No Proper Lady (original 2011; edition 2011)

There is something about this book that really caught my attention. The cover is dreadful - the cursive font and the lady taking her dress off give the impression that it is going to be some sort of Harlequin bodice ripper, but it isn't. A girl from the future travels back in time 200 years to the late 1800s to stop a man who will later destroy the world if he isn't stopped. There is magic and some hot and heavy sex, but no simpering and nothing to support the impression given by the aforementioned cover. Gets my award for worst, most misleading cover of the year. ( )

From a dark and terrible future, Joan travels back to Victorian England to prevent the world from falling into the hands of demons. She is fortunate enough to fall in with Simon Grenville, a gentleman magician and the nemesis of the evil wizard she’s there to stop. Entertaining enough but I thought it was lacking in chemistry. ( )

Fluffy, sort of like one of the alternate Buffy's (the vampire-world Buffy from Cordelia's wish, or maybe the far-future slayer from the first comic book) was sent back to Victorian England to be a slayer, and got a HEA romance without much angst. ( )

RATING: almost 2.5 stars? No Proper Lady was an impulse buy (I know I have a lot of those, gah). I wanted to read an historical romance, but somehow I also wanted a bit of paranormal. So when I read the synopsis for this book, I thought it was exactly what I was looking for.And it was, in a way. The idea is still pretty good. The execution (yes, you read right, it's one of those... sigh), however...I was okay with time travel and Joan being a though female. Very good. I did not like the way her first encounter with Simon (the hero) went down. It appears Simon is a wizard and doesn't frown on bright lights and women from the future... which means he pretty much took it in stride and didn't doubt her. There was no fights, no disbelief, no period of adjustment. It was like: "Oh right I'll help a strange woman, give her dresses and all". I just... didn't feel like it was realistic behaviour.Also it bugged me that the focus of the book was Joan learning to fit Victorian society. Half the book is about that (and the instantaneous attraction between her and Simon) and I was kind of bored, because, well it was boring and the interactions were not very interesting. Or conductive to attraction. Basically, the protagonists had no chemistry.After this first half, Joan and company move to London to meet their foe (Simon's former friend), who could have been a layered, complex character but ended up being the villain of the jour. As mean as they come and strangely with a tendency for self-pity (Woe, no-one understands my evilness) that made me roll my eyes. The part where the heroes deal with this very dangerous villain is short and anti-climatic after all the talk of him being so powerful and so dangerous. It was like Cooper was tired of the story and decided to end it abruptly after spending much of the book focusing on Joan and how she couldn't dance or eat properly. I think the major problem with this book is that it tries to be too much: time-travel story, mystery and thriller, paranormal fiction, historical romance... and consequently none of these are very well developed. Same for the characters. I did like the descriptions of Joan's world (great setting for gritty urban fantasy) and her flashgun. I did not, however, like Joan that much. I didn't connect with any of the characters, really.Overall: No Proper Lady could have been an interesting book (it certainly had an interesting idea behind it) but the author seemed to want to cram so much into the story it ended up being underdeveloped. And generally boring, except for a few select parts. Not a "time-travel romance" I would recommend. ( )

Overall, No Proper Lady left me somewhat disappointed because of all the underutilized world-building potential of the setup. The romance itself is good, and the setting adds paranormal and magical elements. However, both the future and the past world could have been better explored. This book could have started a wonderful world-building series of romance novels. Instead, it is an adequate romance novel with an unusual premise. ( )