Book Review: The Accidental Abduction

The Accidental Abductionby Darcie WildeBerkley Sensation, 2014Darcie Wilde follows up her sparkling, wonderfully intelligent novel Lord of the Rakes with a very worthy quasi-sequel, The Accidental Abduction, even going so far as to have one of her characters talk about the long shadow cast on the Regency London dating scene by the marriage of the previous novel's main character, Philip Montcalm: "There's marriage in the air. When a man like Philip Montcalm finally takes to it, the rest of us bachelors start looking about and saying 'Perhaps it's time ...'The Accidental Abduction's hero, wealthy merchantile scion Harry Rayburn (a likable, slightly staid stick-in-the-mud who couldn't be less like Philip Montcalm if he tried - this is an author who likes to test herself), isn't at all worried about marriage being in the air - quite the opposite. When we first meet him, he's making an all-important visit to the home of baronet Featherington in order to propose to Sir Ignatius's oldest daughter, Agnes. Despite the haughty cautions of Harry's sarcastic sister Fiona (who refers to his beloved as "Agnes Featherhead"), Harry is grateful the baronet has no class-based objections, and he's certain of the reaction he'll get from Agnes herself. He certainly doesn't expect her to say, "You must be joking, Mr. Rayburn!"Later, dejected, he complains to Fiona:

"I did everything ... I waltzed. I quadrilled. I had to beat off at least six other fellows at every ball to get onto her dance card. I fetched more cups of punch than I can count. And those endless poseys." Harry closed his eyes against the fresh pain of remembering how many hours he'd wasted in the flower shops, thumbing through that ridiculous little pamphlet on the "language of flowers" and debating the exact right combination of white, pink, yellow roses, forget-me-nots, pansies, and Lord knew what else ...

Harry's dilemma finds its mirror image in that faced by Leannah Morehouse Wakefield, who's just received a dreadful warning-note from a would-be suitor:

I am writing to request the favor of a private interview tomorrow. There is a matter that has long been on my mind to discuss with you. As it intimately concerns the future security and well-being of yourself and those to whom you are most nearly connected, I am certain you will find the proposal acceptable.

Wilde does a wonderfully understated comic dramatization of Leannah's sudden realization that she'll do pretty much anything to avoid both that gloopy suitor and the future he represents. She flees to her a coach with barely any preparation and races off - accidentally abducting her unknowing passenger, Harry Rayburn. It's the kind of odd-couple coincidence that usually comes most naturally to lazy writers; in the hands of a writer as energetic and inventive a writer as Wilde, it becomes the skeleton of quite enjoyable romp of a story with a surprisingly emotional third act. It's as hard to believe The Accidental Abduction is a second novel as it was to believe Lord of the Rakes was a debut - romance readers shouldn't miss either one.