Newly widowed, Elizabeth Lowery is at her wit’s end.  Her much older husband and his spinster sister had always taken care of the finances and household, leaving her to concentrate on her painting and her son.  Now her husband is gone, leaving more problems than she could have anticipated, her own family is out of the country, and her sister-in-law has taken to her bed out of grief.  Overwhelmed and still grieving herself, Elizabeth isn’t sure what to do.

Due to his aversion to beautiful women and his own awkward nature, Hal Waterman has avoided Elizabeth for years.  As the best friend of her sister’s husband, however, he knows it is his duty to help her straighten out her finances.  Determined to keep his interactions with her brief and businesslike, he comes during her painting time.  Then he meets her adorable young son and begins to see that Elizabeth is nothing like what he thought she was.  Could she ever feel more than friendship for a man like him?

A Most Unconventional Match is a most unconventional Regency.  In a genre often populated by heroines who are anachronistically independent or too stupid to live, Elizabeth stands out.  I normally hate indecisive and helpless women, yet I liked Elizabeth very much and found her realistic.  Her air of helplessness is not due to a weak character, but to shyness and her husband and sister-in-law’s overprotective actions.  She wants to run her own life, she just doesn’t know how.  Hal also stands out amongst the crop of rakes, dukes, spies, and scarred, tortured heroes of most Regencies.  Although he is a large man (which he sees as a flaw) and his manner of speaking is awkward, he’s basically just a decent, kind man who is understandably insecure at times.  He doesn’t fit any of the hero molds, which only makes him more appealing.  The romantic tension between the two of them was very well done.  The conflicts in A Most Unconventional Match are interesting without being overdramatic or unrealistic.  I love Regencies, but I admit to being tired of many of the clichéd plots, which is why I found A Most Unconventional Match so refreshing.  It’s a sweet, engaging love story about two people who aren’t quite what others would want them to be, trying to make their own ways in the world.  I’ll be waiting for Julia Justiss’s next book!