Suzanne Allain (Incognito; The Celebrated Pedestrian) has created a delightfully witty and wholesome romance novel with Mr. Malcolm's List. Jeremy Malcolm is the extremely rich and handsome second son of an earl, and thus has been the target of many a matchmaking mama. But Mr. Malcolm has always managed to avoid an engagement, becoming known as "a Destroyer of Young Ladies' Dreams."
One of those young ladies was Miss Julia Thistlewaite. When Julia finds out that Mr. Malcolm has a list of attributes he's looking for in a future wife (of all the conceit!), and that she wasn't considered serious-minded enough to meet the fourth requirement on the list, she is outraged. She writes to her friend Selina Dalton, the smartest woman that Julia knows, begging her to come to London for a visit.
Selina is alarmed by Julia's plan: to make Mr. Malcolm fall in love with Selina, only to reveal her own list, proving that Mr. Malcolm couldn't meet all of Selina's requirements. She is reluctant to participate in such a preposterous revenge scheme, but she agrees because she is also desperate for an excuse to stay in London instead of returning to her parents' tiny vicarage.
Hilarious and fast-paced, Mr. Malcolm's List is a bright and refreshing Regency romp. The entanglements that Julia and Selina get caught in are quite funny, and Mr. Malcolm's slow realization that, indeed, he was a bit toplofty is very satisfying. --Jessica Howard, bookseller at Bookmans, Tucson, Ariz.