An Offer for a
Spinster (Book 1 of Willoughby) by Dorothy Sheldon caught my eye out of a bunch
of similar books because the last name
of my best friend in grade school and junior high was Sheldon. I previewed the
first page and found nothing to put me off so I bought it and I’m glad I did. The Regency
romance genre in the age of self-publishing is a very mixed bag.
Sheldon is the real
deal. No flubs that I noticed except a word or two (“surreal” for one) that were not in use at
that time and no grammatical infelicities. An Offer for a Spinster is clean and
sweet without being icky, if you know what I mean and I think you do. It’s the
kind of historical romance I remember fondly from the nineties, before so many
of them had obligatory sex scenes every thirty pages or so.
I won’t rehash the
plot; it was not unbelievable and I’m sure many compulsive readers will
sympathize with the main characters’ problems with their families. Before I was
halfway through the book, I bought the next in the series, and now I find that
she has written several other romances as well. Binge read time!
