Review: Unpleasant story hugely in need of a proofreader.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 09 11, 2012
I read Kate Harper'sThis Wicked Man - A Regency Noveland enjoyed it so much I even gave it 4 stars, in spite of all the format, spelling and grammar errors in it.  Since then I've read a couple more of her e-books.  They're inexpensive and I was hoping to find another one as good as the first one I had read.Unfortunately, nothing else has appealed to me and, in addition, I'm no longer giving her a pass about the grammar, spelling, vocabulary, and punctuation, which is particularly egregious here.  Well, some of the mistakes are rather humorous, albeit annoying.  For example, our heroine's assumed persona supposedly lived in a "piazza" in Italy.  I'm assuming the author meant "palazzo" because who lives in the town or city square?  Harper couldn't even be bothered to research the foreign word she uses.In the story, the hero is compelled to marry the heroine because of some problem between the two families and he, resentful about this, deserts her immediately after the ceremony.  So the heroine, young, plump, spotty, badly dressed, and cursed with the most horrendous mother imaginable, moves to her husband's estate.  In the space of 4 years, without a word from the husband, she proceeds to improve the running of the household and also turn herself into a thin, fashionable beauty.  (How she is able to get her hands on his funds is never explained.)Learning her wayward husband is in London, she goes there under an assumed name, hoping to avenge herself on him for his neglect and tomcat ways.  (He would not be able to recognize her because he didn't even look at her when she was younger and dumpier.)The plot sounded interesting to me and that's why I downloaded it, but it turns out I could not stomach the hero.  He's a womanizing sleazebag with the conscience of a slug.  Yes, some readers may say he redeems himself at the end.  I say the only way this jerk could redeem himself is to become a "castrato".  How the heroine decides to love him is beyond me.