Wednesday

A Lady's Guide to Improper Behavior by Suzanne Enoch

http://www.suzanneenoch.com/
Let me gush!!! I am a big fan of Suzanne Enoch, and I think over the years her writing has matured from light-weight froth to a little bit of dark narrative. I loved A Lady's Guide to Improper Behavior the moment I was introduced to the dark, brooding, irascible hero, Batholomew, aka Tolly... and why shouldn't he be a gloomy Gus? After all, he has shrapnel in his leg, and he was left for dead in a well with his massacred patrol. Talk about some major issues - anyone would be a grumpy-face. Tolly isn't the most fun to be around at family gatherings.

And, it is at one of these family gatherings that Tess, who has always considered herself to be the soul of propriety, loses all of that control and gives Tolly a thorough tongue-lashing. Once these two get together it was a joy to see them helping each other and picking at each other until their fears all dissolve into that HEA. I couldn't put this book down, and there was an especially interesting subplot involving Tolly's accountability that had me wondering how Ms. Enoch would resolve it. I'm not going to tell you how she does, but it was done very realistically.

The secondary characters were solid, and I found Lachaby to be very amusing (gentleman's gentleman.) The only quibble was with the name of the series, The Adventurers Club. I have no reasonable reason for not liking that name; it just irritates me. And then there is the character Sommerset, who owns the house the "lost boys" of the adventurers club are hiding in. I find his character to be pretty obnoxious, and it will be very interesting to see how Ms. Enoch changes him from odious to hero and keeps it believable.

And, if she'd only be a little bit more forthcoming about her upcoming books on her website, everything would be perfect!

Time/Place: Regency England
Rating:
Sensuality Rating: Mildly Hot

1 comment:

Tracy said...

I have Enoch's Notorious Gentlemen series but haven't read it yet. As soon as I'm done with that I'll dig into this one as it sounds great.