The latest novel by Lynsay Sands has a charming heroine, a strong and overprotective hero, and funny dialogue. Unfortunately, what it also has is a plot that’s predictable from beginning to end.

Lisa Madison is the youngest of three sisters. As she has watched her older sisters find a man and fall in love, Lisa always imagined that the man she would one day marry would be Robert Maitland, Lord of Langley. Robert has grown up with the Madison sisters and his best friends became their husbands. But to Robert, Lisa has always been an adoring younger “sister,” not a love interest.

When Lisa was kidnapped and put into a compromising situation that threatened a lot more than her life, Robert gets a glimpse of Lisa in an overly revealing gown. When that happens, Robert stops looking at Lisa as a “little sister” and starts lusting after her. Since the person who put the kidnapper up to the job of snatching Lisa is still at large, Robert and the two Madison husbands, Richard and Daniel, decide that Lisa must be guarded around the clock. Of course, the only one available is Robert, but that is all a part of Richard and Daniel’s plan to make Robert realize his love for Lisa before he loses her to one of her many suitors.

With Lisa’s kidnapper trying to snatch her at least three more times (honestly, I lost count of them all), Lisa and Robert are thrown together to try to uncover who is out to get her. Robert is forced to watch a gaggle of London’s finest try to win her heart, while he fights his own feelings. Lisa has made it clear that she is on a husband hunt and she has quite a few targets. Lisa wavers from trying to make Robert jealous to giving up on him and she seemed to be willing to kiss as many of her suitors as she could reasonably get away with, but the only one who excited her passion is Robert.

As I said, Lisa is charming. Robert is strong and protective. Add to that the fact that I am generally a sucker for stories where either the hero or heroine has been in love since childhood and really, this one should have been a home run. But the predictability of the bad guy, who I had pinpointed by the third or fourth chapter, the obligatory “I will never marry” mantra of Robert, the dreaded “compromising position,” and the meddling of the happily married sisters and their husbands made The Husband Hunt rather average. Though it was an enjoyable read for a fun afternoon, it lacked depth and surprise and it certainly lacked any need for deep thinking or feeling on my part.

The Husband Hunt is a good book for a warm spring day, to read outside and take advantage of the fresh air and sunshine, but from beginning to end, it was average. There is nothing going on in this story that will motivate me to ever pick it up to reread it and it certainly didn’t motivate me to read the stories of the other Madison sisters. If you are looking for a fun read that doesn’t require much participation on your part, it will provide you with that, but don’t hold high expectations for more.