I’m reviewing these in order of how much I loved them from least to
most but they all get love! And this is going to get a little long – longer
than I was expecting!
Umm…so after that declaration of
love for these books, I looked at my notes and most of the thoughts I recorded
for this book are pretty negative. I
promise I did end up loving it! The
Set-up is this: Penelope Marbury is on
the shelf after a scandalously broken first engagement from a decade earlier (haven’t
read it yet but I’m pretty sure this is part of the story in book 3 of
Maclean’s loosely connected Love by Numbers series, Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke’s
Heart). In the ten years since, she’s
longed for real love and become reluctant to accept anything less but as she
has gotten older and turned down other proposals, her chances for this have
dwindled to nothing. She somewhat wistfully remembers her childhood crush and
neighbor, now the Marquess of Bourne, who she hasn’t seen or heard from in
years. That’s because Bourne has been
fighting against a scandal of his own that robbed him of everything but his
title. He’s worked hard to become a rich man, partner in an exclusive gaming
hell, so he can re-claim his lands and take revenge on his former guardian. And it is because of this that Bourne and
Penelope are about to collide again because Penelope’s father has added
Bourne’s estate to his daughter’s dowry in an effort to get her married off and
be rid of her. It’s actually a kind of complicated
set up now that I’m trying to describe it but it makes sense in the book.
Bourne is your typical Alpha-hole
rogue who likes to pretend he doesn’t have a heart. His whole existence is focused on beating his
jerk of a guardian and recovering his family’s legacy. Penelope is just a means to an end despite the
fact that they were good friends as children.
I generally don’t love strongly Alpha male characters but Bourne is
written just right. His personality was
shaped by some very traumatic events that happened at an impressionable
age. He does some pretty awful things but
his disrespect for other people is not just focused on women – he’s an equal
opportunity people-hater. These two
things, a solid reason for his A-Holeness and his lack of misogyny, made him
much more palatable for me. I compare
this with a romance I read around the same time, Devil’s Bride by Stephanie
Laurens, where Devil was an autocratic asshole because he could be and his
opinion of women was that generally they should stay locked up safe and not
worry their pretty little heads about anything – HATED him. Anyhoo…
The character I struggled with at
first (like the first 50% of the novel) was Penelope. I did love how MacLean established Penelope’s
long time love for Bourne by including interspersed correspondence between them
as children up through her twenties (by which time he had stopped
responding). It was a great way to have
the reader buy into the two character’s history with each other and to show how
much Bourne has meant to Penelope. Plus the letters are delightful but they did
not make it easier for me to empathize with how much Penelope lets Bourne play
with her for the first 50 % of the book, constantly getting her hopes up and
then being crushed. It makes sense and
sets up the second half of the book’s much more awesome Penelope but I really
wanted to hit her upside the head a lot in the first half. The
payoff is worth it so stick with her even when she’s being an idiot. In the end, Bourne needs rescuing and it is
Penelope that is the Knight(ess) in shining armor!
FINAL VERDICT: Despite being rather irritated by the first
half of this book, it still sucked me in and the payoff in the second half is
SO good. 3.5 out of 5 Stars
This book saved my life. Seriously.
Okay partially seriously. Back in
early July, I had the longest travel day ever which included about 7 hours
sitting around in airports. At the first
airport, I cracked this book open and was completely consumed and entertained
for the next umpteen hours before arriving home. Yes I am a slow reader, thank goodness
because if I had finished this before my travel was over I think I would have
cried. I think I had roughly 15 pages
left to finish when I got home:0).
Anyhow, the story is this. Remember Nick St. John? The twin brother of Ralston from Nine Rules to
Break When Romancing a Rake? The one
that’s a recognized scholar of “marbles” (ancient statuary, not the small glass
balls)? With his brother married off, Nick
has become the Eligible Bachelor #1 of London society so when an opportunity
arises for him to go haring off into the country to look for a Duke’s missing
sister, he grabs at the chance. Because
he was apparently some big superspy in the past, known for his tracking skills?
His back story here is patently ridiculous but thankfully it’s pretty easy to
ignore.
The trail for the missing ducal
sister leads him to a small village where he encounters Lady Isabel. Isabel is the daughter of a disreputable jerkwad
of a father who made a habit of gambling off his daughter’s hand in marriage
and essentially killed his wife (Isabel’s mother) by breaking her heart. The only good thing about him is that he
never ever visits his country estate leaving Isabel to do as she pleases while
trying to raise her younger brother to be a better lord than their father. She also has established a halfway house for
women who find themselves in trouble and at sea for any reason. The most recent addition is a certain missing
ducal sister. Things are always a little
unconventional at the estate but they have become more so with the death of
Isabel’s father. Needing to secure a
bunch of cash in a hurry in order to take care of all the house’s occupants
before her father’s appointed estate manager arrives, she resolves to sell her
family’s world class collection of marbles.
