Ridiculous - D.L. Carter

Ridiculous by D.L. Carter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ridiculous is the perfect title for this silly book. It is one of the more absurd Regency romances I've read, and I enjoyed it very much since I wasn't trying to take it seriously at all. Life needs silliness at times. That's exactly why I turn to this type of romance for those evenings when I need something humorous and mindless to read.

This one goes out of its way not to be realistic, so you definitely have to be able to suspend disbelief. Some of the plot twists are either completely improbable or extremely convenient for everything to come out right in the end. Keeping that in mind, and the fact that this is purposely sticking its tongue out at the ridiculousness of the norms of the time, it was a lot of fun.

The story is about a poor widow and her daughters who have been thrown on the mercy of a mean uncle who doesn't have any mercy and uses them as free labor. Luckily, he dies a young man, and one of the daughters audaciously decides to steal his identity so that she can provide for her family, who otherwise would end up in the poor houses.

Part of her disguise is to be so silly that people don't scrutinize her too closely. In all her escapades as a man of property, she turns the London season upside down with humor and audacity that are so uncommon in that time period. She also makes friends in high places and one in particular that makes her realize too late that she doesn't want to be a man for the rest of her life. How she gets out of this predicament is very convenient, but entertaining nonetheless.

The main thing I didn't like about this was that the romance was more explicit than I enjoy. It's definitely in the adult category, and I thought it was a shame that the focus was on the physical. The cover had led me to believe it was going to be a more traditional Regency romance, and I didn't see anything in reviews to indicate otherwise. So I'm making sure to mention it here for others.

Oh well. I was still highly entertained for most of it. The lightness, the humor, and the lack of "you lied to me" drama were the high points. You probably need to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy it, though. This might have irritated me another day.