Courting the Countess by Anne Stenhouse

Melissa, Lady Pateley, has a lot going on. Her beloved husband died (I think three years before the story started?), a recent housefire not only had her caught under a roof timber, she ended up with burns over a lot of her body, and now she's been kidnapped. Not by George Gunn, the man who has made ever-increasingly fervent advances (notable even among the many fortune hunters who hope to marry her right before she dies and leaves them her wealth), but by his second (or more removed) cousin, Harry Gunn.
It seems that Harry's great-uncle has grown concerned over the way George is acting toward Melissa. It's the same way that his father acted toward a debutante, a passion that ended with him climbing into the debutante's room, being captured and sent to the mad house.
Harry is trying to protect Melissa by whisking her away but doesn't realize that his formidable sister, Mrs. Duart, is bent on making sure that Melissa and George marry. Which gives them both pause.
I kept trying to figure out if this was a reprint because this seemed more like an old-skool romance than something from today. There was just SO MUCH going on. It's only 165 pages but there are secrets and then other secrets and then partial secrets... It was a lot. A Lot.
Overall a fast and fluffy read with a light romance not going farther than some heated kissing.

Three stars
This book came out September 9