Chase, Loretta - Miss Wonderful

[oyceter]

I honestly have no idea how Loretta Chase keeps doing this, but every time I keep thinking I can't enjoy her books as much as I do... I do.

Alistair Carsington has a pretty bad reputation when it comes to women, but he's not a rake. Rather, he falls in love very quickly, very deeply, and very unwisely. As such, his father, Lord Hargate, has had to expend a great deal of money to buy Alistair out of the messes that result. So, he's got an ultimatum -- Alistair has got to either find himself a suitable occupation or marry an heiress in six months or else his father will cut Alistair's brothers' funds.

Alistair's also a war hero of sorts (of course), and ends up traipsing to the country to help his friend build a canal. Enter Mirabel Oldbridge, who is, of course, very against said canal.

Unless you're reading Laura Kinsale, romance plots are generally not too exciting.

Anyhow, Chase always manages to juggle awful romance conventions in one hand while gently poking fun at them and overturning them in another. Alistair is a war hero with war hero angst, but he compensates by being extremely obsessed by his clothes (as opposed to just obsessed with his clothes. I suspect Alistair will always be well-dressed). His father obviously thinks he's a bit of a pain, which leads not to alpha bastard behavior to spurn his father, but rather, an attempt to get himself an honest occupation through his own skills instead of through his war hero status. And he really doesn't want to marry an heiress because he doesn't want to be a financial drag on his wife, so nix the arranged marriage plotline.

The real key is that Alistair is just awfully nice and sweet and puppy-like, and I fell for him in about two seconds flat while he was going over his list of Stupid Exploits with Women (most of them involve him falling in love and subsequently trying desperately to please someone, getting into a riot, getting in jail, buying said woman too much jewelry, trying to marry below his class, etc.). I love that he isn't a rake. I love that he isn't an alpha bastard.

And! Mirabel is 31! Not only is Mirabel 31, Alistair is 29! And she has been engaged, and Chase feels no need to bash the previous love of Mirabel's life! (Alistair does, but I feel that is more understandable)

I really liked what Chase was doing with standard romance gender roles. While Alistair does have the history with women, the typical emotional roles of the hero and heroine seem to be reversed in this book. Alistair is pretty much a goner when he first catches sight of Mirabel and mostly just gives in to his emotions. Mirabel is a little more hesitant with the emotional connection, though she's the main instigator for sex.

I also like that Mirabel is the one who befuddles Alistair with sex and lust and the like, as opposed to the usual heroine-loses-all-brains-around-sexy-hero thing.

And! Did I mention the age difference yet?

I feel I am not doing the book justice, because even as it is playing with tropes left and right (delightful in and of itself), it's enormously fun to read as well. Chase handles the canal animosity very well (aka Alistair and Mirabel remain adults and actually try to come up with good solutions instead of being stubborn brats), and the book is incredibly light-hearted and funny and sexy and romantic.

And in case you are not convinced, there is this lovely, silly moment in the book just after Mirabel and Alistair first meet, in which Alistair flees Mirabel's house in the pouring rain because he doesn't have a change of clothes and he can't stay for dinner in the same set of clothes, the horror! Mirabel runs out to stop him, hears his clothes explanation, gives him a look, and then, instead of trying to dissuade him, calmly turns back and lets him go with a shrug.

Comments

[rilina.livejournal.com]

I really liked Miss Wonderful and have been enjoying this series in general. I just hope Chase doesn't succumb to the "let's have too many cameos" approach to writing romance series. (I feel there's been a tad of this in some of her earlier books, though I didn't find it too obnoxious in Mr Impossible.)

[oyceter]

I really like it too! The most obnoxious cameos in her earlier books seem to be the ones in The Last Hellion and Lord of Scoundrels. Well, the footnotes were definitely annoying and hopefully added later by the publisher. But the books were so good that I forgave them.

And now I want to reread Mr. Impossible! I remember a few very brief mentions of Alistair and Mirabel, but luckily no appearances.

[riemannia.livejournal.com]

I really have to read more Chase. So far it's only been Mr. Impossible and people kept saying Miss Wonderful wasn't as good, but MW sounds like my kind of book. (Of course, I've got Lord of Scoundrels lying here, too.)

[oyceter]

It's really, really good. I think both MI and this one (and LoS) are horrifically good and really, really funny to boot and am not quite sure why people think this one isn't as good.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I just started Mr. Impossible (ob. food porn: while eating a Fatburger with a fried egg on it, and extra-crispy skinny fries) and am enjoying it. I'm not sure that men ever used that much sexual innuendo around women at that time period, but the stuff about Egypt appears to be well-researched. Well, it reads plausibly, anyway.

And now I need a romance icon. Got a screencap of Simon with his arms around River atop the bonfire? ;)

[oyceter]

(mmmmmm burger and egg!)

I'm not quite sure how accurate some of the things are, but I tend to have to much fun that I don't care. Also, my favorite thing is that Chase's heroes and heroines genuinely seem to like and respect each other.

(ob. killer rabbits: I so want these! I think we both need a Kiki the ferret icon with poinging and "Oooo, shiny!")

[vonnie-k.livejournal.com]

This sounds good. I've got a couple of Chase books sitting on the shelf waiting to be read (including Mr. Impossible) and perhaps I'll seek this out after I'm done with them.

Unless you're reading Laura Kinsale, romance plots are generally not too exciting

"too exciting"? I think you misspelled "crack-addled". *g*

[oyceter]

*snork*

What, you don't think ninjas on secret islands and shipwrecks and secret princesses and penguins and assassins is plausible? ;)

Go read Loretta Chase! All are good! (except, apparently, The Sandalwood Princess, as both coffeeandink and rilina have cautioned me away from it due to the Orientalism.)

[fiveandfour.livejournal.com]

You can add me to the list of people recommending you avoid The Sandalwood Princess. I say you should avoid it because it's boring - there were so many times when I'd think, "OK, now it's going to pick up a little bit of speed and intrigue", but it never did.

[oyceter]

Gotcha, thanks!

[fiveandfour.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I think you've inspired me to pull this one back out of the stack for a re-read. I liked this one, too. I was quite impressed that the issue of the canal wasn't resolved with the heroine completely giving in to the hero, which you find pretty much everywhere else.

[oyceter]

Yeah, I really liked the resolution of the canal plotline! And I liked that there wasn't stupid bickering!

[oracne.livejournal.com]

This was a jolly book all-around. I got my angsty Napoleonic Wars guy AND cute funny sorta shy guy and honorable guy all in one!

[oyceter]

Yes! I adored Alistair to little bits! Just... totally wanted to pat him on the head and give him doggie biscuits or something, he was so cute!