TEST
Humor can be a subjective thing. One Lucky Lord is part of Love Spell’s Wink and a Kiss line, which means it is supposed to be funny. I kept waiting for it to get funny, which never happened. I waited for it to at least get sort of interesting, but that never happened either. When I started wishing that the heroine would leave her husband (the hero) and run off with his best friend, I knew this just wasn’t the book for me.
Thomas Wentworth is an English Earl who has a reputation for being extremely lucky. When he first meets the heroine, Fia Maclean, his luck takes a turn for the worse. In less than twenty four hours, he falls out of a window, gets crushed by a horse, and gets caught and beaten by Fia’s cousin and guardian, Duncan Maclean. Thomas is at Duncan’s castle to retrieve a letter for Queen Elizabeth, and when he meets Fia (this would be after he falls out of the window), she is trying to flee the castle. Fia wants to go to London so she can avoid marriage and find a patron for her plays. Since Thomas is also going to London, he agrees to take her along. When she says she needs a patron, he thinks she is talking about becoming a successful courtesan, and he is more than willing to apply for the job. When Duncan finds them, Thomas’ hands are inside Fia’s bodice. They are both taken back to the Maclean castle and eventually forced to marry.
Thomas is very attracted to Fia, but he is annoyed about being forced into marriage. Fia is attracted to Thomas as well, but she doesn’t want a marriage without love. As they sail to England on Thomas’ ship, they agree to get an annulment. Although Fia suggests the annulment herself, she is already falling in love with Thomas, so she hatches a plan to make him fall in love with her as well. Thomas’ best friend Robert McQuarrie is on the ship, and Fia asks Robert to teach her the ways of the English court. She hopes, as a result of the amount of time she spends with the charming and handsome Robert, that Thomas will become jealous. The plan works like a charm, and the marriage is consummated. By the time they arrive in England they have fallen in love, though Thomas still needs to learn how to trust Fia.
There are a couple more secrets to the plot. Both of them involve court intrigues, and neither of them makes much sense. Given that the plotting is both thin and confusing, I expected some pretty terrific characterizations. However, neither main character is particularly engaging or believable. Why would the inexperienced and gently bred Fia allow a man she hardly knows to fondle her? She does seem half in love with Thomas already, but, until this point, all she has to go on are his spectacular good looks. He proves just how awful he is later, when he takes the word of one of the queen’s slimy advisors instead of believing Fia, whom he supposedly loves.
When you’re not engaged in the romance of the main characters, it is easy to get distracted as a reader. Instead of wondering when they would consummate their relationship, I wondered if all the accidents that kept happening to the hero were supposed to be funny. I also couldn’t help noticing how often Thomas said “Sweet Jesu” (sometimes twice on a page) and Fia said “Sweet St. Catherine” (not as often as Thomas said “Sweet Jesu,” but often enough).
The only interesting character is Robert McQuarrie. His background is more fully developed than that of either Fia or Thomas, and he is more sympathetic than both of them put together. He is also more willing to trust Fia than Thomas is, which is why I kept hoping they’d run off together. If you’re thinking of reading One Lucky Lord, you might want to hold off and hope that Robert gets his own book.
Grade: D
Book Type: Renaissance Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 29/02/00
Publication Date: 2000
I've been at AAR since dinosaurs roamed the Internet. I've been a Reviewer, Reviews Editor, Managing Editor, Publisher, and Blogger. Oh, and Advertising Corodinator. Right now I'm taking a step back to concentrate on kids, new husband, and new job in law...but I'll still keep my toe in the romance waters.
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.