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oh dear! what's a broke Regency era heroine to do? her lack of funds are intolerable - she can barely stay warm or well-fed - and whatever is to be done about the ever faithful servants? she's a "poor relation" to infinitely wealthier noble relations - why can't they help out? she's a senior citizen; is there no pity amongst the upper classes for their forgotten elders? perhaps she should steal a trinket or two from those relatives? or perhaps she should rally, collect other "poor relations" to pool their resources, maybe they should all band together and jump-start a new hotel - one that caters to all of those wealthy assholes?

oh dear! what's a reader who expects more from an author to do? he wanted a deliciously heartless and deviously ironic trifle in the vein of E.F. Benson's Queen Lucia; should he be satisfied with less? why is he ever so grumpy about lackluster prose and a less than thrilling narrative? is he projecting his yearnings unfairly? should he just read more Benson? better yet, can't he just be satisfied with what he has in this novel, its undeniably loveable and amusing pleasures? can't he be happy with a bland writing style that goes through its various predictable but still charming motions... while still surprising him on the regular with disturbingly real mentions of how horribly anti-woman and anti-lower classes the entire period actually was? shouldn't he be impressed by an author who placidly spins a feel-good yarn of poor relations banding together while still making sure the reader is aware of the basic terribleness of the era in question - at least in regards to women, to the poor, to convicts, to anyone who is not an enfranchised member of the ruling class - or even in regards to hygiene?

oh dear! has the reviewer become enchanted despite his reservations? will he continue to read this series?

(view spoiler)[why yes, he will! (hide spoiler)]