A Lady's Guide to Improper Behavior

It's great to see a lady "following" a gentleman for a change.good reading, alert, could not put it down until I finished it ! Enjoy!

While I do read all of Suzanne Enoch's books, this is the first that prompted me to write a review. It's a story of a badly wounded guilt-ridden soldier, and a girl whose improper behavior as a child caused her parents' deaths (so she believes.) Tess is determined never to act improperly again, and Tolly only wants to be left alone to wallow in his misery. Somehow they meet, and are very attracted to each other. Tolly is rocking the boat in London, stirring up trouble about what really happened to his regiment. There are people who want to silence him. Tess, determined to avoid any impropriety, decides she shouldn't continue her developing relationship with him. The story that follows shows two people coming out of their comfort zones in order to follow their hearts. There is no "big misunderstanding," just the touching story of them overcoming obstacles and their own demons to be together. Wonderful! Highly recommended.

All the previous reviews provide great synopses for this book, so I'll skip that. I just want to add that I loved this book. This is a surprise to me, because I was afraid Ladies Guide would be along the lines of Taming of a Rogue, which I did NOT like. It was so different from her other books and I was really upset that it didn't measure up. However, Ms Enoch really told a beautiful love story with Ladies Guide. It wasn't the great adventure or the "chase". It was much more than that. It had quietly beautiful scenes between Tolly and Tess where they just interacted and their romance bloomed gradually without being declared loudly. It's rare for a book to be character-driven, rather than action/adventure driven. I loved this book! Can't wait for the next installment.

It's not often that I am both entranced and repulsed by a heroine in a romance novel. Usually I either love them or hate them. Theresa (Tess) Weller is a heroine that I think might rub some readers the wrong way, but a character I both loved and wanted to smack upside the head. Our hero, Colonel Bartholomew (Tolly) James is much more evenly appealing. The book opens with him--wounded quite badly and the sole survivor of a massacre-- hiding out in the Adventurers' Club, away from the sympathy and pity of his family. His family's persistent requests for his presence, though, force him back home where he encounters Tess Weller at a dinner party. Despite being rude and provoking a mild argument, he seems to capture the attention of Tess--someone who is never rude, always proper, and is somewhat obsessed with remaining a paragon of unexceptional behavior. The budding relationship between the two seems to confuse both of them. I found it very sweet that neither character was 'in pursuit.' There is no chase. Which seems appropriate since our heroine is very conscious of propriety and our hero is in a wheel chair or using a cane throughout most of the story. The romance is low key. No big dramatic betrayals. I found that kind of slow build refreshing. Why did I want to slap Tess, you ask? Because she lacks backbone at a crucial moment. She can assist with a surgery and shave a man in his bedchamber, but she refuses to support Tolly when he needs it because it would harm her reputation. It sounds shallow--it is shallow--but Tess is obsessed with propriety for a reason. And she is aware of how cowardly she is being. Disgusted by it. But, for a time, she remains paralyzed by her fear of stepping outside the carefully constructed box of good behavior in which she's surrounded herself. What I found redeeming was that she wasn't really as shallow as most of society thought her to be. She was aware of her fear. Aware that she was failing a friend at a crucial moment. And ultimately, finally, shows some backbone by casting aside the rules she's governed her life by for a decade. The mention of the Thuggee problems in India during British colonialism was something I hadn't seen a lot of in standard Avon historicals. I found it interesting that while there is some lingering PTSD issues with Col. James, the major emotional scars come from the destruction of his ability to trust. And the scenes with Tess helping him shave were more emotional than the love scenes--which, I admit, were fairly tame and not very imaginative. Something only an Enoch fangirl would love: the brief mention of Bradshaw Carroway. I'm hoping this means that she's going to finally give us those books featuring the rest of Dare's family. (Originally seen in the Rake.) One thing that I almost missed: the switch to 2nd edition excerpts at the chapter headings. I'm guilty of skimming most chapter headings, even amusing ones, but thankfully noticed this change and flipped back a couple of ch

Adventurers' Club member Colonel Bartholomew James suffers from survivor guilt as he will never forget the massacre of his unit. In fact the often rude Colonel has a need to understand who set up the ambush and why as well as avenging his fallen comrades. Lady Theresa Weller finds James' rough boorish exterior despicable for someone in polite society. However, she also recognizes he suffers from incredible anguish and she wants to sooth his tormented psyche, which is unlike someone who adheres to proper decorum at all times. Unable to resist her lure after witnessing her temper explode Bartholomew kisses Tess who is shocked to her soul as she wants more yet wants him to stop misbehaving. Determined to help him, Tess hopes to bring him solace with her caring that is turning into love; even risking her life to find out who betrayed his unit. A Lady's Guide To Improper Behavior deftly brings together a soldier suffering from PTSD and a prim and proper Lady. He brings out her inner passionate misbehavior while she brings out his protective propriety. Together they make for a delightful historical romance as they fall in love investigating who set his unit up. Harriet Klausner