Ten years ago, Lady Charlotte Hayward lost her heart (and virginity) to the rake Geordie Blaine and gave birth to a son. Ever since, she has become an expert at Not Getting Married, not out of love for Blaine but out of cynicism and the quite understandable desire to not have her future husband find out his precious bride isn't a virgin.

Enter Darius Carsington, another rake without a heart. "To put it simply, Darius divided his life into two parts: (1) studying animal behavior, especially breeding and mating behavior, and (2) devoting his leisure hours to emulating this behavior."

Charlotte and Darius are equally determined not to fall in love with each other, but fate has other ideas.

My opinion: Chase strength is the creation of interesting characters, at least in this novel. Charlotte and Darius are complex characters, and their relationship with each other is very believable. A nice twist is provided by the rival suitor Colonel Morrell, who, although not a villain, is sufficiently threatening. And the most lovable of all characters is, perhaps, Charlotte's father, Lord Lithby, with his scientific approach to getting his beloved daughter married.

Otherwise, however, the novel falls flat. The plot is somewhat dull, and the writing lacks spark. (And excuse me if I refuse to believe that two people could be so overcome by lust for each other that they physically couldn't keep their hands off each other.) I've read wildly differing opinions of this novel on Amazon--many other readers seem to like the novel--but I sincerely hope this novel is not representative of the quality Chase generally produces. ( )

A charming romp through the English countryside presents us with Lady Charlotte Hayward. At the spinsterish age of twenty-seven, Lady Charlotte appears to be every Englishman's perfect woman: she has impeccable manners, she is well educated (for a woman), is an authority on the social graces, and has killer good looks. She has had years perfecting her technique of deflecting the attentions of marriage-minded gentlemen while still retaining their friendship. No one has guessed that buried in her youthful past is the sole indiscretion that makes her unmarriageable.

Enter Darius Carsington, new landlord to Beechwood - the estate that borders the Hayward property. Although highly educated in the field of animal husbandry, this youngest son of the Earl of Hargate is considered a rake of the highest order who draws the line at seducing 'innocents'. Of course he is instantly attracted to Lady Charlotte.

With the stage for romance thus set, it is only a matter of time before these two run far enough in opposite directions only to find themselves learning to appreciate each other as friends.

But will Lady Charlotte's secret, which even her own father hasn't guessed, relegate these two to a lifetime of being friendly neighbors, or, will a young ten year old lad be the key to melting Lady Charlotte's resolve to come clean of her past and accept love into her life? ( )

When she was 16 and impressionable, Lady Charlotte Hayward made a very serious mistake and wound up giving birth to an illegitimate child. Her pregnancy was hushed up, with even her father remaining ignorant, and her child given away, much to her sadness and regret, but Charlotte knows she will now never marry and becomes an expert at Not Getting Married. Meanwhile, Darius Carsington has never had any desire to get married, but has devoted his life to the pursuit of science and the pursuit of loose women for whom he will never care. His father, a despairing earl with one last son left to marry off, gives Darius the estate next to the Haywards’ and instructs him to make it turn a profit within one year, at which point he will be permitted to remain single. When these two meet, they discover that they aren’t going to remain single for very long and perhaps most importantly that things lost can sometimes be found.

First of all, this book is too funny, or at least I thought so. Darius’s unbending attitude in the beginning of the book is absolutely laughable as he’s made into almost a caricature of a man who avoids commitment and well-born young ladies. Take this quote:

And in the end, being a servant of Logic, he knew he was doomed. He must go to her and endure the unendurable, a fate worse than torture, maiming, plague, pestilence, famine, or death.

He must APOLOGIZE. (p. 155)

Luckily, he learns how to behave fairly quickly. I found myself laughing frequently. This book isn’t particularly well-written, but it has a wry humor to it that makes it a pleasure anyway. I have to say that the plot amused me as well. Both characters determinedly push away their attraction to one another and to everyone else, but as with all romance novels, it’s easy to tell where it’s leading. I liked in particular how Charlotte is portrayed as smart and stubborn. She lacked brothers as a child and was thus taught everything her father knew, so she is convinced she can go her own way through life without any problems. She probably could. I also really liked that this attracted Darius so much. It’s nice when men go for the smart women, isn’t it?

I’d probably recommend this to another romance reader. I doubt it’s going to compel anyone to read the genre, but I liked it.

http://chikune.com/blog/?p=514 ( )

It took me a while to get into Not Quite A Lady - mostly because what I assume is supposed to pass for humor regarding the hero's rakish yet scholarly ways seemed very off to me. Darius Carsington is described as a servant of logic, an intellectual of sorts who studies and analyzes agriculture and animal husbandry. Love doesn't exist to him, but sex is a rule of the natural world and so he follows that rule most assiduously, if dispassionately. The pseudo-scientist and rake mixture, however, didn't come together all that well, so that Darius is really just a big old rake who sleeps around but never, never with "innocents." It's an old story that overshadows the scholarly aspect of his character, which struggles to show through the typical rakishness but only succeeds in making Darius come off as oddly robotic in his thoughts and actions. He's supposed to be a cold cynic without a heart, but he ended up appearing awkward and nonhuman.

The heroine, Lady Charlotte Hayward, isn't much better. She's a fallen woman who's managed to hide her fallen state for the ten years since her indiscretion. She had a child out of wedlock, thanks to an evil man who used her and left her, but because she couldn't bear the thought of disappointing her father, who loves her very much, she gave the child up. In order to keep the secret of her non virginity, she's contrived to avoid marriage and chase off any and all suitors the doting father has thrown her way. So we’ve got two characters who’ve sworn off marriage and love. No big surprise there. Charlotte is full of angst, guilt, and grief. Despite or because of the surfeit of pathos, I didn't have much sympathy for her, if only because she shows such little backbone, and is such a weepy martyr. I'm gratified, when, at the very end she admits that at the age of twenty seven she's been acting like a childish sixteen year old, with her big secret and the fear of hurting papa's feelings. But my gratification is only slight because the whole secret child plot is such a nuisance.

Before this aspect of the plot kicks in however, and after Darius and Charlotte start interacting more and getting to know each other, I really enjoy their story. They each start to come alive and become more human. Their growing love knocks the cynical/intellectual posturing out of Darius, and Charlotte stops needlessly, excessively persecuting herself for her mistake (for a little while at least). Thus their annoying/stumbling start doesn't seem so annoying any more once it’s apparent that they are each starting to grow and change and make the other better than they were before. They come together so nicely, and are really adorable at times. But the problem is it's just a start, and before I can be convinced of their romance, the story unravels about half way through when it switches focus to Charlotte's mess, which Darius gets to clean up. It's all very frustrating. Her secret illegitimate child problem is neither interesting nor well developed, and it got harder and harder to plow through the rest of the book, which became predictable and mundane. The fact that this author writes so well, even with such a bland story to tell, makes Not Quite a Lady an even bigger disappointment. ( )

An enjoyable and light novel. This book is, well, sweeter than some of Chase's other work. The heroine tries her best to be good and dutiful, despite a scandalous secret in her past. The hero is supposedly an unemotional rake, but turns out to be caring and honorable. While there was less of Chase's witty dialogue present in this story, I felt there was more character development, particularly for the heroine. Her struggles to hide her secret and not dishonor her family gave her greater depth. This was also more of a character driven story than plot driven story, and it has a slower pace than some of Chase's other novels. However I found it to work well and to be an enjoyable read. ( )