Of Paupers and Peers by Sheri Cobb South

a reviewerby harstan

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August 22, 2006: The London solicitor searches the College of Arms tome for four months to determine who inherits the wealth and title of the Duke of Montford, whose previous occupant died with no offspring. Finally having to go back a century to a family estrangement, the attorney determines that Fairfield Curator James Weatherly is the new Duke. James is stunned to learn he inherited two million acres in Surrey and other properties.------------------- James travels to the prime seat of Montford stopping at an inn where he intercedes in a dispute, but by doing so he shows he is carrying a lot of money. On the final leg of his journey, two thugs accost him, take his cash, and leave him unconscious from a blow to the head. Margaret Darrington finds the bewildered injured James and assumes he is the tutor Mr. Fanshawe she hired to teach her fourteen year old brother Philip. She finds the teacher quite attractive, but is unhappy he seems to desire her beautiful eighteen years old sisters Amanda. With encouragement from her wacky Aunt Hattie and as he begins to recover his memory, James knows he loves one of the siblings, the one he considers the adult not the teen.---------------------- OF PAUPERS AND PEERS is an interesting Regency romance starring two likable protagonists and a solid honorable secondary cast. Margaret the lioness protects her siblings and her aunt, but also is jealous of her sister for the first time as she assumes Mr. Fanshawe is like every other male who fawns over the beautiful angelic Amanda. Fans will appreciate this fine historical as the lead male begins to regain his memory he knows whether he is Fanshawe or Weatherly he is in love.----------------- Harriet Klausner