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A Singular Lady

by Megan Frampton

reviewed by Cheryl Sneed

October 2005, 217 pages, Publisher: Signet, ISBN: 0451216830

Titania Stanhope is in a bind. Her father left a recently discovered second will leaving all his money to his mistress, the steward has robbed the estate blind, her nasty aunt has refused to sponsor her Season, now that she cannot hope to collect her fee for the favor, and her equally nasty uncle is threatening to snatch up the estate if she and her brother can't pay the taxes on it. Titania's long-postponed Season has suddenly turned from a happy occasion to a desperate search to marry a fortune.

She finds a way to earn some pocket money by writing a popular anonymous newspaper column detailing her marriage campaign. These "Dispatches from the Battlefront" which head up each chapter of the book are a delight. She is sure to find a suitable candidate, for as she says, tongue firmly in cheek:

"…with the arsenal of weapons I have in my cache – playing the pianoforte, dabbing at watercolors, talking knowledgably about the weather – how could any man refuse?"

She quickly finds the man she wishes to marry, but alas, he has no more money than she does. Or so she thinks. Edwin Worthington, the Earl of Oakley (incorrectly addressed as "Lord Worthington" throughout the book) has recently returned to England after having been sent by his father to America five years ago to live down the scandal caused when he jilted his fiancé – who wished to marry him solely for his money. He sails in from Boston (which vexed me, for England and the US were at war at the time; one did not simply sail from Boston to London in 1813) to collect an inheritance from his maternal uncle, but keeps his new fortune a secret – he doesn't wish to be courted for his wealth again. He quickly decides that Titania is the woman for him, but is frustrated by her efforts to remain aloof.

Titania and Edwin are both appealing characters. Titania is famous for her Managing Ways; she is a very forthright, no-nonsense kind of woman who is having a difficult time being easy about playing the Marriage Game. Edwin is just as intelligent as she and enjoys matching witticisms with her. I liked them both and enjoyed them when they were together, but they weren't together very much. They have brief encounters at balls, they each admire the other – Titania in particular is quite fascinated with Edwin's broad shoulders – but they don't spend much time together, so while I liked them, I was not emotionally engaged by them.

The narrator's voice is charming and very wry, and there were plenty of times I smiled as I read of Titania's musing that since, "in her own case, misery loved an empty stomach" she'd go eat breakfast, or of her younger brother's set's ambition: "We're resolved to be young men of passion and deepest melancholy, and we shall sigh a lot."

Ms. Frampton is a very good writer – she is smart, she is funny, and she has a unique voice. I found much humor along with some frustrating historical errors (including some business at the end dealing with a special license that flat-out startled me) in A Singular Lady. What I didn't find, I am sad to say, was very much romance.

Reviewed by Cheryl Sneed, October 14, 2005