Mr Impossible

This is one of those books that I think I've read before, but never hit upon a detail familiar enough to be positive (Marigold the mongoose was as close as I got). Fun and funny, must admit I did spend most of the book waiting for Rupert to reveal his brains. Other than a sweet brilliance for managing people, he's still in the intellectual closer, so to speak. ( )

Ancient Egypt! Roguish adventurers! Assassins! Beautiful scholars! Thrills! Chills! Romance!

This book is chock full of everything I love. It's a swashbuckling romp. If it were a movie, it would be The Mummy. This has been my first Loretta Chase novel, but if her books always have this level of excitement and humor, it will be far from my last. ( )

A charming and truly funny romance. And the heroine wasn't a cop out. Turns out everyone's right about Loretta Chase. ( )

I didn’t pay enough attention in choosing from among my pile of books, so didn’t manage to read the Carsington books in order, but instead have been reading them randomly. Once again, Chase created interesting, lovable characters in Daphne and Rupert. The motivations of each were believable and their interactions were funny and warm. Granted my sample is pretty small (just 4 books), I have to say that Chase is fast becoming a reliable author for me—if I need a quick read that I’m confident will be good, she’s on that author list I turn to. I do have a small quibble though. This bookseemed to have more action than the others. Usually, people bemoan the lack of action in books. But I’m sorry, in this case, I felt like there was a bit too much action. The characters were so busy running away from villains, hiding from villains, or fighting off villains that there wasn’t as much romance as I would’ve liked. This is just a personal preference though, and it didn't seriously deter me from enjoying the story. ( )

Rupert Carsington, the fourth son of the Earl of Hargate, has been packed off to Egypt by his father in disgrace. Once there, he is promptly jailed for having a scuffle with the local soldiers. Meanwhile, the beautiful young widow Daphne Pembrooke has an even more serious problem: her brother Miles has just been kidnapped. Miles is widely believed to be an exceptional scholar of Egyptian hieroglyphs, but in fact Daphne is the true expert; she simply conceals her intellect because of the stigma attached to “bookish” women. Fearing that Miles’ kidnapping is connected to his supposed knowledge of hieroglyphs, Daphne sets out to rescue him. However, she needs an appropriately strong man to accompany her, matching his brute strength to her brains. Daphne bails Rupert out of jail, and the two of them set forth on an exciting adventure throughout Egypt, falling in love along the way.

Several people have encouraged me to read this book, even though I wasn’t a big fan of Miss Wonderful, the first book in Chase’s Carsington series. Luckily, their advice was true – this book is a lot better than its predecessor! (And don’t worry, you don’t need to read book 1 to understand this one!) My favorite thing about it was the playful banter between Rupert and Daphne. He frequently poses as a “cheerful blockhead,” although he’s a lot smarter than he lets on; meanwhile, she’s a strong and courageous woman who’s not afraid to trade insult for insult. The Egyptian setting was also very interesting, and it made me curious to learn more about the antiquities trade in England and France during this period (the 1820s). I didn’t much care for the erotic scenes, particularly because they seemed completely unnecessary to the plot, but I guess that’s to be expected in a romance novel. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to fans of Regency romance!