 |
| Rating: 4 Stars |
Expected publication: January 30th 2018 by Avon
Summary: Dear Lady Truelove,
I am a girl of noble family, but I am painfully shy, especially in my encounters with those of the opposite sex . . .
For Clara Deverill, standing in for the real Lady Truelove means dispensing advice on problems she herself has never managed to overcome. There’s nothing for it but to retreat to a tearoom and hope inspiration strikes between scones. It doesn’t—until Clara overhears a rake waxing eloquent on the art of “honorable” jilting. The cad may look like an Adonis, but he’s about to find himself on the wrong side of Lady Truelove.
Rex Galbraith is an heir with no plans to produce a spare. He flirts with the minimum number of eligible young ladies to humor his matchmaking aunt, but Clara is the first to ever catch his roving eye. When he realizes that Clara—as Lady Truelove—has used his advice as newspaper fodder, he’s infuriated. But when he’s forced into a secret alliance with her, he realizes he’s got a much bigger problem—because Clara is upending everything Rex thought he knew about women—and about himself...
(from Goodreads)
Review: This is the second in the series, and you really should probably read the first book, The Truth About Love and Dukes, before reading this one. You can likely get away with not reading it if you really don't wish to, but it will explain Clara's relationship with her sisters in law as well as her family's history in relation to the ton.
I love that Clara is shy and that she's not classically beautiful, but that when Rex sees her smile that first time it just slays him. I saw the plot set up coming when she's sitting there trying to figure out how to advise these letters to Lady Truelove about how to get noticed by someone, when she has the same problem, and then overhears this suave rake giving his friend lady advice. Still, the way they got there was interesting. And I love that Rex is really such a gentleman, despite being labeled a rake. His mother sure is something else, though!
This is a fun, light read. I love the banter between Clara and Rex, and love the way he helps her, as she puts it, bloom. His advice to the shy is to laugh at yourself, let yourself be vulnerable and go ahead and admit to people that you're rather shy. Basically try to put others at ease around you and make them feel good about themselves, and everyone will love you. Clara doesn't magically transform into a beautiful swan to become the bell of the ball. Instead she works hard to overcome her shyness and gradually grows her own confidence, both in the ton as well as the rest of her life. They both have some great personal growth, but Clara especially. I also appreciate that Ms. Guhrke lets Clara's desire be to be a wife and mother - and that's OK, that's part of feminism too!
The only bit I didn't like was the scene at the wedding. I feel like Rex could have handled that better, and it just fell rather flat for the big scene it was supposed to be. It irked be enough that I knocked a full star off my rating. The ending matters, it can't just... fizzle.
*I received a free digital ARC of this book from Edelweiss+ and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment