Changes

|title=The Baron Next Door

|sort=Baron Next Door, The

|publisher=Piatkus

|date=September 2014

|website=http://www.erinknightley.com/

|summary=A music-loving girl and her ill-tempered neighbour almost come to blows over her piano playing, but neither can deny the instant attraction they both feel toward one another.

}}

Charity is hoping to enjoy a relaxing break in Bath, attending the music festival with her beloved grandmother, Lady Effington. Charity doesn't just love music, she ''lives'' music; it is an intrinsic part of her very being and she is never happier than when playing her latest compositions on her pianoforte. She cannot understand why anyone would hate music, so when her new neighbour Baron Cadgwith turns up on her doorstep, demanding that she keep the ''infernal racket to a minimum'', she declares war on the insufferably rude Baron next door. The result is a light-hearted and sweet Regency romance that sees the most unlikely pair begin to bond, despite their differences.

My only criticism of the book was that it contained a lot of anachronisms and American terms, which didn't fit the Regency setting. For example, in one scene, the characters are having a ''pep talk'', a term that wasn't in common use until the late 1920s. In another, the author mentions the Baron's shirt being tucked into his ''pants'', which did raise a chuckle when I read it. Other American terms included ''anyplace'' and ''I guess'' and as I read, I imagined the characters suddenly swapping their English accents for a 'Valley Girl' twang. It became such a distraction that I made it into a bit of a game, trying to spot the odd-word-out on each page.

Bookbag LOVED [[The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen by Syrie James]], which is a must-read for fans of Regency fiction.