After a hiatus in my travels, I was delighted this week to find myself in the quaint English village of Upper Upton. It has all the things one might expect: flower boxes, crooked lanes, gossips, mischievous children, a Easter week assembly to rival any ton ball, prominent local families, a vicarage, and marriage hungry maidens. It has a few remarkable features of its how. First among them is Longview, a charity home whose teachers have pasts as clouded as the children’s. It also has a rather quaint devotion to the custom of Leap Day in which an unmarried woman can propose to a man; if he refuses, he owes her a forfeit. What is to prevent a group of such ladies from plotting as a group to obtain the hand they strive–or the boon they want in exchange? As if that wasn’t enough, Upper Upton also boasts a very attractive, very unattached inkeeper, a widower with children who must be in need of a wife. The gossips may speculate about his origins and Scottish ways, but the ladies are happy to overlook them.
Interested in a visit? Try this delightful book.
About the Book: Leap into Love
Can a gentleman be too charming? The ladies of Upper Upton think so.
And it’s almost Leap Day, when a man who refuses a lady’s proposal of marriage must offer a forfeit.
When the single ladies of the village conspire to teach their charmer a lesson that might bankrupt him, the town’s loveliest young widow steps up to warn him.
His secrets and hers make them a perfect match—and she’s the lady he wants. But she won’t accept his proposal, not even to rescue him.
As Leap Day approaches, the clock is ticking. Can he convince her in time to say yes to his offer and take a leap into love?
A Leap Into Love
I’m so glad you had a chance to visit this quaint village, Caroline!