makinglaurie's review against another edition
I generally like Victoria Alexander books, but I had to stop reading the moment I came across the scene where the main character does Brownface. WTF.
planetarypan's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting overlap with the later events of the prior novel. I honestly thought Lucy was a tad better written in the previous book, reminding me of a young Lauren Bacall in her speech patterns. Here she seemed much more deliberately flighty, even if it did hide a fabulous mind. The OTP meshed well, and I did enjoy all of the antics they got up to in chasing down her great-aunt's regrets. I also like the farcical way events run in these books -- when things go awry, they always go amazingly awry. No one could suffer a bruised shin after tripping; they would break something, knock over a lamp, scare a cat, and somehow manage to foil a heist all at the same time. (Not that any of these things happened in this book, mind you, but that's the level of farce that seems to happen.) And yet, somehow, they all avoid the worst parts of scandal.
As with the last installment, I have already identified the characters I hope are involved in the next one. Please let there be a next one.
As with the last installment, I have already identified the characters I hope are involved in the next one. Please let there be a next one.
whiskeyinthejar's review against another edition
3.0
3.3 stars
"Have you ever kissed a woman with a mustache, Mr. Fairchild?" She fluttered her lashes at him.
"Not that I can recall. And certainly never deliberately."
"What a shame that you missed your opportunity then." She smirked and turned toward the door.
"I do hate to miss an opportunity." He grabbed her, pulled her into his arms, and stared down at her. "Miss Merryweather." Before she could protest he pressed his lips to hers. For a moment she hesitated, then kissed him back, hard and with a great deal of fervor. At last she pulled away and gazed up at him.
"If that is how you intend to chastise me in the future, Mr. Fairchild"---her voice was breathless and she made no move to leave his embrace---"I cannot promise to restrain from activities you find objectionable."
"You are driving me mad, Miss Merryweather."
"Then I have accomplished more than I expected this evening."
With a larger page count than average, 378, I enjoyed the non-rushed feeling of the story (well, the romance felt a bit rushed). Seriously, I miss the longer books of old! Our hero and heroine don't actually meet until around 20% in, which doesn't bother me but may for some. Our heroine, Lucy, is the more flushed out character and I enjoyed the set-up of her having to complete a bucket list of sorts that her great aunt had written up for herself but never got to do. The adventures and Lucy's attitude wonderfully stayed away from overly precocious miss and eye-rolling situations. Does the whole thing fall under side-eyeing historically accurate, oh yes, but for the most part, I was willing to roll with it. There was an interesting juxtaposition of Lucy being extremely nervous during the adventures while completing them and her friends thinking her extremely bold and unconventional, I wish this had been focused on more. The adventures were a little short for me; I could have stood for them to be longer and drawn out as I enjoyed this aspect of the story.
Our hero, Cameron, was a bit less charismatic. Don't get me wrong, the dynamics between him and Lucy were refreshingly different, with Lucy being the more compelling force and Cameron being befuddled by her and generally trying to keep up with her the whole story. I don't know if Cameron got overshadowed by Lucy or if his character simply wasn't there. The lying by omission and quite frankly, wimpy avoidance of finally telling her the truth did him no favors in my eyes, either. I'm typically a hero-centric reader, so you may want to take that into account when regarding my rating.
While I enjoyed Lucy's adventures, I felt the romance fell short. The one-on-one interactions between Lucy and Cameron weren't that long and the emotion ended up missing for me. It wasn't until the last 100 or so pages that I started to get the vibes from them; this is when they started to interact more. Cameron shows up with a pretty great romantic scene but then they both dissolve into pretty immature characters, set-up I guess to stretch out the angst more. Their dialogue and actions, however, ended up feeling inauthentic to the previous way the author had written them; Lucy comes off pretty petulant. The grand ending scene actually fell quite a bit short for me compared to the previous romantic one.
This is 5th in a series but thankfully, I didn't have a problem feeling lost. There were secondary characters that obviously had previous or will have previous stories told but they only added to the story and I'm going to be on the look-out for some that intrigued me. The author has a charm to her writing and her characters have dialogue and scenes that are the reason people read romance but they were cut too short here and the story meandered a couple times. The story was a pretty clean read except for one bedroom scene, which our heroine acts extremely modern for.
This kept me reading and I found myself charmed many times but the recipe was still a wee bit off. I've read this author before and this book encouraged me to keep trying her.
"Have you ever kissed a woman with a mustache, Mr. Fairchild?" She fluttered her lashes at him.
"Not that I can recall. And certainly never deliberately."
"What a shame that you missed your opportunity then." She smirked and turned toward the door.
"I do hate to miss an opportunity." He grabbed her, pulled her into his arms, and stared down at her. "Miss Merryweather." Before she could protest he pressed his lips to hers. For a moment she hesitated, then kissed him back, hard and with a great deal of fervor. At last she pulled away and gazed up at him.
