At Love’s Bidding

At Love’s Bidding
Regina Jennings
Bethany House, 2015

Miranda Wimplegate finds herself way outside her comfort zone when a mistake takes her out of Boston to the tiny country hamlet of Pine Gap, Missouri. The reputation of the high end auction house Miranda’s family owns is in jeopardy after they accidentally auction off the wrong painting, but her grandfather has a plan. He impulsively purchases the auction house the painting shipped to in Pine Gap in hopes of recovering it quietly, but they arrive to find that this auction house deals in livestock, not fine antiques. Couple that with the handsome but unrefined auctioneer that greets them, and the fact that Grandfather has been growing more and more confused and unlike himself, and Miranda has plenty of worries on her plate.

Wyatt Ballentine has never met someone as cultured and beautiful as Miranda, and he can’t help  admiring her, despite her crazy grandfather. He’s continues to run the auction house as he always has regardless of the peculiar changes Elmer Wimplegate tries to make to his new investment, but things get complicated when he realizes there is more to the Wimplegates’ presence in Pine Gap than meets the eye. The complications only increase when he finds himself in possession of the painting that brought them there, gifted to him secretly by a relation he’s never met. Can he and Miranda trust each other with an item that holds such significance for them for vastly different reasons?

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I’ve probably mentioned this before, but I’m such a big fan of Regina Jennings books. At Love’s Bidding is the second in a trilogy that I accidentally read out of order. I reviewed the first book some time ago and then somehow skipped to the third one, and now I’m backtracking to complete the series. It definitely lived up to the expectations set by the other two. Regina Jennings is so funny! Her books are the perfect combination of humor and thoughtfulness.

Antics like headless chickens and gaudy statues help balance out the deeper themes of trust, loyalty, and dealing with an aging loved one. Her grandfather’s mental decline is a source of pain and confusion for Miranda, and Wyatt supports her with patience and understanding. He has his own family issues to deal with, with a gallivanting brother and the mystery of his parentage ever looming in his past, but they are learning that it’s easier to go through hard things together.

It’s always fun when two characters worlds clash, and that’s exactly what happens in At Love’s Bidding. Wyatt is used to hard work and simple living, while Miranda is accustomed to silks and genteel company. He is confident and capable, while she has lived her life meekly following directions from her family. These differences make for some entertaining interactions, especially as they fight against a growing attraction to each other at first. Of course you know they give up on that in the end.

Overall I really enjoyed At Love’s Bidding and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys humorous romantic historical fiction.