I’ve been on a trip that involved planes and trains and not automobiles, and I read some old romances. These are very brisk reads (to put it mildly), so they’re well suited for that kind of thing.
Beaton’s thing is to put some young people in some kind of absurd situation or other, and then they eventually realise that they love one another, and then everything ends happily. The end. And this is more absurd than most, and it’s very diverting indeed. And it’s so short that Beaton doesn’t have time to do what she usually does when she has too many pages, namely have some evil person(s) try to kill the heroine — again and again and again. This time around I think there’s only a couple attempts at her life?
I’d say that this is one of her best, but I wouldn’t actually recommend it. It’s not, like, you know — good. But for what it is, it’s a good one.
The French Affair (1984) by M. C. Beaton (buy used, 3.56 on Goodreads)