The Fortune Hunter
Grade : B+

The early appearance in The Fortune Hunter of The Dreaded Will Stipulation had me doubting whether I’d enjoy the book, but Diane Farr is such a talented writer that she manages to pull it off with her customary flair. Witty dialogue and believable characters added to the pleasure of reading the story of how a (somewhat Fake) Rake and a reclusive heiress meet, become friends, and eventually fall in love.

George Carstairs, Lord Rival, is so broke that he can’t turn down a bequest of £800 per annum from Mr. Beebe, a man he’d befriended in hopes of an introduction to Lady Olivia Fairfax, a spinster whose net worth runs into the tens of thousands. The catch to the bequest (isn’t there always a catch?) is that George must render services on a quarterly basis to Lady Olivia’s orphanage in order to collect the money. And it gets worse: before he knew her identity, George mistook Olivia for a housemaid and confided his need to marry a well-heeled heiress. Well, there’s nothing for it now, he thinks, but to beguile the woman into wanting him so badly that she’ll agree to his proposal of marriage. The only problem is, the more time he spends in her company, the more George realizes he wants Olivia for herself, but given his earlier revelation, there’s no way she’ll ever believe him if he tries to tell her that.

Despite her insight into his initial motives, Olivia finds herself coming to like George, but she can’t get past the fact that he’s a fortune hunter. There’s no way he could want her for herself, is there? Besides, Olivia decided long ago never to put herself under the power of any man, a decision that’s only reinforced when her sister-in-law shows up on her doorstep begging sanctuary from Olivia’s brutal half-brother. Olivia’s not about to throw over a lifetime of resolve, not even for the man of her dreams.

Olivia and George are an engaging couple. Their actions are credible, for the most part, and while Olivia’s protracted obstinacy regarding George was somewhat exasperating, I was willing to accept that she’d be as cautious as she was, given that she’d dealt before with men who were more interested in her money than her person. Ms. Farr effectively reveals George’s motivations for getting the cash, bit by bit, so the reader comes to know the real George just as Olivia does. No info-dump here, no loading down the front end of the book with too much information revealed too soon, and I appreciated that.

Dialogue, settings, and characters are true to the period, to the point that I got frustrated - but in a good way! While Olivia and George do engage in sex, after a fashion, when it happens, how it happens, and just what exactly does happen are all true to the context of time and characterization. Hats off to Ms. Farr for not throwing in gratuitous sex scenes for their own sake. The climax of the story left me watery-eyed, but the denouement seemed slightly contrived: George and Olivia let off the person responsible for some of their troubles too lightly for me. I would have flattened the blighter, myself.

Although The Fortune Hunter is a sequel to Falling for Chloe, and one or two characters from that story glide on and off stage, it is not necessary to have read the first book before you pick this one up. And I do urge you to pick it up. Fans of both traditional Regencies and Regency-set historicals will enjoy making the acquaintance of the charming Lord Rival and Lady Olivia, a forthright and independent, but never feisty, heroine.

Reviewed by Nora Armstrong
Grade : B+

Sensuality: Subtle

Review Date : April 13, 2002

Publication Date: 2002

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