The cover of this book carries a comment from author Lisa Kleypas: "A remarkable writer." The Seduction of an Unknown Lady is a pleasant enough read, but hardly remarkable - in fact, it seems to bear a lot of similarities in plot and character to many other books in this genre. However, as a light read for those who like historical romance, it's a reasonable enough attempt.
Fionna Hawkes is living a quiet life as the owner of a bookstore in London. She has two secrets: one about the source of her money, and the other that her mother is mad. When Fionna is noticed by Lord Aidan McBride
and he begins to try to woo her, she knows nothing can come of it - how can a duke's brother get involved with a woman who has madness in her family? Aidan isn't so easily turned away from his attempts to get close to Fionna, however, as he has his own demons to confront and he finds Fionna is a woman unlike any other.
As they become better acquainted, they discover that someone seems to be stalking Fionna, and that someone may well be dangerous.
The bulk of this story consists of the interactions between Aidan and Fionna, Fionna trying to resist him and Aidan trying to get her to trust him. Fionna vacillates between encouraging him and trying to get him to leave her alone, and this takes up a large portion of the book. The threat of the stalker is really a
quite minor part of this story, dealt with rather quickly, and the couple of twists in the plot
are all predictable a long way in advance. However, it's reasonably written and, despite a few historical glitches, feels comfortable in the world of foggy London of the 1850s.