Wednesday

Why Lords Lose Their Hearts by Manda Collins

September 10, 2014
Woe is me...

http://mandacollins.com/

This has been a frustrating week; beginning one book, not finishing it, beginning another book, putting it down. I went through four books and none of them grabbed me, and most were by authors I’ve never read before but was willing to give a try. Huge disappointments. So, when I opened up Manda Collins’ latest, Why Lords Lose Their Hearts, I started to be a little concerned when the book began to drag. I persevered though, because this is the last in her series of Wicked Widows and I wanted to see who the villain has been in this series!

Our romantic pair on this occasion is Perdita, the Duchess of Ormond, and Archer, the fifth son of a duke. Notice I said fifth son. Yes, bubba’s, there are four other brothers and they all have hero-like names and they all have different problems and they all make their appearance in this book. So, I see a new series with four new books in our future.

Archer, Archer, he’s our man – he’s our mighty beta man. You know just once, I’d like for a beta man to have a heroine who deserves him. One that realizes right at the beginning that this guy is really really nice and would do anything in his power to protect her. A heroine who can see that this guy is crazy for her. But, no, Perdita is a whiney woman who can never trust another man because her stinker of a husband abused her.  She loved her stinker man you see, so she can never ever trust another man, especially one she might have feelings for.  And, she can never, ever marry another man she might love, because then she might get hurt.  I guess one's feeling don’t get hurt if one never marries the person one loves - at least that’s what I got out of Perdita’s constant moaning and groaning.  I became quite irritated with her continued harping on trust and love and trust, especially since it’s so obvious Archer was such an honorable guy.

And, while we are on the subject of petulant Perdita, can you say stubborn? Someone is trying to kill her and she is ridiculously stubborn in doing what is best for her and for the people who are within 50 miles of her. Archer and all of the people from the previous two books in the series have to resort to kidnapping to get her away from the danger. Of course, that doesn’t really work, because the villain seems to be psychic, the villain seems to know every place she’s going and is always there before she is, with the help of minions. In the end when the big villain reveal is made, it was never made clear to me just how this particular person could have been so omnipresent. They are almost like Q from Star Trek. The ability of our villain to know everything and be everywhere stretched the bounds of believability for me and made the story less credible. 

If not for Archer, whom I loved, I would not have found anyone in this story to like. I wish Perdita had been a better heroine and I wish she had deserved Archer. I don’t understand what he saw in her; just because she was abused in her previous marriage doesn’t give her an automatic right to be an inconsiderate, grumpy, insensitive, stubborn ogress. Perdita didn’t work for me as a  heroine and that made it hard to read Why Lords Lose Their Hearts.

Time/Place: All over Regency England
Sensuality: Hot

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