The Contrary <title>The Contrary Contessa

An unconventional Regency Miss has her sights firmly set…on her brother!

Lexia Cappello was a much-loved carefree little girl when her beautiful Sicilian mama married the Englishman, Edward Weston, the Marquess of Rutherford. A few hours before the ceremony, Lexia had fallen to the hard ground from a tree right in front of her step-brother’s horse. She had almost been trampled on and was severely bruised. Robert had felt sorry for the urchin and had given her a bunch of multi-coloured roses. He did not know of the Sicilian superstition that a man who gives such a bunch of roses to a woman is fated to marry her, but 6-year-old Lexia was dumbfounded.

Lexia was a young widow when Robert returned to her homeland to take his father’s three orphaned children back to York. Despite her protests, Lexia knows that he is their legal guardian but she believes that the children may prove too much for him. The new Marquess of Rutherford is understandably attracted to the Contessa di Fabrianni, but has no idea that she is his step-sister. Her cheeky forthright personality and voluptuous breasts are hard to ignore but she is so full of mischief that he disciplines her as a child. Lexia adores her younger step-siblings and cannot restrain her enjoyment of their high-spirited antics. Fearing that their lives will turn sour when “Roberto” marries the pasty-faced Lady Penelope, she is determined to show him what he will be missing.

This light-hearted Regency romp is sure to put a smile on readers’ faces. Fate has lead the pair together; the hero never knowing that he set the course of his own destiny so many years before with his kind actions to an injured little girl. The children are an enhancement to the tale, bringing with them a sense of a hearty extended Italian family atmosphere to a man who was an only child. Lexia’s refreshing opinions about English conventionality and straight-laced respectability are not expected in traditional Regency. She will not be compromised in body or mind, yet her desires and needs shine through, as she tries to thaw the heart of the very English brother that she has always seen as her destiny. A thoroughly enjoyable Regency romance!

Reviewed by: Naomi