A Lady's Guide To Improper Behavior [Mass Market Paperback]

It's not often that I am both entranced and repulsed by a heroine in a romance novel. Usually I either love them or hate them. Theresa (Tess) Weller is a heroine that I think might rub some readers the wrong way, but a character I both loved and wanted to smack upside the head.

Our hero, Colonel Bartholomew (Tolly) James is much more evenly appealing. The book opens with him--wounded quite badly and the sole survivor of a massacre-- hiding out in the Adventurers' Club, away from the sympathy and pity of his family. His family's persistent requests for his presence, though, force him back home where he encounters Tess Weller at a dinner party. Despite being rude and provoking a mild argument, he seems to capture the attention of Tess--someone who is never rude, always proper, and is somewhat obsessed with remaining a paragon of unexceptional behavior.



The budding relationship between the two seems to confuse both of them. I found it very sweet that neither character was 'in pursuit.' There is no chase. Which seems appropriate since our heroine is very conscious of propriety and our hero is in a wheel chair or using a cane throughout most of the story. The romance is low key. No big dramatic betrayals. I found that kind of slow build refreshing.

Why did I want to slap Tess, you ask? Because she lacks backbone at a crucial moment. She can assist with a surgery and shave a man in his bedchamber, but she refuses to support Tolly when he needs it because it would harm her reputation. It sounds shallow--it is shallow--but Tess is obsessed with propriety for a reason. And she is aware of how cowardly she is being. Disgusted by it. But, for a time, she remains paralyzed by her fear of stepping outside the carefully constructed box of good behavior in which she's surrounded herself. What I found redeeming was that she wasn't really as shallow as most of society thought her to be. She was aware of her fear. Aware that she was failing a friend at a crucial moment. And ultimately, finally, shows some backbone by casting aside the rules she's governed her life by for a decade.

The mention of the Thuggee problems in India during British colonialism was something I hadn't seen a lot of in standard Avon historicals. I found it interesting that while there is some lingering PTSD issues with Col. James, the major emotional scars come from the destruction of his ability to trust. And the scenes with Tess helping him shave were more emotional than the love scenes--which, I admit, were fairly tame and not very imaginative.

Something only an Enoch fangirl would love: the brief mention of Bradshaw Carroway. I'm hoping this means that she's going to finally give us those books featuring the rest of Dare's family. (Originally seen in the Rake.)

One thing that I almost missed: the switch to 2nd edition excerpts at the chapter headings. I'm guilty of skimming most chapter headings, even amusing ones, but thankfully noticed this change and flipped back a couple of chapters to read the headings with the 2nd edition difference in my head.

Overall, I thought this was much better than the previous book featuring the Adventurers' Club, the Care and Taming of a Rogue. And while it did have some thematic echoes of London's Perfect Hero, those similarities were very superficial. Pretty much, just the wounded war vet angle and the fact that the War Office and Horse Guards seemed to be part of the conflict and interfering in a happily ever after.

The resolution of the 'threat' against Col. James seemed a bit rushed and superficial. As if an editor was a little too stingy on the page count. The necessary elements were there, but I would have liked to have the 'danger' element expanded on more just a bit. And I would have liked to see at least a portion of Tolly's editorial.

I found this book unexpectedly moving. Not quite as good as the Lessons in Love trilogy, but then few books are. And I'm still crossing my fingers that Bradshaw's reappearance means that we'll get more stories featuring the Carroways soon.

Heroine Theresa Weller is beautiful, pleasant and proper. A traumatic event at age 10 has taught her to control her emotions and conduct herself properly at all times. Hero Colonel Tolly James has had a horrifically violent event in India change him from a pleasant, easy-going, caring young man to a bitter, rude, ungentlemanly and physically-damaged one. They meet, a romance develops and they heal each other, she learning to show more of her emotions and to be herself, and he learning to feel and love life again. And we have some mystery and intrigue involving deliberate misinformation about what really happened to our hero in India. (Think big corporation machinations. In this case, the East India Company.)

Suzanne Enoch is a good-enough writer that the story is relatively interesting and the romance element is romantic and developed better than in her previous Adventurers' Club novel (THE CARE AND TAMING OF A ROGUE). So the book is OK, just not very special. Too many emotionally- and/or physically-damaged heroes have come and gone in the hundreds of romances I've read over the years. Main characters suffering angst and anguish have been drawn better by Laura Kinsale, Anna Campbell, Jean Ross Ewing (Julia Ross), Carla Kelly and Mary Jo Putney (pre-Lost Lords), to name a few. My personal favorite books by Suzanne Enoch have been her relatively light-hearted will-he-or-won't-he-get-her-to-bed romances, such as LONDON'S PERFECT SCOUNDREL, THE RAKE, REFORMING A RAKE, etc. They are sexy, not particularly historically accurate, but great fun to read when you're in the mood for a frothy romance with good chemistry between H/h.

So I don't need any more heroes, be they soldiers or explorers, with emotional and physical traumas, unless their stories can really, really affect me emotionally. This one didn't and that's why I'm wondering how many Adventurers' Club romances Enoch is planning. On page 3 of this novel, we find out that the club has 15 members. Please tell me that doesn't mean 15 novels. I could, however, go for a book about the Duke of Sommerset. It would be nice to find out more about him and why he has set up this refuge for troubled adventurers. That might be a book worth reading.

I really enjoyed this book, although it was very similar to Enoch's previous novel, England's Perfect Hero. The characters are likeable - even when they are trying not to be! A quick, fun read.

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