Claiming His Defiant Miss (Wallflowers to Wives, #3)

by Bronwyn Scott

[wyvernfriend]

In trying to reduce the stash of Mills and Boon Historicals beside my desk I may have burnt out my patience for the tropes for the moment.  This one isn't bad, not too much cliche.  However the Hero's name... I'm sorry, it took me 3 minutes to establish that Casek was a Czech surname, very not Irish. Casey, Cassidy, are the two surnames close enough to work and it just kept breaking my suspension of disbelief. The story would have been probably 4 star if not for this jarring a-historic misnomer. 
 
And he could have been immigrant Czech, he was from poverty and there were a lot of immigrants in London from all sorts of places, but a great deal was made of his Irishness, plus his first name was Liam. (If you want weird stories about movement of nationalities try this one http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/ordic-rebels-%E2%80%93-the-swede-and-finn-who-fought-in-the-gpo-1916-1230007-Dec2013/ where a Finn and a Swede fought in Ireland's 1916 Rising!)  People moved around yes, but surnames are important.
 
I liked her, May Worth is determined to be herself no matter what. She's helping a friend to navigate the complex moment of being pregnant outside of wedlock and you have to admire her for that. She wants to be more than her strict societal demands make it for her.  I would like to see more stories with her ilk.