The Ringmaster's Daughter by Grace Elliot

I was excited to read this book. I love circus-type stories and while this is more like an amusement park, it still has your acrobats, your fire-eaters, and a woman working with horses. This was especially cool because this story takes place in a time when it was scandalous for a woman to wear breeches and "behave" in this manner.

But a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, especially to ensure there's a roof over her and her pa's heads.

Foxhall Gardens is under major renovation. This means changes are being made, some people are being put out of jobs, and others are plain disgruntled. This leads to a variety of twists in the story, motivations ranging from lust, jealousy, revenge, and of course, love.

It's a pleasant read and what I needed at the time. I can't say I was ever bored. The heroine is cool in that she doesn't back down from a challenge, but rises to meet it and works her butt off to get things done and save her home and horses. But, while I realize she's lived a rather sheltered existence--well, I don't know, really...living in pleasure gardens, surely she has some knowledge of the ways of the world?--I felt she was TSTL, especially toward the end. I mean, seriously, the duke, the dress, the wine--are you really that dumb? I saw it coming from a mile away.

So despite the fact she lives in pleasure gardens, in which all manners of ill-reputed things have been going on--she's a bit too naive. I found it a tad hard to fathom and I lost respect for her when she was so willing to whore herself, even a little bit.

The romance was too fast for me. They share a few lustful glances and have a few cold business discussions and suddenly they're in love. I'd have actually liked more development there. And the father...I don't see how he can approve when he's been upstairs sick the entire time and from my knowledge, hasn't even met the man.

But the story outside of the romance was a perfect pace. I really loved the horse too and how the heroine works with him. I def recommend this story for horse lovers.

P.S. GORGEOUS cover.

I won this on LibraryThing, lost the file, and then bought it on Amazon. LOL