February 14, 2022
Nice!!
https://cathymaxwell.com/I needed a break from my glomming project, so, His Lessons on Love came along at the right time. This is the third book in Cathy Maxwell’s, A Logical Man’s Guide to Dangerous Women series. Let me be honest, I don’t think I read the two previous books in the series. Since Cathy Maxwell is an auto-buy for me, I suspect that I started to read them, but set them aside. I think I’ll go back and try reading them again…but I have my Heath glom I’m doing! Oh dear! A conundrum! Never fear, I shall work it out. Anyway, His Lessons on Love is a real treat, and I recommend it.
Our loving couple. There is the rake, profligate, opium-addict hero, Lawrence Grant Talmadge Eddington, Earl of Marsden, aka Mars. Matched to him, or against him is our heroine, Clarissa Taylor. Clarissa is a stiff-necked, judgmental, uptight, unlucky-in-love, woman. These two have never agreed about anything, they dislike each other immensely. They get on each other’s nerves – significantly. These two are well-written antagonists.
One day, while Mars is recovering from a night of overindulgence, one of his ex-mistresses delivers a surprise to his doorstep. His bastard daughter, Nora. This child comes as somewhat of a shock to him, considering that he was always careful as to where he flung his seed. But considering the opium, one wonders just how careful he could have been. Anyway, a number of things happen to him, he falls immediately in love with his daughter, and then panics because he has no idea how to take care of a baby! Mars’ introduction to the responsibility of parenthood was all very amusing. In fact, the whole fatherhood narrative in this book was charming.
Then there is Clarissa, the up-tight-heroine. She is such a direct opposite of Mars. I had so much fun reading about Clarissa and Mars as they circled each other. I loved the banter between them. The chemistry was strong, and the baby was adorable. Nothing better than a baby who coos.
The secondary characters were great! Not only were the aristocratic characters well-defined, the servants added some well-written narrative. Even the sort-of villain of the piece was interesting. And, let’s not forget Marsden’s mother-from-hell. She was a really nasty piece of work. I found myself wishing for more of her back story, but then this book was about her son, so I was happy with the vision of her I was given. Her character leads me to the one issue I had with this book…revenge.
Over the years I have developed quite a large amount of plot devices I’m not fond of, one of those being the revenge plot. In this case, Marsden wants to kill the man who is responsible for his father’s death. Or, at least that’s what he has always obsessed about. It has been the driving force of his life. So, I forced myself to grumble silently, and continue reading. I have to say, I was pleased with the solution to the revenge problem. I was satisfied that Ms. Maxwell didn’t wrap up the redemption of the characters with butterflies, and little fairies dancing in the sunshine. The problems didn’t magically go away, but we still had our HEA.
Overall, I recommend this story. There were light moments, funny moments, and poignant moments. Our hero and heroine were a good match, and I’m sure they will have a HEA. My one issue – revenge – not fond of revenge.
Our loving couple. There is the rake, profligate, opium-addict hero, Lawrence Grant Talmadge Eddington, Earl of Marsden, aka Mars. Matched to him, or against him is our heroine, Clarissa Taylor. Clarissa is a stiff-necked, judgmental, uptight, unlucky-in-love, woman. These two have never agreed about anything, they dislike each other immensely. They get on each other’s nerves – significantly. These two are well-written antagonists.
One day, while Mars is recovering from a night of overindulgence, one of his ex-mistresses delivers a surprise to his doorstep. His bastard daughter, Nora. This child comes as somewhat of a shock to him, considering that he was always careful as to where he flung his seed. But considering the opium, one wonders just how careful he could have been. Anyway, a number of things happen to him, he falls immediately in love with his daughter, and then panics because he has no idea how to take care of a baby! Mars’ introduction to the responsibility of parenthood was all very amusing. In fact, the whole fatherhood narrative in this book was charming.
Then there is Clarissa, the up-tight-heroine. She is such a direct opposite of Mars. I had so much fun reading about Clarissa and Mars as they circled each other. I loved the banter between them. The chemistry was strong, and the baby was adorable. Nothing better than a baby who coos.
The secondary characters were great! Not only were the aristocratic characters well-defined, the servants added some well-written narrative. Even the sort-of villain of the piece was interesting. And, let’s not forget Marsden’s mother-from-hell. She was a really nasty piece of work. I found myself wishing for more of her back story, but then this book was about her son, so I was happy with the vision of her I was given. Her character leads me to the one issue I had with this book…revenge.
Over the years I have developed quite a large amount of plot devices I’m not fond of, one of those being the revenge plot. In this case, Marsden wants to kill the man who is responsible for his father’s death. Or, at least that’s what he has always obsessed about. It has been the driving force of his life. So, I forced myself to grumble silently, and continue reading. I have to say, I was pleased with the solution to the revenge problem. I was satisfied that Ms. Maxwell didn’t wrap up the redemption of the characters with butterflies, and little fairies dancing in the sunshine. The problems didn’t magically go away, but we still had our HEA.
Overall, I recommend this story. There were light moments, funny moments, and poignant moments. Our hero and heroine were a good match, and I’m sure they will have a HEA. My one issue – revenge – not fond of revenge.
Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Warm/Hot
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