Fencing for Ladies

 

We are still in the Archer Family series with Fencing for Ladies. This time we follow Lady Olivia who is the sister of Harnet the Earl of Wraysbury with whom we spent the last book. Olivia is in the style of the other ladies but slightly different. She is 28 years old and unmarried but not a spinster, Olivia is betrothed to family friend Lord Saunders. She does not love Saunders but he is a good man, will treat her well and both families desire the union. She has not married him before now for vague reasons of timing. But even if she must marry Olivia intends on opening a school, a fencing academy for ladies. Olivia has loved the sport since she was 18 and practicing with her brothers and their dashing instructor. 

The opening of her school causes a minor scandal but she enrolls a few ladies of her acquaintance and most feel the school is unusual but respectable enough. Until on the opening day of the school, a murdered man is found on the floor of the new school. Not only a murdered man but a friend of her middle brother. Not knowing who else to turn to Olivia writes to Alexander Bron her brother's fencing instructor, the new Baron Milborn, and recently a widower with a young daughter. 

As we would expect Olivia and Milborn find the killer, clear her name, and fall in love while fencing each other with swords and words. Olivia realizes she can't marry Saunders (while her younger sister has "conveniently" been in love with Lord Saunders the whole time). In the end, she marries her true love and they open her school together. 

I'll admit this book was a little too tedious and predictable. This book is candy, sweet, easy, and of no literary value. This is a book that I won't remember if I read it in a couple of years. It's good for a treat but not a steady diet. At this point, I started to get a book bellyache.