Review: Good Clean Regency Romance!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 4, 2013
Kate Harper is an "automatic buy" author for me for a very good reason - she writes wonderful stories.  Like the majority of her others, this is a good, clean regency romance with a strong heroine and a slightly troubled alpha male.  What I really like about this one is that the heroine, Johanna, is rather flawed.  Lord Marcus Hathaway's main flaw is that he's troubled by his inability to provide for his family (since his father lost all their money and then offed himself) despite the fact that his eldest sister has married well to a man who is perfectly happy to provide a home/funds for them.  Marcus' situation is not of his own doing, but he persists in feeling responsible for regaining money to provide for his family so that his brother-in-law doesn't need to continue to do so, and Marcus absolutely does not want to have to marry an heiress for money - he hates feeling like he's bringing nothing to the marriage.While he's traveling and trying to work through some understandable depression, he runs across Johanna Claybourn, a wonderfully strong heroine who is also flawed in the sense that she's extremely spoiled.  Even though she doesn't put much stock in her incredible good looks, is quite outspoken in a delightful way, and isn't at all snobbish, petty or mean, she's VERY used to getting her own way... which means that when she wants Lord Marcus to stay at her father's house, she's going to find a way to do so, even if it means lies and manipulations.  She's all good intentions, but she's shocked when things don't quite go her way and Marcus doesn't react the way he's "supposed" to in her head.The two of them are wonderful together, lots of bantering, lots of wit, and plenty of romantic tension.  He gets to play her hero, but then he finds out that he might not have needed to be quite so heroic... and Johanna finds out that she can't always have things exactly her way.  They're good for each other; she makes him realize what he does have to offer a woman and he makes her grow up a little bit.  And they're absolutely wonderful to read about, although I'm not going to go further into the various twists and turns of the plot or the villain and the drama because it's more fun to read that yourself!  As with most of Ms. Harper's books - I highly recommend.