Reading Journal Entry: The Irredeemable Miss Renfield, by Regina Scott

Leslie and Cleo are the heros of this Regency Romance. Straight up in almost every sense of the word. Cleo and Leslie start out with interesting enough backgrounds (she's a former tomboy; he's the son of the recently deceased master of a spy-network) but quickly reveal their utter boringity. She's supposed to be a take-no-holds independent shocker, but in fact she's trapped under the thumbs of her older sisters and has to wrack her brains for scandalous ideas. He's supposed to be - something. But he's not.

Beyond the plain vanilla flavoring is the mediocre writing that gives it that special artificial-flavoring aftertaste. Every third phrase of dialogue seems oddly stilted and over-formal. The same goes for the descriptive passages.

Now, don't get me wrong. I like Rengencies. But I also like to get lost in the story, and the kind of florid over-writing Scott indulges in here snaps me right out of it.

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