I loved the relationship between Henry and Dunford. I loved that they became friends first. You really see a progression to love in this story. Henry stayed herself throughout, and I am glad she didn't have to change to make anyone happy. Dunford accepted her as she was. I didn't like the end. I felt like the drama at the end was out of character for both of them. They talked to each other all through the book. Why didn't they talk to each other then? ( )

The heroine is not really plain, but she believes herself to be unattractive because she is a tomboy, and is insecure about her femininity. There is a ton of angst and misunderstandings and other stuff right up my alley. I would LOVE to read more books like this. I loved how Henry just assumed no man would ever want her because she's so independent and brash and wears pants. More like this one, please! (4.5 stars) ( )

Light as air and filled with sparkling witty dialogue. Henry, our heroine brought to mind Katherine Hepburn in almost every role she played, and that is all to the good. Dunford was a delightful honorable reformed rake. I did like the first half better than the second. The impediment to our HandH being together was one of those things that could have been easily cleared up and wasn't, and we lost all our witty repartee after that. Still, overall this was delightful. ( )

I was hooked on HR for a very long time - this is my top book
( )

One of my all-time favorite JQ books. This was actually the first book of hers that I read, so there may be some first-book-bias, but even after numerous re-reads, it is still laugh-out-loud funny, and Dunford is still my favorite JQ hero. He's handsome, charming, disarming, and a veritable wit, and he's more than met his match in Miss Henrietta "Henry" Barrett. Add the fact that quite a bit of it takes place in Cornwall and you got me.

The first third of the book is very funny, when Dunford learns that he's inherited a title and estate and goes to Cornwall to check it out. Henry has been running things for six years and doesn't care to have a new lord sniffing around, especially if he's a new young lord, so she sets out to oust him in quite a few hilarious ways. They manage to become friends almost in spite of themselves, and develop an attraction, and then Dunford learns that he's Henry's guardian and feels it necessary to bring her out into Society.

The scenes in London are also humorous, but the final act of the plot brings this down a notch from squeeful adoration. There's a stupid Big Misunderstanding which more or less ruins all that Dunford and Henry have built up right before their marriage, and their separation is heart-rending (and stupid). If either one of them had just opened their mouths, they wouldn't have had to go through the anger and heartache. But, as this was only JQ's third novel, I suspect she felt she needed to include some of these well-worn tropes. She really hit her stride with the Bridgerton saga about five years after this was published.

There's never been a hero like Dunford, though, and for him, I'm willing to even read the less-than-great ending to this otherwise frothy, fun read. ( )