My Sweet Folly, by Laura Kinsale

My Sweet Folly by Laura Kinsale; historical romance; 407 pages

My original plan was to take one for the team, and read a bunch of romance novels this past week, so I could quickly build up my stats for the Book Challenge. That backfired, in that that the first two novels I picked up were so poorly written as to be unreadable. Fortunately, I found this one, and was able to read at least one before the year was out.

Years ago, Folie began corresponding with her husband's cousin, Robert, who was stationed in distant India. Through their letters, they fell deeply in love, but as both were married, nothing came of it. Ten years later, both are widowed, and Folie finds that Robert is now the legal guardian of her step-daughter. The pair moves to live with Robert, only to discover that he may or may not be completely mad.

I thought this sounded close enough to Jane Eyre (in tone if not in plot) to make it interesting, and it was. In fact, I'm a little embarrassed at how much I enjoyed this book--mostly for the crazy twist after crazy twist that kept coming up (in case you're curious, this book includes poisoning, murder, kidnapping, spies, undercover agents, "mysticism,"--both real and faked--sleight of hand, questioned sanity, disguises, and plots against the crown. There's even a hint at the end that one character may have been a Bertha Rochester in the making). It was a wild ride, and a surprising amount of fun. Not sure when I'll be picking up another romance, but at least I enjoyed this one.