Review: Eagleton by Jenny Hambly (2023)

Jenny Hambly is one of my must-read authors, and this book was another excellent addition to her repertoire, to round off the Confirmed Bachelors series. The distinguishing characteristic of this one is the setting – most of the book is well beyond the usual run of Regency backdrops, being set on the shores of Lake Garda, and I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to be somewhere so unusual. If you’ve been to Italy it will bring back memories, and if you haven’t, you’ll be able to imagine it.

Here’s the premise: Alexander, the Marquess of Eagleton, travels to Italy with his baby daughter to reunite with a lost part of his family. Nell is escaping from her family. Both of them will have to come to terms with their past histories in order to forge a future together. And right there is my sole grumble with this book – there is a LOT of backstory to be explained. Both hero and heroine have deeply tortured pasts and even the minor characters have their own tragedies and family feuds to overcome.

It all serves to make the story a bit top heavy, and the early chapters in particular are bogged down in explanations. Sometimes it almost felt that I’d missed an earlier book (and actually part of Lord Eagleton’s may have been in Ormsley). Personally, I prefer all the history to be dripped in gently rather than as a torrent, but it does serve to underscore just why these two are so slow to trust, and why they’re liable to lash out at each other. There are a lot of missteps along the way as they snipe at each other, and then completely fail to make allowances.

But once the story gets going, it becomes compelling reading, and not just for the romance. The Italian setting is a big part of the magic of the book, especially the lake itself, the grape harvest and later the lovely city of Verona. It’s painted with an artist’s eye for detail, such as the door knockers, the amphitheatre and the odd fact that boats tend to ply the lake at night (why, I wonder?).

While some elements of the past are laid to rest with surprising ease, the last few chapters see some startling and dramatic developments which I definitely did not see coming. One thing I particularly enjoyed in this book is that several of the apparently villainous characters turned out to be far more complex that they seemed at first sight. I love it when a little twist makes the reader see a character in a completely different light. This is how people really are, not the rigid black and white so often seen in fiction.

Needless to say, everything is resolved satisfactorily at the end, and hero and heroine reach their happy ending in resounding style. This is another fine work by the author, and only the weight of all that backstory keeps it to fours stars for me.