Oh, Ms. MacLean. Sometimes I really enjoy your books. Mostly I like ‘em. And then sometimes I want to burn them to the ground. This one falls between liking and burning in a back alley trash can so it won’t be the most positive review.
This is the story of Lillian Hargrove, ward of the Duke of Warnick, and Alec, said duke. Alec learns of Lillian’s existence as his ward when his solicitor writes to tell him of the scandal she’s caused. Lillian was spending time with artist and actor Derek Hawkins. Believing that they were in love Lillian posed for a nude painting for him. Derek, twatwaffle that he is, then uses his “masterpiece” to become the central exhibit of the Royal Exhibition. Lillian is made a scandal, and therefore Alec comes to protect her.
And Alec is a Protector, capital P. He’s huge, he’s Scottish, and he will supposedly do anything to keep Lillian “safe”. He was obnoxious. I love a well written protector, but that was not he. His insane jealousy at any other man touching Lillian, while at the same time denying any and all feelings he has about her for most of the story did not a romantic hero make. And it was every frickin’ time. Someone, anyone touches her, looks at her, etc. Boom. Anger. How dare they?! Ick. Also when they meet she is 23, almost 24 and he’s in his 30’s. His is forever upset on her going anywhere without him. She’s been on her own, and besides above noted misstep, is clearly able to survive without him.
Also, this is just a side note, but Ms. MacLean has stated that this series is based on our current celebrity gossip and people like the Kardashian’s. This one way more so than the first, is incredibly heavy handed. It felt like she was laying it on quite thick alluding to the whole “naked pictures of you used without your permission”. I get what she’s trying to say, and I completely agree with her, but it was just too much for me.
Overall, this was one of her more frustrating books. I didn’t hate it like the framed for murder one, but I definitely will never return to this one. I’m just really glad I didn’t buy it. Library it if you’re a completist, but otherwise MacLean has better ones out there, and unlike many at least the cover was pretty to look at.
Just this week, after my second attempt at Never Judge a Lady by her Cover, I removed Maclean from my autobuy list. I had such hopes for her, but it’s too many middling efforts in a row at this point.
I, of course, love a protector and, in particular, a big lug
Never Judge a Lady by her Cover is probably my favorite MacLean, tied with Nine Rules, but that’s mostly because I love some flipped gender norms.
And protector is definitely one of my top hero tropes, but there’s a difference between protector and a**hole who doesn’t want other men even looking at the heroine. That was the line she crossed here for me.
We disagree on a book?
[rends clothing, burns clothing, smears self in ashes]
Never Judge a Lady was a weak effort. My expectations were very high (I went back and re-read the entire series for context before starting) and I felt that she really let Georgiana down. She could have been so much more and instead she ended up being sort of insipid. West was unworthy, flat out.
It wa sadly bound to happen eventually… let us never speak of this horrific time ever again.
I still have to review this one, and would rate it 3 stars, but I tend to be kind with my romance ratings. While I really love some of Maclean’s earlier books, this whole “modern celebrity gossip given a Victorian twist” is not working too well for me. I think her Victorian Kardashians were pretty awful in the last book and they didn’t work all that well for me here either, even though it was nice that poor Lillian finally got some female friends. While I thought she had some interesting points about men and women being judged differently by society both then and now, there was so much about this book that didn’t work.
I’m going to save all the points I could make for my own review, though. I hate backlogs, and yet I’m so good at ending up with them.
I sent this one back to the library after all your updates while reading. I am trying SO hard to not waste my time with crappy books.