This review first appeared on Rosie Amber Reviews on September 29, 2021. You can purchase Miss Wetherham’s Wedding here.

Alright readers, if you are picking up a book titled Miss Wetherhan’s Wedding, the third in a series called The Brides of Mayfair, complete with cover art depicting a pretty blond in a period gown, you know what you’re here for.

Not as steamy as a Julia Quinn, not as sexless as an Austen, Burkhard strikes a nice balance with her characters and settings, and that’s exactly how I would describe this one. Nice. There’s a rake, there’s a heroine in a jam, there’s a meddling spinster and some servants and a scheme that we all know is going to go awry, and in the end there’s a happily ever after.

There are stakes, of course there are stakes—reputations might be ruined, someone might have to (gasp) leave London, and someone might enter a loveless marriage, but come on lads. Are we really that worried about any of these people?

Burkhard has spent some time researching her era, there are fun, period-specific phrases used by various characters and some clothing descriptions that the casual BBC watcher would not have picked up on. Burkhard knows her genre and obviously loves it, and good for her.

A friend studying chick-lit for her PhD tells me that with books like this, it’s not the fact that you know the ending from the back cover blurb that matters, it’s how you get to that ending. The journey, not the destination, and a few other decorative mug phrases.

If that is the case, then the road through Miss Wetherham’s Wedding is pleasant. There’s banter, there’s dancing, sherry is consumed, there’s a fun wardrobe for our heroine to don and several fancy events where she can show it off, and in the end problems are solved by everyone marrying the person we thought they would.

If you’re looking for mystery and tense, upper-crust intrigue, this isn’t exactly it, but, if you’re looking for a nice little read on a sunny afternoon, Miss Wetherham’s Wedding might just be your cup of tea.