I often mention that Regency romances have a mix and match quality. Take a hero from one category -- Duke plucked from an impoverished upbringing, or hiding his epilepsy, or desperate for funds to save his estates and protect his tenants -- with a heroine from another category -- unexpected virgin, or madam with a heart of gold, or wallflower who just wants to be pursue a profession. If you have the right mix, a delightful romance ensues.
In To Love and To Loathe, by Martha Waters, hero Jeremy is a second son who unexpectedly inherited some kind of lordship when his brother died. Heroine Diana is -- all of the above. When we meet her in the prologue she is an impoverished debutante determined to marry for money. By Chapter 1 she is a young widow who, while not an unexpected virgin, is sexually inexperienced. But: She is also somehow a very talented painter -- I believe at one point it is pointed out that she is the MOST talented painter -- and she paints with oils instead of water colors. But she doesn't seem to devote a great deal of time to the craft, just the occasional leisure hour here and there.
Diana is also a horrible person. There were glimmerings of this throughout the book, but it did not become entirely clear until towards the end, when she is entrusted with a secret that, should it get out, would completely ruin the lives of two people. She promises she will not tell anyone. Then, not even an hour later, she tells her two best friends. She doesn't have any particular reason for this other than that it's really juicy gossip, and she is sure her friends won't tell anyone else. She demands that one of them keep the secret from her husband, with whom she apparently has a newly loving relationship (developed in the first book of this series) -- not caring that such a demand may be either unrealistic or just mean.
I did not love To Love and to Loathe. I merely loathed it.
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