Never a Lady
Grade : C

Do you adore heroes who make repeated assumptions about the heroine? Boy, have I got the book for you.

Lord Maximillian Chartwell learns that his cousin, the Duke of Penrose, is about to be trapped into marrying a conniving American heiress, Virginia Blair. In truth, Virgie has no interest in marrying a duke. She wants to return home to California. If only she knew about the plans her stepmother was making. . .

Max makes repeated assumptions about Virgie. While this is natural for a lord of the period, he carries his distrust to an absurd level. On top of that, his opinion fluctuates too often. Maybe Virgie is honest, no, it must be an act, but wait, maybe she's for real. This makes him seem like a human see-saw. Distrust alone isn't enough to build an interesting character. We never really learn why he acted like this.

Eventually, Max learns to see Virgie in a different light, and he becomes more bearable. However, even then, he can't resist his urge to "rescue" her from danger. This urge nearly gets them both killed. Nor can he accept that he should marry the candid Virgie instead of a proper Victorian miss.

Virgie is determined and capable, intelligent, compassionate, and even kind to animals. She may be too good to be true. If she spun around fast enough, I suspect her dress might have transformed into a Wonder Woman costume. Also, despite her intelligence, she misses the obvious at crucial times.

With a plot about an outrageous American heiress and a stuffy British lord, Never a Lady should be a lot more charming than it is. Max's attitude about Virgie does make for occasional humor. However, his distrustful attitude kept him from charming this reader.

Better secondary characters and more detail about the era would have given this novel much-needed depth. I couldn't lose myself in the setting. Historical mistakes popped me out of the story. Max keeps referring to furniture and attitudes as "Victorian." We call things Victorian, but people in 1873 didn’t – the era hadn’t yet been named. At one point, Virgie makes it sound as if men and women routinely attended the same colleges in America in 1873. While a few colleges permitted women to attend classes with men during this era, this was a radical exception to the rule.

Never a Lady has many enjoyable moments, including lots of humor. However, the negative aspects - particularly the distrust and the assumptions - outweighed the pleasure I got from the book. I enjoy stuffy heroes, but I have limited tolerance for distrustful heroes. If you like heroes who are both stuffy and distrustful, you'll enjoy this book much more than I did.

Reviewed by Anne Marble
Grade : C

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : January 4, 2000

Publication Date: 2000

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Anne Marble

I buy too many books, too many weird heavy metal albums, and too many pulp novel reprints.
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