Jayne Fresina weaves her own interpretation of the classic bickering lovers plot in The Wicked Wedding of Miss Ellie Vyne. By day, Ellie is a free spirit skirting the edges of impropriety, but by night she masquerades as the rakish Count de Bonneville, fleecing the rich in order to support her family. Her charade comes to a grinding halt, however, when she acquires the spectacular family jewels of James Hartley, with whom she shares a particularly venomous and longstanding feud. Believing Ellie to be the Count's mistress, James focuses on her as his one chance to catch the scoundrel, and their forced proximity leads to sparks of all kinds.
Separately, James and Ellie are not exceptional, and Fresina doesn't devote much time to developing their individual stories. For example, the deception that initially brings them together, Ellie's masquerade as the gambling Count de Bonneville, is all but abandoned for a large chunk of the novel. Fresina's real talent is saved for her characters' frustrated battles of wit and rancor, which crackle with intelligence and personality, as well as their shared history of mutual, albeit denied, attraction. Fresina also has a keen eye for the absurd, rounding out her story with delightfully ridiculous characters like the precocious Lady Mercy Danforthe whose desperate passion for James Hartley belies her 10 years. While it may be a bit patchy in terms of plotting, The Wicked Wedding of Miss Ellie Vyne proves to be a highly entertaining romp. --Judie Evans, librarian