The Lord’s Maddening Miss is the fourth in the multi-author A Season to Wed miniseries. Lord Hawksmere, Hawk to everyone, has been foul-tempered ever since returning from Waterloo (he signed up for duty along with his three friends from the previous novels) and is determined not to burden a wife with his disposition. Miss Maggie Mackenzie is a Scottish whiskey heiress who happens to be a whizz at brewing new flavors, as well as at smuggling them into England.

Hawk returns from Waterloo to find his brother and brother-in-law have died and a mountain of debt has been left behind. Hawk is unaware that his sister, Cleo, has been forced to live without servants and has been left nearly penniless, and Maggie, sunshine in human form, has a rare outburst of temper at a ball and accuses Hawk of being heartless. Hawk is angered by the accusations, and informs Maggie’s uncle, William, that he has no interest in anything to do with the Mackenzies, except for business, effectively giving Maggie the cut direct. Hawk goes to see Cleo to discuss her predicament, bungling it whenever he tries to show her that her husband was not the man he seemed, when Maggie interrupts and takes Cleo’s side. Cleo has become a recluse despite Maggie’s attempts to get her to leave her home, while also hiding some of her late husband’s debts from Hawk. Hawk wants to sort out the financial situation in private, but Maggie refuses to leave them be.

When Hawk bumps into Maggie again, he confesses the truth about his family’s debts and his suspicions about his late brother-in-law’s activities and Maggie enlists Hawk to help her draw Cleo out of herself and her house. After they find a secret letter from Hawk and Cleo’s brother (and Cleo’s twin), Maggie becomes determined to help Hawk discover what late his brother-in-law was really up to and where all the money went. As they begin working together to clean up Hawk’s family’s messes, the attraction each has felt from the start begins to take a stronger hold until neither can continue to deny it.

Grumpy heroes are my absolute favorite, and I loved Hawk, although I did find myself wishing his grumpiness had lasted a little longer than it does. I also liked that Morris introduces the idea of him being a bit of a big oaf, but that also ends rather early on. Regardless, he is a great hero who has to work through emotional issues – being made to feel left out after being raised by his older siblings and after seeing the horrors of war – in order to get his happily ever after with Maggie. His reactions to his time in battle are not extreme, but they certainly feel realistic.

We cannot have a grumpy hero without a sunshiny heroine to bring him out of his shell and make him realize he’s worthy of love, and Maggie is that heroine. She goes on her own emotional journey, too, learning that it should not be up to her to always be happy and make sure others are as well. It is a delight to see her come into her own and learn to let go.

Morris brings in a great set of supporting characters and gives Cleo her own interesting backstory. While part of me wants to think that Cleo is a somewhat humdrum character who brings the mood of this story down, most of me realizes she has her own path to finding her happily ever after and has to fight her own inner war to get there. Speaking of Cleo’s happily ever after, there is also a secondary love story between Cleo and William that had me rooting for them. William is a bit two-dimensional, but this doesn’t detract from the rest of the tale since he isn’t a main character.

There are some more active scenes throughout the story, but for the most part this is a character-centered romance that follows our hero and heroine as they fight their mutual attraction before ultimately giving in to it.

The Lord’s Maddening Miss is a delightful grumpy-sunshine historical romance with a hero hardened by war and the sweet heroine who is determined to bring him back into the light. I continue to enjoy Lucy Morris’ titles and cannot wait for the next.