j4smine - reviewed on 10/17/2009 + 31 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

Ugh - Dislike is too mild a word for this hero and heroine. Simon is an unappealing, Pollyanna-ish, bad-poetry-writing male 'Dear Abby' columnist and Eleanor is a bitter, man-hating face-slapping shrew who I literally detested by the end of the book. The whole story is one long carriage ride with them in pursuit of Eleanor's niece who has run off to Gretna Green to elope with an unsuitable scoundrel as a result of Simon's lovelorn advice. They argue most of the way, how lovely. Or maybe I should say she belittles him the whole distance and he just sits and takes it (what a man). Also, the caricaturish pair of oddball Bow Street Runners hired to track the young couple turn out to be uncharacteristically competent. Their nonsensical slaughter of the language is also awkward to read and thrown in to manufacture humor where there is none. If this first book in the trilogy is any indication, I don't hold out much hope for the next two.

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