The additional characters that Aidan introduced in the previous two books appear again, particularly Lord Dyfed Brougham who is a well-rounded and interesting character. Perhaps his secret life is a bit unrealistic, as is the sub-plot about treason and the weird Sylvanie that rather spoiled Book 2: Duty And Desire for me, but if you gloss over those aspects and stick with the main story it’s an enjoyable read.

Despite being a much thicker book than the previous two volumes it doesn’t feel laboured and drawn out. In fact, I would level the small criticism that the end comes rather too soon – much time has been spent setting the scene and the betrothal seems to happen with less reflection than all the other events in the books so far.

There are a number of loose ends, having read this book, which leads me to suspect Aidan has more books in store. The loose ends are about her extra characters – the Dy/Georgiana semi-romance (will anything happen – when she is older, of course); the treasonous exploits of Lady Sylvanie and her band of Irish followers; Dy’s involvement in spying; Georgiana’s excessive religiosity and what this means for her. I suspect a book about Dy and Georgiana is at least on the cards and I, for one, will be buying it.

At certain times when reading the book I wondered whether Aidan had written it after seeing the BBC DVD adaptation of Pride & Prejudice. There were a number of small events in the TV series which seemed to be reflected here, such as Darcy trying to cure himself of his hurt at the rejection of his hand in marriage by Miss Bennet through fencing. I thought this worked very well into the story but it did serve to ground the story into those actors (good though they were); this would only really be the case for those who were very familiar with Austen’s original so were aware what was outside of that work but was both in the TV series and this book.

As in books 1 & 2, however, there are some unfortunate Americanisms that have crept in and should have been spotted by an editor. Autumn has become “fall”, people “inquire” rather than “enquire”, “insure” where it should be rendered “ensure”, the wretched appearance of “gotten” numerous times, “pled” instead of “pleaded”, “normalcy” rather than “normality” and Lady Catherine is moved to “write his Lordship” rather than to “write to his Lordship”. These American words and turns of phrase jar when read by an English person and are a disappointment when so many other period details are right. I was relieved, for example, that Mr Darcy spread jam on his toast rather than jelly, but because of the earlier Americanisms I found myself noticing this correct usage and once again it took me, however briefly, out of the story. A side note – although this is an American-published book by an American author, the spelling is generally English in words such as “favourite” or “endeavour”, which is a real relief! Still, the random appearance of comments about Americans/Bostonians was yet another annoyance for an English Regency reader – why does every single American Regency writer insist on mentioning America?

Overall I enjoyed the book although I think the initial promise of Book 1: An Assembly Such As This was not realised as much as I had hoped in the two further volumes, although this one is better than Book 2. All in all I am impressed by Aidan’s grasp of the story and her own slant on it, although I feel that she is most successful when sticking to Austen’s original plotlines and that those made anew for this story are less convincing. But still a good read and streets ahead of an awful lot of other Pride & Prejudice derivative fiction.