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BOOKMONGER
No good rhyme nor reason for this romance
Prolifi c Seattle romance
writer Elizabeth Boyle
is back with the newest
installment in her latest
series: “Six Impossible
Things” is the sixth book
in the Rhymes With Love
cycle.
While some of the pre-
vious titles (“Along Came
a Duke,” “If Wishes Were
Earls,” “And the Miss Ran
Away With the Rake”) do
reference familiar nursery
rhymes, “Six Impossible
Things” seems to stray from
Mother Goose and instead
borrows from Lewis Carroll.
(Readers who remember
“Alice Through the Looking
Glass” will recall the White
Queen’s daily practice of
believing “as many as six
impossible things before
breakfast.”)
Perhaps others will be
clever enough to discern
some connection between
the title and the story.
This reader could not, but,
instead, was distracted by
the notion that a Regency
romance would make this
reference to a book whose
author was born consider-
ably after the Regency era.
With that apparent mis-
match already niggling at
back of mind, it was diffi cult
to settle into the story’s early
chapters, which do their
own bit of jumping back and
forth in time.
In this tale, Roselie Strat-
ton is a young woman who
debuted in London Society
four years earlier, yet still
remains single. This would
be considered a problem by
most ladies of her era, but it
is an advantage for Roselie,
who leads a double life as an
undercover operative for the
Home Offi ce.
When she dons a wig
and an attitude considerably
more brazen than befi ts
a lady of the ton, Roselie
becomes Asteria, a spy who
roams through some of
London’s seediest neigh-
borhoods seeking evidence
about turncoats who would
betray England on Napo-
leon’s behalf.
In spite of the dangers
she confronts in this double
life, the person Roselie is
most concerned about is
Baron Rimswell – Brody – a
childhood friend who has
grown up to become a very
dashing eligible bachelor.
He also – unknown to most
– is an agent for the Home
Offi ce.
As Asteria, Roselie has
had some – ahem – unnerv-
ingly close encounters, shall
we say, with Brody, but he
has not yet fi gured out her
true identity. She fears that
if he does, he will want to
forbid her from participating
in any more of this danger-
ous but critically important
work.
The fi rst two-thirds of
this book is a slog through
proper tea parties and dances
on the one hand, and louche
bacchanals on the other.
Roselie is involved in some
skulduggery that is hard to
follow, and whenever she
and Brody encounter one an-
Six Impossible Things
– Elizabeth Boyle
Avon – 378 pp - $7.99
other sparks fl y and, invari-
ably, his mouth “crashe[s]
down on hers.”
For Roselie, having him
so close leaves her feeling
“… tangled. Furious. Deliri-
ous.” Whereas from Brody’s
point of view, Roselie is ever
“Toying with him. Tempting
him. Pushing him.”
The real action – and
I’m talking about the plot
here, not the sex – doesn’t
really gain momentum until
the fi nal third of the book,
and then it becomes quite
entertaining.
But in the meantime,
you’ll have to put up with a
lot of pages that are … repe-
titious. Tedious. Overdone.
The Bookmonger is Bar-
bara Lloyd McMichael, who
writes this weekly column
focusing on the books, au-
thors and publishers of the
Pacifi c Northwest. Contact
her at bkmonger@nwlink.
com
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