And Then He Kissed Her echoes one of Guhrke's earlier works, Guilty Pleasures - if only superficially in terms of plot set up. Emma Dove, (much like the heroine of Guilty Pleasures) is employed by the hero Viscount Harrison Marlowe, who, (much like the hero of Guilty Pleasures) takes her completely for granted. He runs a big publishing business and she is nominally his secretary, but goes above and beyond the call of duty - so much so that she even buys his presents for his mistresses and sisters. Her efficiency and organization ensure that his business and his personal life run smoothly. Along with Guilty Pleasures, I couldn't get the movie Two Weeks Notice out of my head as I was reading this book, because there are a lot of similarities there as well, so it took a while for And Then He Kissed Her to break free from the feeling of "been there done that" and stand on its own. When it eventually does, I have a great time reading this book. Emma is heartbreakingly repressed - Harry thinks she's nonhuman at times, she's so cool and unruffled. But the reader can glimpse hints of more colorful, adventurous leanings in Emma. There's one episode, and a turning point in Emma's life, that involves a peacock fan - something so seemingly innocuous, but it's invested with powerful significance and succeeds in providing Emma with a depth and humanity that makes her a very sympathetic character. When she has her moment of awakening and resolves to change her life, I'm rooting for her all the way.

Harry is a bit more typical in terms of the baggage he totes around: he's never going to marry again because he had a disastrous first marriage that ended in scandal, disgrace, and divorce. He hates rules, is dismissive of society’s opinion, censorious or otherwise, is glib and easy going, charming and fun loving. I found him much less interesting than Emma, his character arc practically nonexistent compared to hers. The attempts to show how he changes throughout never convinced me of his supposed growth - something of which he was really in need. But still they have great chemistry together. There's a lot about writing, publishing and editing in this book, which is woven into the development of Emma and Harry's evolving relationship. Emma is an aspiring writer, and part of her awakening entails her determination to get her work published. She succeeds, but with a rival publisher rather than Harry, who's repeatedly rejected her work. I liked the negotiations and conflicts in which Harry and Emma engage as he tries to get her back and she demands her due, as they both give and take and work together on a refreshingly equal footing.

Outside the realm of the professional, however, they aren’t so equal, and I wasn’t too pleased with the treatment of Emma’s sexual awakening. Nor did I like how, once business and pleasure have been thoroughly mixed, she claims to have secretly (so secretly even she had no idea) loved Harry all the years that she worked for him as his doormat and up close observer of his dissolute ways, his cavalier treatment of so many women. Too many contradictions and too much insincerity really doused my enjoyment of the book, Emma's character, and her romance with Harry. Things start to bog down once they start their affair, and I got kind of bored. All that baggage, Emma's and Harry's, was dealt with too swiftly for me to feel any real resolution. Their growing love was developed in terms that can only be described as blurry. The book became mundane, the outcome obvious, the ending trite. For a while there, And Then He Kissed Her had me hooked, but I've got to knock off a star for the stumbling finish. If I were less biased in favor of Guhrke's writing style, I would have knocked off more. ( )

It was so different from your usual lord meets commoner girl and falls in love romance. It had witty dialogue, the hero and heroine are not strangers to one another and it ended up so happily and - romantically - a great ending!

http://ktleyed.blogspot.com/2008/10/a... ( )

I read this book on a recommendation and I'm glad I did. Emma is living in an age when women are just beginning to enter the work force and take positions that are typically filled by men. The attraction between Emma and Harry is there from the beginning, though it takes Harry the length of the novel to realize what he feels for Emma is not typical to how he usually feels about women. Against her better judgment, Emma enters into an affair with Harry, knowing from the beginning it won't be enough for, but at least she has the courage to stop the affair when she realizes an affair will never be enough for her.

What was most compelling about this novel is the fact that Emma is secretary to a man when women were not allowed to be secretaries, but Emma also writes a weekly advice column; throughout the novel she learns more about herself, what her true abilities are and her courage continues to grow until she can truly stand on her own two feet. Harry's presence in her life forces her to come to terms with what she wants and gives her the courage to stand up for herself and what she believes and needs to make her life better. ( )

Viscount Marlowe has caused scandal after scandal in Victorian London, first with the divorce of his wife (an action condemned by the Queen herself), then by earning his own living in the publishing business, and, most recently, by employing a female secretary - a position reserved for males. But the die-hard rake couldn't care less about societal strictures.

Quite different is his proper secretary Miss Emma Dove. In her free time, Emma has written several books of etiquette in the hopes of becoming a published author. When she discovers that Harry has rejected every single one of her manuscripts without even bothering to read them, she is furious. And that fury leads her to one of Harry's fiercest competitors. Soon Emma's advice as 'Mrs. Bartleby' is the talk of the town, as well as Harry's sisters, so Harry does his best to work with his former secretary - despite the fact that he is finding it harder and harder to resist her formerly hidden charms.

I loved that straight-laced Emma was such a closet hedonist, and I enjoyed the way Harry and her own feelings slowly awakened her to the fact that propriety isn't as important when it makes you miserable. This was an interesting take on the class difference/employer-employee romance, but I felt it suffered from too much build-up. While I liked reading about Emma's new job and her success, I felt like her commercial success was emphasized over the growing relationship with Harry. It started out very slowly at the beginning, but then felt rushed near the end without major milestones in the relationship really being addressed. A good read with some very nice scenes (especially in the bookstore with Arabian Nights), but the romance which was supposed to gradually be building up seemed lacking.

SPOILERS:
I didn't like the affair aspect. It was meant to allow the characters to live together and experience that wonderful slow lazy intimacy, I understand that, but it still seemed rather sordid. They snuck out to the country on weekends and then she spent the rest of the week alone in her apartment, pining. Just...ick. I hate that sort of thing. Even done as her choice it seems...demeaning. Not necessarily to her, but to their relationship. I liked the way her feelings about the situation were explored, but I can't say I enjoyed the similarities between their affair and one involving infidelity.
The marriage proposal at the end was lovely, especially his speech, but it just seemed to come out of nowhere - as did the affair in the first place. The whole romantic aspect of their relationship just seemed to come out of thin air, grow miraculously off-stage and then it was re-introduced. I found it hard to believe - there just wasn't enough magic between the characters. ( )

I read And Then he Kissed her by Laura Lee Ghurke (must be a real name!) which was set in the unusual time of the very late Victorian era where those new fangeled telephones were sometimes used. She didn't make as much of a fuss about them as she could have, but she did have the hero send a cable across the country. All very exciting.

The romance was also excellent ;) I liked her heroine, Miss Emmaline Dove (great name!) who was turning 30 and spinsterish and wanted to be a writer, and her hero, the hardworking but scandalously divorced Lord Marlowe who found collecting rents boring but the making money in the publishing business exciting. I liked their chemistry and their dilemmas and really enjoyed spending time with them. ( )