Lucky for her, noted expert on such things, Nicholas St. John happens to
be in town and available to value the collection. Hijinks ensue.
I loved Lady Isabel. Experiencing her mother’s weakness (because
of love) and her father’s treachery has made her fiercely protective of her
heart and her independence. She clings
to her ability to be self-sufficient though every once in a while, in a weak moment,
she wishes there was someone, a partner who could help share the load with
her. I totally identified with her and
appreciated her situation even if it was perhaps pretty unlikely for that time
period. I also loved the household she
had created - run on a shoestring
budget, some of the women who had found shelter there had picked up staff roles
in the house – groom, cook, foot”man”.
Nick is a good hero as well though there isn’t anything particularly
unique about him. He is a good partner
for Isabel.
My one major complaint is that
there is actually a secondary romance that occurs in the book between Nick’s
Turkish companion and Isabel’s best friend and cousin. This one held just as much interest if not
more for me but it was kept very, very secondary.
FINAL VERDICT: Kept me totally absorbed for hours while
traveling for a day. A very easy heroine to love, a good partner for her and of
course lots of witty banter and UST shenanigans. 4 out of 5 stars
Now for my favorite! Oh how I love the hero and heroine in this
book and the set-up is also pretty great.
The blurb starts out with “Lady Philippa Marbury is odd.” It’s a great beginning and is actually 100%
true. It’s not just that she is more
interested in science than parties she’s also very awkward socially though not
really shy. She just says strange things
and thinks about things that most in polite society do not. She knows she’s odd and she thinks of herself
as being dispassionate and objective so marriage for her is just something she
must do…not anything to get worked up over.
Luckily she has found a suitor who is pretty well perfect…he’s not very
smart but he’s kind, accepting of her eccentricities and they both love
dogs. Is there anything else needed in a
marriage of convenience? The problem is
Philippa is anxious and nervous and feels wrong and she’s not really sure
why. It’s not a common state for her to
be in. She decides it is because she is
nervous about the physical side of marriage and her lack of experience. Being a scientist she sets out to investigate
the problem and in that way relieve her nerves.
She does some research and
decides that Cross, the bookkeeper for the Fallen Angel gambling hell is the
person to investigate with. He has a
reputation for being a ladies’ man and he is also considered to be quite
brilliant and scholarly so should be swayed by her scientifically framed
arguments. He is appalled and refuses
her vehemently but he is also very, very tempted.
This book is special because of
the journey both characters go on, particularly Philippa. This book is all about her journey,
discovering that she has a heart AND that it is just as important as her
brain. Everybody is concerned about her
match with her fiancé because he is not her intellectual equal but what is most
missing is love and passion. The dance
between her and Jasper and how they finally come together is really
lovely.
Cross is also on a journey,
learning to forgive himself and put the past in the past. He was a selfish jerk as a younger man and ended
up hurting people in his family. He has
spent years trying to make up for it and he has not allowed himself to
recognize that he is now a very different, and much better, man.
I did love this one but there
were a couple of negative things that kept this from being a 5 star read. I read A Rogue by any Other Name and One Good Earl… back to back
which ended up being a detriment. Cross
is a great hero, because MacLean writes great heroes BUT he was very very
similar to Bourne – same endearments (darling, love), same reactions to
particular situations. We are told that
he is a big old nerd and there is some appropriate window dressing (office
overflowing with books, in depth knowledge of astronomy and the classics) but I
would have liked if he had been a tad geekier and we had actually seen him
indulging his nerdy pleasures. Same with
Philippa, actually. Her behavior is more
decidedly odd and unconventional than Cross but we don’t actually witness much
scientific geekery.
FINAL VERDICT: This was the only one of the three that while
writing the review I got a strong urge to re-read. A quirky heroine and a romance that involves
personal growth and witty banter. I
loved it! 4 out of 5 stars.
Phew! That’s a lot of thoughts! To wrap up, I’ve
noticed a trend that MacLean likes heroes that screwed up when they were young
and foolish and it has had repercussions on their adult life. Refreshingly, all the heroes take
responsibility for their own actions even if there was also someone else to
blame and it is their acceptance of their own stupidity that has helped them be
more decent human beings and less judgmental of others. It makes for some good, swoon-worthy
heroes. She is also one of the best at
keeping her tone light and playful while still having intelligent heroines with
backbone and pretty involved plots. It’s
a perfect blend that is catnip for me!
If you are interested in started one of MacLean’s series, from my
personal preferences, I would say start with Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake because I liked it a
tad better than A Rogue by any Other Name as a series starter.
Enough! What characteristics would your perfect
romance hero have?
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