I’ve read at least one book by Tracy Anne Warren before – The Trouble With Princesses, which I rather enjoyed (but didn’t review). I did enjoy this book, but there were a few things that I needed to discuss. Ultimately, it works out in to a pleasant beach read (God I wish there were a beach here right now).

Lord Leo Byron is the second-youngest son (of six- his twin is the youngest) of a duke, and he’s cultivated a reputation as a rake with interests in sporting, gambling, and women. He’s looking for his next dalliance, and his gaze settles on Lady Thalia Lennox, a scandalous divorcee and rumored to have entertained many, many lovers since her public split from her husband (amid accusations of infidelity, and a bill of divorce in parliament, the whole bit).

Of course, Thalia does not entertain a ridiculous number of men- her divorce was painful and humiliating, and people think she is a total horndog slut, so no one talks to her or invites her anywhere. Upon occasion, she will get an invite from someone who has fewer fucks to give about polite society, and upon rarer occasion, she’ll accept those invitations, but mostly she lives quietly in isolating loneliness. She has a small income, and spends time checking out auctions for things that were hers that her evil ex-husband kept and sells off.

Leo decides that she’s the next big thing, and begins pursuing her with single-mindedness. It doesn’t really start well- with a glass of champagne in his face – and continues on with her contributing to events that get him shot a little bit. He leverages her guilt in getting him shot into agreeing to hang out with him for two weeks, and she’s like fine, but those two weeks aren’t going to be in my bed, so get over that thought. Naturally, they do fall in love at that point.

In the beginning, when Leo has decided “I want her” and she’s all “omg leave me alone” he’s really disrespectful. She says “no, go away” “no, leave me alone” and “No no no how about you go fuck yourself” about nine different ways, and he just won’t have it. It’s really aggravating. “Oh, you say that, but I know you want this” and “you’ll change your mind” and “I’ll make you change your mind” and god, it’s just…. Dude, stop it! JUST STOP IT. Don’t be like a somewhat different version of Ado Annie (“I’m just a dude who cain’t hear no…”)

Her reasons for saying no are: she doesn’t bang everything that moves, but because Society has decided that she does, it means any time she goes out in public, men sexually harass her. She’s unwilling to bang anyone who thinks of her like that. And Leo does think of her like that at first- she’s hot, she’s considered to be available, and he’s bored.

Fortunately, they don’t really start clicking until they begin to relate to each other as people, and he learns more about who she is, and he lets her in. She is attracted to him, but lays down the law about presents- she is willing to be his lover, but not his mistress, which means no house, no ridiculous gifts, indeed, no gifts at ALL except for her birthday and, grudgingly, Christmas (that negotiation was hilarious). She doesn’t want to be a kept woman.

I really liked Leo and his need to figure out his identity within and separate from his large, boisterous family of heroes who have already had their own books, and he’s got his twin, but wants to be his own dude. He’s studied law, but whateves, that’s boring. Oh, the woes of the gentry with a substantial income, happy family, and no direction! (And there is a lovely little sequel hook for his twin, which I will read the shit out of.)

Another thing that really worked is how Warren wrote the fact that Thalia is six, nearly seven years older than Leo. She fusses over their age difference a lot, and he (once he gets over his surprise that she’s not as sexually experienced as gossip had led him to believe) is not worried about it. (And hell, he falls within “half your age plus seven” so she’s fine.) I liked the dynamic at work there, even though it did slip back into “dude knows what he’s doing, dudette doesn’t really.”

While it could have been interesting if Thalia had gone “Well fuck it” and banged who ever she wanted, the “woman wronged by husband and society” trope is tried and true. I liked how she tried to make the best of this life that was never supposed to be hers, and her coping mechanisms. I also really, REALLY liked the friendships she maintained with the few women who took her side, despite their husbands’ misgivings. YAY FRIENDSHIP AND LADIES STICKING UP FOR EACH OTHER.

Even if I didn’t like Leo’s methods in the early part of the book, I did like how he  started to respect her boundaries, and how they actually saw the parts of each other that no one else bothered to notice.  The writing and dialogue were charming enough to make me less worried about Leo’s boundary issues once he stopped having them.  The ending was a bit rushed- all obstacles removed by deus ex machina, yay everyone is happy! But Thalia ended up happy, and she deserved that. I am really looking forward to Lawrence’s book, and I will be checking out the other books in this series.