Let the hunt begin…
Lisa Madison wants a husband, and she has just the candidate in mind: Robert Langley. Trouble is, the infuriating man insists on seeing her as the impish girl she once was—even as every other gentleman in London has taken notice of her womanly…charms. When her beauty lands her in danger, it’s Robert who comes to the rescue…only to announce his affections are not of the romantic variety!
Robert saw enough sorrow in his parents’ union to know he wants nothing to do with marriage, which is exactly what he’ll be trapped into if he acts on his desire for the irksome siren. And then Lisa does what Robert least expects: gives up on him! As feigned indifference gives way, blistering passion burns at last. But just before the pair can give in to hard-won bliss, an enemy with unfinished business lurks threatening to destroy them both.
Sands can be hit it miss for me. Her humor can just hit the mark, or it can be a little too over the top. This one was a little too slapstick for me. While I enjoyed the romance itself, much of the plot had me rolling my eyes.
Lisa has been in love with Robert for years. Unfortunately he thinks of her as a little sister, despite her best efforts to get him to notice her as a woman. After throwing herself at him and being rejected again, Lisa decides to give up on him and find a man who will treat her like a woman.
Before she can start her husband hunt, she’s kidnapped by a woman she thought was a friend, but who turns out to be a courtesan who was paid to abduct Lisa for a “suitor” who wants her. Robert comes to her rescue and realizes – finally – that Lisa is all grown up. Even so, he knows he isn’t for her. He believes his family is cursed with faithless wives and doesn’t want to marry. Ever.
This novel starts out with something we’ve seen a hundred times. Matchmaking. Only Sands took a different approach here. It isn’t the women who are matchmaking, but the men. Lisa’s brothers-in-law decide to help her out by putting he and Robert together. They figure he just needs a slight push to realize Lisa is the one for him. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that at first. The idea is cute, but I felt it needed to be excited well to work. Unfortunately, it fell flat.
The problem started when Lisa was kidnapped. The men use that as an excuse to put her and Robert together. They make up excuses for why they can’t help protect Lisa, forcing Robert to move in to keep an eye on her. The issue I had was this: By doing so, they placed Lisa in danger. They knew there was someone after her. They knew she was in danger. She was attacked several times throughout the novel. Yet they avoided her so that Robert would be forced to spend time with her. I get why they did it in the beginning, but isn’t her personal safety more important than pushing them together?
I also struggled with a lot of the slapstick humor. As I said, Sands can be hit or miss for me when it comes to this. I wasn’t able to overlook a lot of the silliness here. I’m not sure if that’s because I was bothered by other things, or if it was just this book. In either case, I was put off by it.
While I think fans of light comedies and long-standing fans of Sands work will enjoy this, I don’t think it was for me.
2.75 out of 5
The series:
This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
Well shucks, I have this book for review and have been looking forward to reading it. I’m sad to see that it didn’t work for you.
I’m a fan of Sand’s historicals but i must admit the two before this are not my favs of her work so far. Thanks for the review.