More Heroines Should Hold The Hero Hostage (Lessons In Love Series)

I began the month of January in the throes of exhaustion. The holiday season had ended, the food added

Get him Georgie!

some more roundness to my midsection, and the book list just kept fluctuating. When our club settled on a book during the last of December, it started what could only be described as a war zone amongst my literary companions. The book was The Flame and the Flower by the ever so popular Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. That review was exhausting, but sets the tone for how I came across this glorious series. The reading material for January left me in need of a heroine and hero with an amazing amount of wit and intelligence. I needed to know that I could still laugh and feel emotionally attached to a set of fictional characters after the heavy read that was TFATF, but without having to consult a romantic parody. (50 Shames of Earl Grey is definitely high caliber mockery. Also loads of fun.)

As I mulled the decision, I knew I could ask the ladies of my book club to provide their favorite suggestions for books that made them laugh. And I was certainly not disappointed, as I was given right around fifteen different titles that made them double over and cry from laughter. I started with one of the Spindle Cove books which was in and of itself a hoot to read, but the next book seemed to delve into serious matter, and I wanted to keep the laughs rolling. The next suggestion that caught my eye in the list was The Rake by Susan Enoch, and it was part of a trilogy. I assumed it would be one of the trope heavy "he wronged me, I hate him" novels that have become commonplace in the genre, but I am  happy to say that I am so very wrong.

The prologue begins in almost the same fashion for each lady, an explanation of the lesson that these "ladies of distinction" plan to teach their unfortunate students. Georgianna, Evie, and Lucinda are sick and tired of being treated like less than nothing by the male sex and intend to teach them manners and how not to break a woman's heart. However, though these plans start off innocently, as each book progresses through the course of a year and a half, the ladies all realize that they are not only teaching the men lessons but themselves as well.

Georgianna's book comes first (The Rake) and I will be the first to tell you that this book had me almost to the point of hysterics from laughing so hard. And the premise started out almost like a lot of other regency's. The dashing handsome man does something dishonest toward the heroine and she spends a good chunk of several years hating his guts until they resolve things. Rumor around town is that he is to marry a relatively wealthy chit named Amelia in order to save his family's finances. But he is not truly willing to do so.  And all the while Viscount Dare, known as Tristan to Georgie, is handsome, dishonest, and feels terrible for having wronged her six years prior. The whole first third of the book is spent with Tristan and Georgianna exchanging barbs with each other. Not to mention, she gets quite sick of him and his shenanigans and breaks quite a few fans on his knuckles just because it amuses her. Did I mention that she goes so far as to move into the household under the guise of aiding his sick aunt? Because when does a heroine do such a thing?

Author's Note: HA!

Along the way we meet Dare's four Brothers who each bring with them more humor and good intentions. There's his middle brother Robert (Bit) who returned from Waterloo as a shell of his former self, yet who is willing to open up to Georgie. The next brother Bradshaw (Shaw) who served in the King's navy and is constantly up the skirt of some heiress or another. Andrew (Drew) is a student at Cambridge and not the brightest but a total sweetheart. And lastly there is Edward (Runt) the youngest of the Carroway clan at a whopping eight years old. When Georgie learns that the family coffers are practically empty during her tenure in the house, she figures out why Tristan needed to marry so badly.

After a passionate night in Dare's arms, Georgianna tries her hardest to escape and banish him from her mind by fleeing back to her aunt's household. Dare however is not willing to accept that and begins to actually court her in earnest, which does not sit well with fiancee. Amelia (the fiancee) then goes on to try and blackmail the couple so that Dare will marry her which leads to a hilarious turn of events that both severs his non binding engagement to Amelia and allows Georgie to become the new Viscountess. I will not spoil the event because I feel everyone should get the opportunity to laugh as hard as I did. This first book left my need for hilarity satisfied, but also made me want a book about Bit. His lines were few and far in between, but he was both funny and thoughtful and I needed more of him.

We can't all hold em hostage

The next in line (London's Perfect Scoundrel) was Evelyn or Evie as she is known throughout the first book to her friends. She is treated like she is an air head by not only her mother and brother Victor, but also her friends. No one realizes just how independent and brilliant Evie is. In fact she barely notices that she isn't as insipid as her brother has her portray herself to be. She is in desperate need of a sense of purpose in her life. She wants nothing more than to find a way to put herself to good use, and what better way to feel useful than to take up the mantle of benefactress of a seemingly decrepit orphanage. What Evie wasn't counting on was the orphanage being left in the care of the Marquess of St. Aubyn (or Saint as he is more widely known.)

Saint too lingers under the preconceived notion that Evie has next to nothing floating inside of her head, and does everything he can to try and trip up her good intentions at every turn. Saint has been trying his hardest to get the building destroyed or out of his care for the longest. When Prinny offers him a way out, he immediately jumps at the chance. Which in turn makes Evie fight even harder on behalf of the children that she is trying to represent. She fights so hard that she and the children as well as a member of the staff, end up holding Saint hostage in the bottom of the orphanage to teach him a valuable lesson: that because of his own reputation, no one would miss him. Which ended up being the case. Saint was freed some time later, and no one was the wiser that he had gone missing. Learning that during his absence, the orphanage has been set to be demolished in order to build a new park in honor of the Prince. So he puts his best foot forward, buys a spacious plot of land for the new orphanage, and wins Evie's heart. Honestly, holding a Lord hostage could have seriously jeopardized quite a few aspects our heroine's life. Including but not limited to: her brothers political ruination, jail time for the children (or worse) and jail time for herself. However all things considered, I enjoyed the build up to Saint and Evie's relationship.

The final book of the trio is the one that fell back into serious matter territory. England's Perfect Hero
is the story of Tristan's middle brother Robert or Bit if you remember from a little ways up. Bit is of course more quiet and reserved compared to the the other hero's in the series. It is due to his time as a prisoner of war in a prison that many Englishmen did not make it out of. Lucinda is determined to catch a wealthy gentleman that her father highly approves of due to military stature. She plans to teach him her lesson and enlists Roberts help to snag the bachelor. However along the way the duo realizes at first internally and then to each other that they truly care for each other.

I got a strong sense of the dread that would sink in and overpower Robert, and it was gut wrenching. Reading about a panic attack as a person who has experienced them would cause me to feel anxious. The sections where he was learning to tend the roses that Lucinda gave him were a great metaphor for the growth that he experienced throughout the book. At the same time, Lucinda's love and understanding that slowly blossomed for Bit was equally frustrating and touching. She made these grandiose plans and originally envisioned a future with a man that she figured was up to her father's standards. Yet the man who claimed her heart is branded a traitor to the crown and is someone that her father wants her to have nothing to do with. In the end, the entire mix up with the government and the man that Lucinda originally planned to ensnare go awry and blow up in a huge confrontation. Robert goes above and beyond to protect not only Lucinda, but his family as well.

All in all, the series was a wonderful read. It satisfied my need for great comedy, strong romance and great dialogue. Dialogue, being something that I didn't realize that I would come to appreciate so greatly in a book series. In most romances, the dialogue is secondary to the inner monologue of the character and narration. Very rarely do you come across an author that is able to convey not only the point of view of the characters, but also the natural ebb and flow of conversation within the medium of the written word. In the end, this was a surprisingly great series that I believe many should take the time and appreciate from start to finish. From the hilarious beginning to the near heart breaking end.