You all know my enthusiasm over Sarah MacLean’s novel Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake. I still sigh when I think of some of the scenes in the book and when I remember the romance that blooms so deliciously between Callie and Gabriel. So as I’m wont to do, I went in search of other books by this author. Imagine my pleasure when I found her first book, a young adult historical romance set in Regency England and aptly titled THE SEASON.

To read more about Sarah MacLean or her books, please visit her website at

www.macleanspace.com

The review:

Much like Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine of the novel she’s read three times, seventeen-year-old Lady Alexandra Stafford believes a woman has the right to speak her mind, the right to intelligent discussion, the right to value independence over the “perfect” match. In truth, the right to be herself. But she and her two best friends Ella and Vivi must follow the rules of decorum their parents expect of them while they make their debut into society, a task that will take all their strength and their reliance on each other to accomplish, especially when murder and mystery and the magic of a first kiss all get tangled up together.

Writing from the perspective of a teenage girl, MacLean gives us a fresh look at a world so familiar to those of us who love Regency romances. We learn the details of decorum put in practice by a young lady who finds them contrary to her natural inclinations. We see the details of Almacks and formal dinners and carriage rides in Hyde Park through her eyes and we feel her frustration and confusion and fury when Gavin, her longtime friend who is now somehow a stranger, begins to ignite in her feelings far deeper than friendship. And when she and her two best friends stumble on the truth surrounding Gavin’s father’s untimely death, we see a young woman (with her two best friends of course) willing to do whatever it takes to uncover the truth and to protect the people she loves.

With its terrific cast of characters from Alex and Gavin and Ella and Vivi to Alex’s three charming older brothers and loving parents, MacLean’s first novel provides us with more than a typical teenage romance, more than a mystery, more than a superficial and steamy look at the world of the past. This book gives us a beautiful tribute to the rules of the era, to the intrigue of a country in the midst of war, to the loyalty and beauty of friendship and family, to the exhilaration and fulfillment of first and lasting love, to all the things that can happen during The Season.