Lord Harry [Large Print] (Hardcover)

Henrietta dresses up as a man to avenge her brother's death, which she thinks is caused by Jason the Marquess of Oberlon. Henrietta devises various schemes to bring Jason to anger so that he might fight a duel with her. This part took up 2/3 of the book.

It would not have been so boring if Jason had an inkling of who she was. Henrietta was described to be beautiful and feminine. Therefore, I couldn't understand why Coulter couldn't have had Jason see the resemblances and figure out Harry's real identity.

Throughout the first 2/3 of the book, Jason encounters Harry numerous times, each time ending in anger. He also sees the lovely Henrietta three times, once at a masked ball where she is dazzling as they waltz, and two other times when she had deliberately "uglied" herself up to a point where he doesn't recognize her at all.

Then, as the long awaited duel finally came, Henrietta is hurt and this is when Jason discovers that she is a girl. He brings her to his home and nurses her back to health. When she first wakes up however, she is still full of hatred for him. Then all of a sudden, after Jason explains his side of the story, Henrietta decides that this "murderer" must be telling the truth and directly proceeds to fall in love with him. And Jason, having met the "real" Henrietta only once at the masked ball, decides right then and there that he loves her. I know that stories are a suspension of reality, but I couldn't do it here. It just seems so impossible that they would be in each other's company for a week, most of that time was spent with Henrietta sleeping, and once she wakes up and hears Jason's explanation, ALL her hatred goes away and they are in LOVE? It's a bit hard to swallow.

Also, the romance was short enough as it was, but it was cut even shorter by unnecessary side stories including one where Harry goes to a whorehouse and saves one of the girls.

There's a sense that Coulter just ran out of interest in the book and finished it as fast as she could. Lots of underdeveloped characters and feelings, particularly between the hero and heroine, and lots of unneeded scenes and events. I was disappointed as it was my first from Coulter. A bit reluctant to read another...