"If that is how you intend to chastise me in the future, Mr. Fairchild"---her voice was breathless and she made no move to leave his embrace---"I cannot promise to restrain from activities you find objectionable."
"You are driving me mad, Miss Merryweather."
"Then I have accomplished more than I expected this evening."
With a larger page count than average, 378, I enjoyed the non-rushed feeling of the story (well, the romance felt a bit rushed). Seriously, I miss the longer books of old! Our hero and heroine don't actually meet until around 20% in, which doesn't bother me but may for some. Our heroine, Lucy, is the more flushed out character and I enjoyed the set-up of her having to complete a bucket list of sorts that her great aunt had written up for herself but never got to do. The adventures and Lucy's attitude wonderfully stayed away from overly precocious miss and eye-rolling situations. Does the whole thing fall under side-eyeing historically accurate, oh yes, but for the most part, I was willing to roll with it. There was an interesting juxtaposition of Lucy being extremely nervous during the adventures while completing them and her friends thinking her extremely bold and unconventional, I wish this had been focused on more. The adventures were a little short for me; I could have stood for them to be longer and drawn out as I enjoyed this aspect of the story.
Our hero, Cameron, was a bit less charismatic. Don't get me wrong, the dynamics between him and Lucy were refreshingly different, with Lucy being the more compelling force and Cameron being befuddled by her and generally trying to keep up with her the whole story. I don't know if Cameron got overshadowed by Lucy or if his character simply wasn't there. The lying by omission and quite frankly, wimpy avoidance of finally telling her the truth did him no favors in my eyes, either. I'm typically a hero-centric reader, so you may want to take that into account when regarding my rating.
While I enjoyed Lucy's adventures, I felt the romance fell short. The one-on-one interactions between Lucy and Cameron weren't that long and the emotion ended up missing for me. It wasn't until the last 100 or so pages that I started to get the vibes from them; this is when they started to interact more. Cameron shows up with a pretty great romantic scene but then they both dissolve into pretty immature characters, set-up I guess to stretch out the angst more. Their dialogue and actions, however, ended up feeling inauthentic to the previous way the author had written them; Lucy comes off pretty petulant. The grand ending scene actually fell quite a bit short for me compared to the previous romantic one.
This is 5th in a series but thankfully, I didn't have a problem feeling lost. There were secondary characters that obviously had previous or will have previous stories told but they only added to the story and I'm going to be on the look-out for some that intrigued me. The author has a charm to her writing and her characters have dialogue and scenes that are the reason people read romance but they were cut too short here and the story meandered a couple times. The story was a pretty clean read except for one bedroom scene, which our heroine acts extremely modern for.
This kept me reading and I found myself charmed many times but the recipe was still a wee bit off. I've read this author before and this book encouraged me to keep trying her.
lumbermouth's review against another edition
2.0
I can't believe it took me so long to read what should have been an easy breezy trashy romance but lord, was it ever tedious and needlessly so! I want to support the idea of a young American heiress gallivanting around London but one of the first "daring exploits" was to WEAR BROWNFACE AND RIDE AN ELEPHANT, so. That's probably why it took me so long to finish, because what the fuck. Cameron is played by Princess Diaries 2 Chris Pine. Who cares about Lucy.
lberestecki's review against another edition
2.0
I thought the basic plot of a young women fulfilling her great aunt's bucket list was interesting, but this book was a lot better in theory than in actuality. My biggest problem with it was definitely Cameron - I thought he was totally insufferable. I don't think he actually saw anything wrong with using Lucy's life as plot for his stories, and I also thought he was very condescending towards her. I liked Lucy better than I liked Cameron, but she was a bit annoying at times. Clara was definitely my favorite character in the book, but she couldn't save it for me. I think I would have enjoyed this book if Cameron had just been more likable.
Received from NetGalley.
Received from NetGalley.
amandacole's review against another edition
3.0
This book was a 3 star book for me. It had an interesting concept, but it didn't really draw me in like I'd hoped it would. The characters addressed each other by name way too much, especially at the beginning, and the unfolding of the relationship between Lucy and Cameron didn't make that much sense to me. It was an okay read and very light, but I think more could have been done with the concept.
ajenkins979's review against another edition
3.0
This story was not very entertaining, it did not hold my interest at all. The story baseline was good but the actual story was just ... blah.
Lucy Merryweather, was trying to hard to be "independent" and just really didn't think things through. Yes, she had a plan but she didn't take much into consideration. Way too trusting of people. Good thing Clara West was there for her, do finalize plans and make things happen.
Then there was Cameron, he just kinda went along with the flow, more or less. He did try to talk Lucy out of a lot of the activities, and was justified in his disapproval.
