The Devil and Miss Webster
Grade : D+

We have all gone to movies only to discover that the trailer had all the best scenes in it. Likewise we have checked out a blurb and read the book only to find the blurb was the best part. The Devil and Miss Webster had a great blurb and a heroine who was not the usual young regency miss. But the book was overstuffed with plot and characters. It ended up being just one good blurb.

Eleanor Webster is a beautiful, intelligent and very competent 34 year old woman who has spent the last ten years as the companion to her good friend, Laura, Viscountess Ransom. Lord Ransom was a restless man who spent most of his time off in London, gambling and wenching. Laura is very sweet, but rather helpless, so Eleanor has run the estate and the household and held everything together.

At one point, Laura was in such anger over her husband's neglect that she had an affair with a neighbor, Mr. Taylor. Lord Ransom was found dead in bed with a prostitute and soon after Laura had a son Simon, with red hair and blue eyes, just like Taylor, who notices the resemblance and has been blackmailing Laura.

Enter Lord Ransom's brother - Captain Stephen Ransom.

Eleanor and Stephen come in with chips on their shoulders. She doesn't like men very much, her father was a rotter, and having run the Ransom estate so well for so long, she doesn't want to give up her position. Also, she is terrified that baby Simon will be shown to be illegitimate and the whole family will be shamed.

Stephen comes in with ideas of putting Eleanor in her place, but as he notices how well she is running the estate, and how beautiful she is, he begins to warm to her. But there is some money and land missing, and who is this red-haired Taylor man who is slinking around?

The novel takes place over the Christmas holidays with a large cast of characters whom Stephen has invited over for a house party. None are particularly memorable and one of them, the obligatory flirtacious bitch, almost caused me to toss the book when she had a temper tantrum - complete with kicking and screaming - right in the middle of a party. Another minor character turns out to be Eleanor's long-estranged brother, and their reunion was not resolved with any satisfaction. Eleanor's reaction when she first sees her brother is to run outside, lightly clad, into the snow and cold, get lost and almost get frostbite. Is that the action of the sensible woman the author would have us believe she is?

The book skips from plot point to plot point like a butterfly over a field of flowers, and there are a lot of sub-plots going on. Some are potentially very interesting, but they are lost in the crowd. Given the relative shortness of Regency Romances in comparison to other historical romances, it's not surprising, but the author simply tried to cram too much into 224 pages.

If ever a book cried out for a longer length or an extreme edit, it is The Devil and Miss Webster. As it is, the overabundance of plot and the undeveloped characters made it a most disappointing read.

Reviewed by Ellen Micheletti
Grade : D+
Book Type: Regency Romance

Sensuality: Kisses

Review Date : January 24, 2002

Publication Date: 2001

Review Tags: Harlequin Historical

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Ellen Micheletti

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