An Heiress at Heart by Jennifer Delamere

Both Ria Summerville, and Lizzie Poole have fled London to live in Australia for different reasons.  Ria, a wealthy heiress fled London because she was being forced to marry the heir of the Summerville fortune, but was in love with the younger brother, Edward.  They fled together to try to make their own way in a new land.  Lizzie is the offspring of a commoner and an indiscreet nobleman. She runs away with her brother to Australia to escape an aristocratic lover who has become abusive.  The two women meet in Australia, and are amazed at how similar they look.  When Ria become fatally ill, the two women hatch a plan whereby Lizzie can gain a better life, and Ria can make amends to her family for the heart ache she has caused them. Lizzie returns to London and assumes Ria's identity.  Everything is going well until she starts to fall in love with the one man who, as Ria, is forbidden to her.

My regular readers know that I like to indulge, occasionally, in a clean historical romance.  I have really enjoyed some of the books by Georgette Heyer, but with this book I have had to face the fact that not all clean historical fiction books are created equal.  Don't get me wrong. This book was OK.  It was pretty clean and the story was interesting and about what you would expect from the genre.  The thing that bugged me about it was the writer spent too much time describing the mutual attraction between the two characters--the heat of the other's body, the thrill when the other kissed their hand,  the touch of their breath on their neck, etc, etc.  It was the same problem I had with the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer.  I know some people read romances because they like that kind of thing. I am sure there are plenty of readers out there who would love this book, but it was just too much for me. (2012, 416 p.)