Lucy was just way to naive for her age!
I felt that there were several parts of the book that was just rambling.
* Ireceived my copy from netgally.com
Lucy Merryweather, was trying to hard to be "independent" and just really didn't think things through. Yes, she had a plan but she didn't take much into consideration. Way too trusting of people. Good thing Clara West was there for her, do finalize plans and make things happen.
Then there was Cameron, he just kinda went along with the flow, more or less. He did try to talk Lucy out of a lot of the activities, and was justified in his disapproval.
Lucy was just way to naive for her age!
I felt that there were several parts of the book that was just rambling.
* Ireceived my copy from netgally.com
hayworths's review against another edition
3.0
As far as historical romances go, [b:The Daring Exploits of a Runaway Heiress|22715903|The Daring Exploits of a Runaway Heiress (Millworth Manor, #5)|Victoria Alexander|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1410908209s/22715903.jpg|42243153] was exceedingly cute. But although Lucy and Cam had amazing chemistry and banter, I didn't really buy the romance. They bantered a lot, sure, but when did they actually fall in love? Miss Alexander, the author, implies that a lot of scenes between Cam and Lucy went unwritten, but it would've been better if they were shown instead of told, which could've bumped this book up to a four star rating from me. And the end seemed entirely too drawn-out by things that could have easily been resolved, were the two characters not so exceedingly stubborn. Lucy wanted to forgive Cam, but didn't; Cam wanted to tell Lucy the truth, but didn't. It all seemed too entirely avoidable to me. All in all, Daring Exploits was an entertaining read, but the romance didn't capture my attention as much as it should have, considering the chemistry between the two characters.
ssejig's review against another edition
4.0
For those readers who hate a plot based on a Big Misunderstanding, one that would negate the whole rest of the story, I will counsel you now to run away.
For those readers who have enjoyed Ms. Alexander's books in the past, I can only tell you that this book is just as wonderful as the rest of her Millworth Manor series with the addition of a tie-in to the next generation of Effingtons.
Cameron, "Cam," Effington is the youngest son of Jonathon and Fiona from Let it Be Love. He is somewhat irksome to the duke, who has become somewhat more staid in his older age, since Cam insists on being a reporter for the Cadwallendar papers. And the duke has just now realized that this particular paper is a bit more controversial than he had realized. At a family dinner (setting up Cam's three brothers and sister as sequel bait), he challenges Cam to write a book (since that would be something more respectable, I guess). Which leads to Cam needing a story. Which he finds when he visits his investigator friend, Phineas. It seems that Phineas has just been engaged to keep an eye on a young, American heiress, something he is loathe to do. But Cam sees the beginnings of a serial which he can turn into a book. What he's not expecting to find is Lucy.
After losing her long-time fiance to another woman (The Shocking Secret of a Guest at the Wedding), Lucy is relieved to finally be free. She can live the life she wants, starting with checking off the list of regrets her great-aung left. Luckily, her great-aunt also left her a bundle of money so Lucy has the means to do what she wants.
An absolutely infuriating book in that Cam kept failing to admit his ruse, even when given the chance multiple times. And, as seems to be very popular in romances these days, there is a distressingly public denouement. But overall, I enjoyed this story. Really three and a half stars but I'm gonna round it up.
For those readers who have enjoyed Ms. Alexander's books in the past, I can only tell you that this book is just as wonderful as the rest of her Millworth Manor series with the addition of a tie-in to the next generation of Effingtons.
Cameron, "Cam," Effington is the youngest son of Jonathon and Fiona from Let it Be Love. He is somewhat irksome to the duke, who has become somewhat more staid in his older age, since Cam insists on being a reporter for the Cadwallendar papers. And the duke has just now realized that this particular paper is a bit more controversial than he had realized. At a family dinner (setting up Cam's three brothers and sister as sequel bait), he challenges Cam to write a book (since that would be something more respectable, I guess). Which leads to Cam needing a story. Which he finds when he visits his investigator friend, Phineas. It seems that Phineas has just been engaged to keep an eye on a young, American heiress, something he is loathe to do. But Cam sees the beginnings of a serial which he can turn into a book. What he's not expecting to find is Lucy.
After losing her long-time fiance to another woman (The Shocking Secret of a Guest at the Wedding), Lucy is relieved to finally be free. She can live the life she wants, starting with checking off the list of regrets her great-aung left. Luckily, her great-aunt also left her a bundle of money so Lucy has the means to do what she wants.
An absolutely infuriating book in that Cam kept failing to admit his ruse, even when given the chance multiple times. And, as seems to be very popular in romances these days, there is a distressingly public denouement. But overall, I enjoyed this story. Really three and a half stars but I'm gonna round it up.