Never Lie to a Lady

Liz Carlyle is capable of so much, so I don't know what happened here. I guess that she decided to pick up a few of the successful elements from previous books - a practical, business-minded woman who can compete in a man's world, a dastardly rake, fierce sexuality, a hint of intrigue - and hoped that if she tossed them together any which way the results would be satisfactory. Well, she was wrong.

What bothered me here is that Xanthia and Nash's relationship is so exclusively sexual that although I totally believed that they were hot for one another, and would go out of their way to arrange trysts and such, I never saw any kind of loving or emotional attachment developing at the same time. The kiss, they grope in public, they meet in show more back alleys; ok, sure. All of the soulmate, yearning for one another, emotional trappings just seemed like the kind of self-deception so many people indulge in when they don't want to see how simple and base their own motives really are.

If Liz Carlyle were writing erotica, this might fly - but she's not, she's writing a romance where the love connection never happens. And the book suffers as a result. show less

I absolutely loved Xanthia and Nash, both of them, and the little bits and pieces about shipping in London at the time. All good until we got to the whole plot with Nash being investigated, and the story of Nash's brother and sister-in-law. It just did not connect to the rest of the book and made the whole thing ramble. Also the side characters were all ridiculous. It is a bummer that such good lead characters, so well developed, landed in a story that was not worthy of them.

Never Lie to a Lady wasn’t boring, but something was still missing for me. Not sure what though. It’s a well written, enjoyable book, but I just wasn’t super amazed by it. Anyway, I liked the characters. Xanthia is very believable as an intelligent, independent businesswoman. Her relationship with her "hard-bitten, colonial" brother is particularly well drawn. Lord Nash, with his mixed Russian and English heritage, is a different kind of hero, not your usual rake. A strong, solid character who doesn't shy away from lighter moments - like his amusing bickering with his valet. Xanthia and Nash are both outsiders in society, and refreshingly free of baggage and angst, even with some of the troubles in their past. They talk a lot and show more get to know each other, so that it seems that, in addition to great chemistry, there is a steady basis for their growing love. It all progresses nicely and quietly, but never am I bored. Rather their romance struck me as beautiful. For some reason they won me over and really seemed like two soul mates coming together, kind of quietly, but still perfectly.

There's a spy plot attached to the romance, and provides Xanthia with her excuse for pursuing Lord Nash. It wasn't my favorite part of the book, in that it seemed contrived. Xanthia is not a very good spy. It also set up some clichéd plot developments, like the obligatory moment of betrayal when Nash realizes she was spying on him and thinks their love is a lie. The book was just barely saved at this point by Nash's reaction to the betrayal. There isn't a huge blow up, even though he is very angry and thinks the worst of her. Instead, he goes away to clean up the mess of the spy plot, and by the time he comes back, he's thought about things, finds the truth, and returns to her so that they can go back to being nice and beautiful again. Never Lie to a Lady doesn't really offer anything new or knock me off my feet, but I enjoyed it nonetheless and felt good reading it. Though I have to say the epilogue was cheese in the extreme. show less

I read this book two years ago and didn't like it that much. I ended up giving it a C-. However, when I read it this time, I liked it much better. The plot is good and the development of the relationship is believable - a B this time.

Read at the same time as Candace Camp's "A Dangerous Man". I thought this book was much more grabbing despite the similarities of the main characters and the plots.

I usually love Liz Carlyle, but I just can't get into this book.

I usually love Liz Carlyle, but I just can't get into this book.