First Loretta Chase! ( )

Alistair Carsington desearía que no le gustasen tanto las mujeres. Para escapar a sus peores impulsos, viaja hasta un lugar alejado de la civilización: Derbyshire —¡en invierno! — donde tiene la intención de matar dos pájaros de un tiro: evitar toda tentación y recompensar al amigo que salvó su vida en Waterloo. Pero sus buenas intenciones caen en saco roto cuando conoce a la señorita Mirabel Oldridge, una mujer tan inteligente, obstinada, y taimada como es él —y absolutamente irresistible.
Mirabel Oldridge ya tiene bastante con mantener a su brillante y excéntrico padre alejado de los problemas. Lo último que necesita es un aristócrata sorprendentemente atractivo, hipersensible y deslumbrante recordándola que tiene un corazón —sin mencionar el cuerpo que, según él, lleva ropas tan pasadas de moda que considera su deber como hombre el tener que desvestir.
¿Puede la situación ser peor de lo que ya es? ¿Y cómo algo que parece tan equivocado puede hacerlos sentir tan maravillosamente bien?

Spiffily dressed Alistair Carsington is horrified to meet the very intelligent but dowdily dressed Mirabel Oldridge and the two clash when they find themselves on opposing sides of a proposed canal.

I've loved the other two Loretta Chase books I've read but this one just missed the mark. It wasn't bad - just kind of boring and it seemed endlessly long because of it. The biggest problem beyond plot was that I just didn't like the characters. Alistair was kind of ridiculous and Mirabel was just drab. She had no real distinguishing marks, nothing to set her apart from the million other female characters I've encountered. There was very little witty banter and she didn't seem to have hobbies beyond liking nature and I just didn't care. Alistair was somewhat set apart as a clothes fiend and his insistent on his clothes and her clothes looking pristine and fashionable but it wasn't enough to keep my interest.

So apart they were bland and together even more so. I didn't really see why either of them liked the other and the chemistry between them was non-existent. And there was very little plot to occupy 300 pages. I did like Alistair's solution to the canal problem (he suggests a railway instead) but it just wasn't enough to redeem the rest of it. 2 stars, edging closer to the 1.5. ( )

"Miss Wonderful" is the story of Mirabel Oldridge, the only daughter of a slightly crazy but amiable man, and Alistair Carsington, a younger son of an Earl. At the beginning of the story, the reader discovers that Alistair, an injured Waterloo veteran, because of a long list of follies from his past, is being forced to either wed an heiress or find himself employment. Not particularly wanting to marry at the present time, he goes together with his friend, Lord Gordmor, in a venture to build a canal to Gordmor's coal mines in Derbyshire. When Alistair arrives and attempts to persuade the residents to his side, he discovers that his strongest opposition is from Mirabel, a feisty and intelligent girl who runs her father's estate. The two butt heads frequently and an attraction starts to grow between them... This story was a bit of a dissapointment. At the beginning, it was set up well and was very entertaining, but it fizzles out towards the end. She gives away her character's "secrets" (such as they are) too early, and there is no real climax to the book. It just kind of drifts in the direction it's going without any real purpose. And this was a great dissapointment, because it had a good deal of potential. Mirabel, also, was riding the line of an "Amazon" woman - one of my greatest pet peeves when it comes to women in Regency novels. She was not ~quite improper, but she certainly did not seem the least bit concerned about her reputation, which I felt to be a bit unrealistic. Alistair was a good character, but I think that he should have had some major revelation, or actually let us know what happened to him at Waterloo, rather than his major revelation being something as pitiful as admitting he was afraid. Well, duh. Also, I didn't like the sex scene right before the wedding, with them coming to their wedding all rumpled. I found it rather unrealistic that people wouldn't be absolutely horrified at that. ( )

This was fun. High drama but low angst. It's so nice when the characters are fairly reasonable human beings. =D They were both smart and capable as well, with interesting pasts and flaws. I enjoyed watching them work through their hurdles, and they seem well suited. ( )