Benedict Carsington, Viscount Rathbourne, has to look after his nephew Peregrine while his parents are staying in Scotland. When Peregrine joins his teacher's daughter, Olivia, in a mad treasure hunt, Benedict has to chase after the children in order to save them from unknown perils. He is accompanied by the teacher, beautiful Batsheba Wingate, who he's wildly attracted to...This is an absolutely wonderful book, I enjoyed every minute of reading it. The characters are actual characters rather than stereotypes. They have quirks and characteristics like actual people, and the chemistry between the hero and heroine is so intense that you can see that they belong together - even though they both know that they can never marry (until the book's happy end, of course). And really, I could never resist a book with a declaration of love like this:
He smiled. "I shall never forgive you for that, Batsheba. For that and a great deal else. I believe I shall nurse a...grudge...to the end of my days."
"Ah, well, at least you won't forget me", she said.
"Forget you? I should as easily forget a bout of whooping cough. [...]" ( )

Some parts of Lord Perfect really grabbed me, deftly and powerfully engaging thoughts and emotions - the hero's nephew, the heroine's daughter, their "Grand Quest," the hero Benedict Carsington, even the hero's father. I loved them all. The only drawback of the book is the heroine - Bathsheba DeLucey is an outcast from society as one of the Dreadful DeLuceys. The problem is she doesn't live up to her reputation at all, making her character disingenuous, contradictory, and generally just fuzzy. She starts out as someone who's reacted to her scandalous family history by going in the opposite direction and trying to be as respectable and straight laced as possible, and trying to raise her daughter above their lowly present station as well. Which is understandable, but her later martyr tendencies really got on my nerves - and she didn't have nearly as much depth or development as Benedict, who, on the other hand, lives up to the title. An awesome, wonderfully romantic hero - a man for whom control and rules are everything. It's when these rules and his control start to disintegrate that things get interesting.

In comparison, Bathsheba falls very flat. But really I liked the rest of the book so much that this flaw, while by no means minor, didn't bother me too much. And Olivia, Bathsheba's daughter, and Peregrine, Benedict's nephew, steal the show during their parts of the book. They conspire to run away in search of buried treasure - well, really it's Olivia's idea and Peregrine, in his efforts to dissuade her, gets dragged along and, before he knows what's happened, he's as invested in the quest as she is. Generally, I find precocious children aggravating in these books, and I can see how they could be obnoxious here, but there was something about Olivia and Peregrine and their noble Quest that struck a chord for me. When Benedict and Bathsheba discover the children have gone missing, they must of course set out in pursuit. Benedict, much like his nephew, gets caught up in an adventure that has him losing control, breaking rules, coming back to life, and coming to terms with a newly realigned perspective on things. Lord Perfect certainly isn’t a perfect romance, but it manages to chart a moving journey, nonetheless. I laughed a lot, teared up a bit, and was happy and entertained reading it, so that earns it a passing grade from me. ( )

Widower Benedict Carsington, the Viscount Rathbourne, and Bathsheba Wingate are brought together when her daughter and his nephew run off in search of treasure. Third in the Carsington series. ( )

I love Loretta Chase. Her heroes are interesting and her heroines are actually likable. That being said, Lord Perfect is perhaps not her best effort. Harkening back to her days writing Signet romances this book is thin on plot development, with little veiling of the central boy meets girl idea. I am someone who wants that veiling in my reading but even without it I still liked this book. Her characters are well rounded and realatable: the children are scamps, the Earl of Hargate is overly concerned with appearance and Bathsheba Wingate is gorgeous and sensible. With a little more going on in the story line it would be everything you could want in a Regency romance. As it is its still pretty darn good. ( )