TO LOVE A WICKED LORD

Author: Edith Layton ISBN: 9780061757709 11/2009 HISTORICAL Publisher: AVON
Time Period: Regency 1803

A lady in waiting Phillipa Carstairs is absolutely lovely—so everyone has said since the hour she entered the world. Any gentleman would thrill to make her his bride, yet Pippa is all alone, waiting for a fiancé who disappeared many months ago. She's long forgotten why she loved him, and she's nearly given up hope. A man of action At first glance, Maxwell, Lord Montrose, is nothing but a dandy—albeit a well-chiseled, irresistibly handsome one! But his foppish demeanor hides a keen mind and a steely resolve. A spy for the Crown who knows absolutely everyone, he's the only one who can help Pippa find her missing fiancé. An irresistible desire Crossing England on the trail of the elusive husband-to-be, Maxwell and Pippa have the best of intentions. But a simmering attraction builds in close quarters . . . with a sinful passion that will be impossible to deny.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

For many years, Edith Layton was a staple of my romance reading habits.  I read all of her Signet traditional Regencies and almost all of her short stories for Signet's anthologies.  When she began publishing books with Avon, THE DEVIL'S BARGAIN was one of the first 'historical' novels I read.  Her heroines are feisty, her heroes are dashing and just shy of being truly wicked, and her plots were entertaining.  TO LOVE A WICKED LORD is sadly her last novel written before her passing.

As compared to other historical novels of its kind, TO LOVE A WICKED LORD is above par—Phillipa is impulsive, but thoughtful in her quest for her missing fiancee.  Maxwell is your typical rake, but hides his true personality beneath that foppish exterior.  The gradual shift of Phillipa's feelings towards her fiancee is kind of funny as she explains to Maxwell she forgets why, exactly, it's necessary to find him some days.

The plot is somewhat jumbled, with many plot lines begun and abandoned throughout the course of the novel, but interesting.  Why Phillipa's fiancee ran off is the mystery that everyone wants solved.  The real reason this is a disappointment as a novel is that next to her other novel, this comes off very unfinished.  Inconsistencies in plot and character development are frustrating, since much of what goes wrong could have been avoided easily.

The chemistry between our leads is also somewhat lacking.  Maxwell is closed off and uses the fiancee card more often then Phillipa does.  Phillipa is confused and isn't certain what she wants—her missing fiancee or the man helping her find him?  Much could have probably been fixed once Layton re-read the manuscript several times and tweaked it, but without her the editor did the best he or she could and gave us an uneven novel at the best of times.

Alexandra Cenni