible rules of etiquette, the lovingly described interiors of these grand manor houses, and especially the gowns (oh, the gowns!). Overall, the novel may remind some readers of an 18th-century Downton Abbey. The author provides three appropriate family trees as frontmatter and a descriptive list of all the characters as backmatter. The stage is set for a sequel in which—fans of the series will hope—the earl will at last have a son and heir.

An entertaining period romance with grand manor houses and the gowns to go with them.