The Season by Sarah Maclean
Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Orchard Books (March 1, 2009) OUT NOW!!

Book Blurb:

Seventeen year old Lady Alexandra is strong-willed and sharp-tongued -- in a house full of older brothers and their friends, she had to learn to hold her own. Not the best makings for an aristocratic lady in Regency London. Yet her mother still dreams of marrying Alex off to someone safe, respectable, and wealthy. But between ball gown fittings, dances, and dinner parties, Alex, along with her two best friends, Ella and Vivi, manages to get herself into what may be her biggest scrape yet.

My Review:

This charming story begins with our heroine Alexandra Strafford, an intelligent and head strong young lady who is reluctantly embarking on her first season into society. Her feelings are mirrored by her two dear friends Ella and Vivi, young women that are of the same caliber and wit as Alex, whom would rather stay home, than fend of the TON in search of a husband.

That is, until her childhood friend Gavin comes back into her life. He is the newly titled Earl of Blackmoor. A title inherited after a mysterious accident took his father's life. Or was it an accident? Gavin has his suspicions and Alexandra and her friends are more than willing to help uncover the mystery. But in the process of uncovering the truth, despite her opposition to marriage, Alex finds that she is embroiled in a bigger mystery of the heart.

I thoroughly enjoyed the exchanges between Alex, Vivi and Ella. The wit and vivaciousness of these characters had me in stitches. I was also left wanting for more of Gavin and Alex and am ever hopeful of a sequel. Sarah MacLean surely knows how to keep one on tender hooks, clamouring for more.

The Season is a stylishly mixed story full of intrigue, dances, history, danger and breath taking romance all brilliantly set among the backdrop of regency England. This is a perfect (for all ages), light hearted story to sit down with a pot of tea, it will leave you smiling and wanting for more.