Ace of Hearts

Author: Barbara Metzger
Published: September 6, 2005 (Signet)
Category: Regency Romance
Series: House of Cards Trilogy #1
Rating: 8/10

Alexander "Ace" Endicott, Earl of Carde, is in a predicament. It is unavoidable that an earl must marry and sire the requisite heir, but when he makes this known, he quickly finds himself with a three-of-a-kind; three women have decided that they're engaged to Ace. The only solution that comes to Alex is to run to his country house, only to find that he's followed quickly by one of his supposed fiancées. He's on the road again before his valet has finished unpacking, and this time, he's going deep into the countryside to search for his long-lost half-sister.

Alex's stepmother died in a tragic carriage accident and her toddler was not amongst the wreckage. Alex's father declined soon after that and swore Alex to a deathbed promise that he would not stop searching for little Charlotte. In his stepmother's hometown, he tries to interview her remaining family: her crazy aunt who claims she can talk to ghosts, and her two cousins, Nell and her stingy brother (whose name I can't recall). The brother has run off as soon as he hears Alex is in town, Alex calls on his stepgreataunt and cousin. At the end of his visit, he is attacked by a goose and Nell, and injured by his horse trying to protect Nell and the silly goose. He's also amazed at this time that Nell has grown into a beautiful woman (he hasn't seen her in over a decade, when she was a little girl).

So Nell nurses Alex and they reconnect and deal with the problems falling on their heads. For one, she's invited one of her old schoolmates, who also happens to be one of Alex's fiancées, as she didn't know the engagement was all in the deluded young lady's head. They're also trying to figure out why the estate is so poorly cared for. The tenants' homes are in disrepair and some tenants have left entirely, so where have all the profits gone? Apparently, Nell's brother is an absolute scumbag, and deserves to jump off the roof, which he attempts.

The mystery of the missing money is linked to the mystery of the missing sister, but there is no clear resolution to it at the end of Ace of Hearts. I'm sure the resolution is to come in the later books of the trilogy.

The romance was a bit slow to take off and I thought injecting the suitors for Nell was boring. One suitor? Fine. But a bunch? All the men suddenly find Nell interesting (despite living in a haunted house with a crazy old lady who claims she can converse with ghosts) because Alex seems to be interested in her. If she's good enough for an earl, she's good enough for them!

Alex eventually proposes marriage to Nell, but she wants him to be sure of his decision, saying that if he can go to London and purchase a special license and come back with his mind still made up, then she will marry him. I'm glad he didn't even make it all the way to London, as he realized that he wanted her to go with him and he couldn't be without her any longer, and turned the carriage around. It's a good thing he did, because Nell's brother was about to leap off the roof, and Alex had to save the scoundrel, doing so rather heroically and sealing the deal as Nell's hero thereafter.

Some people might complain that Alex was a horrible hero because he seems so cowardly, running away from his problems all the time. That's what I thought too at first, when I wasn't being amused by the idea of this man running away from three women in wedding dresses. Alex even admits that he's the scholarly one of the family. His younger brother Jack, who's fighting on the peninsula, is the brave one. Alex was actually terrified on the roof and preferred that Nell's brother just jump and be done with the act. However, he went on the roof despite his nerves and saved the man for Nell.

Everything ties together quite neatly, and Alex even manages to foist some of his fiancées off onto some of Nell's pseudo-suitors, which appeals to my very efficient nature.