They should have a son and if it can be managed, he should be handsome. Good English families all have a house in the country with a deer park, a trout stream, and an army of gardeners. And she did so while crafting a very convincing romance (I was outright tense about whether Sophy and her love would meet again, and their slow courtship was very charming and realistic) and complex but loving families. By sidestepping the usual flashy trappings of the genre, Fixsen left herself room to explore the characters and classes that are generally ignored or deplored. And this is literally the very first Regency romance I have ever read in which A)the supposed bastard hero(ine) really is a bastard and B)none of the love interests have a title.
But I was blown away by how well the author captured the period. The writing itself is good but nothing particularly special. She is torn between her sense of responsibility and refined taste, and her affectionate heart.
They arrange a good match with a member of the Ton, but Sophy has fallen in love with a businessman. Although her father and his wife want the best for her, they caution her that she must be even more circumspect and modest than other young women because of her irregular birth. Sophy is the bastard daughter of Lord Fairchild. I recommend it if you enjoy the more traditional types of Regencies (as opposed to the spicy ones). At the same time, it's well-written and thoughtful, with interesting characters who often act in surprising ways. The story is a little slow at first and takes a while to get going, and even then I'd call it "deliberately paced" rather than a fast-paced, exciting read. Tom and Sophy meet when she gets caught in a storm and injured, and takes refuge in Tom’s and his mother’s home. Lady Fairchild feels about this the way you'd expect a betrayed wife to feel, but over the years she and Sophy gradually grow closer. When Sophy's mother dies, Lord and Lady Fairchild take her in. The story starts with Sophy's childhood, as the daughter of a governess who had an affair with the master of the house, Lord Fairchild (who, to be fair, really did love her). (Their last name of Bagshot doesn't help matters.)
Jaima Fixsen does some unusual things here with the normal Regency romance tropes: the heroine, Sophy, is an illegitimate child and the hero, Tom, is the gruff son of a wealthy merchant and his socially clueless wife, who are viewed by the gentry as social upstarts. I picked this up as a Kindle freebie ages ago and finally got around to reading it.
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