A Most Reckless Lady is the quintessential C read – it is truly a mixed bag. At times it was great, and I could hardly put it down. At other times, I was rather bored. It has a promising hero and heroine who aren’t quite used to their full potential, a sagging middle, and a great ending.

Lucas Strathmere, Earl of Somerleigh, is a complicated man. Once a darling of the ton, he became mired in scandal after shooting the husband of a woman who had spurned him. He sought refuge from this disgrace by serving as a government agent in Russia, then went home to England after five years to raise prize-winning roses. But when a Russian friend dies, leaving him a cryptic note containing only the name of a woman and a Russian city, Lucas feels honor bound to investigate. He finds the woman, Tatiana, in care of foster parents. She seems happy, so he almost leaves her. But before he travels far, he hears a large explosion, and finds the village in flames. Tatiana is the sole survivor, so he takes her home to England.

Since Tatiana has been raised in a peasant family, she lacks the polish she will need to move in polite society. Lucas enlists the aid of his mother, who spends two years teaching Tatiana all the social graces (and English, as well). When Lucas sees Tatiana again, he is amazed by her transformation, and by his own reaction to her beauty. They travel to Brighton with Lucas’s mother, and Tatiana is introduced to everyone as an Italian cousin. At first Tatiana blames Lucas for the destruction of her village, and she tries to find out ways to exact revenge. But then there are two attempts on Tatiana’s life. Faced with this danger, Lucas and Tatiana acknowledge their feelings for one another. But before they can be happy together, they must discover Tatiana’s true identity, and find out who wants to kill her.

While I enjoyed both the beginning and the ending of A Most Reckless Lady, it really dragged in the middle. There was a padded feel to it, like the author was trying to reach a certain word count. At least a hundred pages could have been red-lined, which is a fourth of the book. The Brighton trip was unnecessary, since the cast of characters later went to London anyway. Lucas also visited Russia and France when trying to discover Tatiana’s identity. This made for a lengthy separation between the hero and heroine which was unnecessary for the plot and frustrating to endure.

Another problem was that Lucas’ mother Dulcie was written inconsistently. At first she was very supportive of Tatiana, and it seemed as if she were grooming her to be Lucas’s bride. Then Dulcie did an abrupt turnaround, and her machinations resulted in a near-rape of Tatiana by the Prince Regent. Eventually she became supportive again, but there were so many back and forths in her behavior that it seemed contrived rather than realistic.

While I liked Tatiana’s character, I found Lucas more interesting. That may be due to my personal taste, because I love spy heroes. They tend to come off as a little more intellectual than average, which is a big plus in my book. The opening scene where Lucas was in Russia looking for Tatiana and dodging his enemies was probably my favorite. His character also shone toward the end when the quest for Tatiana’s identity became more urgent. Unfortunately, while the characters were in Brighton, we saw little of this side of Lucas. Everyone seemed to forget that Tatiana was even in danger, which left Lucas with little to do.

The action really heated up toward the end, and for the last hundred pages I could hardly put the book down. I was dying to know who Tatiana really was and who was trying to kill her. The answers weren’t obvious, so there was a lot of suspense. I only wish the rest of the book had been as exciting. With some judicious pruning, I think it could have been. As it stands, this book is about half good.