Robyn DeHart is a debut author for Avon. It continually amazes me what is deemed good enough to publish.

Claudia Prattley is the downtrodden daughter of Viscount Kennington, who has belittled her all of her life. With Claudia having reached the advanced age of 27, her father thinks it long past time she should be wed. He has chosen Richard Foxmore as her future husband and admonishes her do whatever necessary to secure him. Her one act of defiance against her father has been to take a position as an illustrator, under a pseudonym, for London’s Illustrated Times. She illustrates ton fashions and her contributions have become very popular. But quailing under her father’s latest edict, she approaches the paper’s owner to resign.

Derrick Middleton owns the paper and he is loath to see his best illustrator leave his employ. His solution to keeping her working at the paper? He will court her himself, hoping to dissuade her from marrying Foxmore. A fringe benefit to this plan is that it will thwart Kennington and Foxmore, who between them were responsible for the ruination of Derrick’s father. What a coincidence! He manages to convince Claudia to remain with the paper until she weds – whoever that may be.

Claudia is a bit plump and dresses all in pink frills, thinking it camouflages her figure. Derrick thinks she is the embodiment of the word, “cute” but he can tell that there’s nothing childlike about the body beneath the ruffles and almost from the moment he meets her, engages an excess of “lust-think.”

Claudia’s self-esteem is incredibly low. Years of being demeaned and discounted by her father and would-be fiancé have left Claudia sure that no one could ever want her. And though Derrick’s faux-courtship turns real soon enough, surely he must be toying with her; he cannot truly be interested in her. And frankly, I didn’t see why he would be interested in her either.

The book quickly fell into a repetitious cycle: Claudia tells Derrick she can’t work for or see him, Derrick kisses her, Claudia agrees to draw more and meet him again. Lather, rinse, repeat. The transitions between the scenes were not at all smooth; the writing is very episodic with abrupt entries and exits. The villains are over-the-top caricatures, Derrick is a man who has been burned in love and can never love again, and Claudia is an oppressed wimp. It is hard to write a heroine who is completely under her parent’s thumb and still have her be sympathetic, though I know it can be done – Diane Farr did it admirably in Under a Lucky Star – but Claudia is so unwilling to admit that her father doesn’t care for her, despite all evidence to the contrary, that I lost all patience with her.

This isn’t a horrible book, I’ve read worse, but it certainly is dull. Perhaps the most telling argument against this book that I can give is that it took me a full week to finish it. You have better things to do with your time, I’m sure.