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    Not Quite A Lady
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    Not Quite A Lady
    Unavailable
    Not Quite A Lady
    Ebook338 pages4 hours

    Not Quite A Lady

    By Loretta Chase

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Irresistible Force

    Darius Carsington is a spectacularly handsome rake with a rare intelligence and no heart, a man who divides his time between bedding loose-moraled women and writing scholarly papers. He finds society's "perfect darlings" exceedingly boring. But there's something intriguing, and not quite perfect, about faultless Lady Charlotte Hayward. He senses a crack under her polished surface, and finding it is a challenge he can't resist.

    Immovable Object

    Lady Charlotte is so beautiful, charming, and gracious that no one has noticed what an expert she is at Not Getting Married. Early on, she learned a painful lesson about trust . . . and temptation. In the years since, she's devoted her life to being all she ought to be—and she's not about to let a man like Carsington entice her to do everything she shouldn't.

    A Splendid Collision

    But the rules of attraction can easily overpower the rules of manners and morals, and sometimes even the best-behaved girl has to follow her instincts, even if it means risking it all.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061796036
    Unavailable
    Not Quite A Lady
    Author

    Loretta Chase

    Loretta Chase has worked in academe, retail, and the visual arts, as well as on the streets—as a meter maid—and in video, as a scriptwriter. She might have developed an excitingly checkered career had her spouse not nagged her into writing fiction. Her bestselling historical romances, set in the Regency and Romantic eras of the early nineteenth century, have won a number of awards, including the Romance Writers of America’s RITA®. For more about her past, her books, and what she does and doesn’t do on social media, please visit her website. LorettaChase.com

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    Reviews for Not Quite A Lady

    4/5

    223 ratings15 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Enjoyed this book a lot. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed Loretta Chase's writing. Interesting characters. Well-written. Also has some humor in it. I'm enjoying the Carsington series. Wish I had read the books in order.
    • 5/5
      Great read. Full of humor and romance.
    • 2/5
      Well thank goodness, I am warming up to Darius and Charlotte a lot faster than the main characters from the last book. Charlotte is of course a woman who does not want to get married but the way her thought process is described makes it more believable than other characters I have read before. Like Charlotte says "It was uphill work for an attractive, rich girl not to get married and not get caught not getting married." Sounds a little different from the usual "men are icky/loud/rude/stupid so I'm not going to get married" storyline. Charlotte just sounds more mature about not wanting to get married and her approach to avoiding it. Darius of course being the lead male also does not want to get married. He of course thinks love is "Superstition, Myth, and Poetic Nonsense".

      All in all a storyline we have all read before but yet I'm intrigued by these characters; they seem to have some panache which is drawing me in.Sidenote: Oh how I wish we could have read more about the crazy old aunt who left her estate to her pug "Galahad"!

      Haha Darius prides himself on spotting experienced women right away and Charlotte claims she can spot a rake at 50 paces. They seem to know each other's score.I absolutely loved how after Charlotte and Darius's first kiss she grabs his hat off his head, hits him with it, throws it to the ground and then kicks it. I love the childishness of it and can't help but wonder what Darius was thinking.

      This book started off interesting but about halfway through it feel into the dreaded mediocre realm. Like I said before the storyline was nothing new so the only thing saving the story in the beginning was the characters personalities but at the end even the characters became blah.

      The little boy Pip showing up was a little bit of a coincidence for me and how every thing worked out in the end. I was greatly disappointed in the end of this book.The last half was blah,blah,blah. A lot of books have been displaying this nasty trait lately. Haven't any of these authors heard of the saying "finish strongly"?

      Anyway, I really liked how Darius would always think "I'm in trouble" whenever he was around Charlotte and how both of them tried to deal logically with everything and leave out emotions. These personality traits provided some great conversations between the two and wonderful inner dialogue.As always Loretta Chase is a wonderful writer and I really enjoy how she writes the interactions between her two lead characters, it just seemed like she was phoning this one in.

      B-
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed this, but it was just shy of earning 4 stars from me. I can't entirely put my finger on why (a few times something I'd been disliking was then accounted for and I felt a little better about it, but still it had been there which I hadn't enjoyed... so I felt a little bit torn). Chase is a good writer though, and the emotional conflict near the end made me tear up when I don't usually.
    • 4/5
      This is another reread since I seem to be going through the entire series again and it's well worth it. Darius is the youngest of the Carsington sons and his father has now decreed that he change his circumstances, just like the older men. Darius is a scientist and a rake but determined not to marry as his father wishes, he takes on the challenge of reviving a derelict estate within the next year. His neighbor is the Marquis of Lithby, an admirer of Darius's papers on biology and farming, who has a daughter, Charlotte, who catches Darius's eye. Normally, he wants nothing to do with marriageable virgins, but Charlotte seems to be doing her best to avoid matrimony in a very subtle manner. I always enjoy Ms. Chase's writing and this is no exception. She always makes an effort to subvert the tropes just enough to offer a fresh take. This is another good story in a very good series.
    • 4/5
      I've read and enjoyed all of the other Carsington Brothers' stories, and this one was just as good as the others. Darius and Charlotte are a fun, passionate hero and heroine. Charlotte's story, in particular, is rather sad, but Darius brings her out of her funk. There is a pretty over-the-top plot twist toward the end, but it's all written so movingly that I can't find too much fault with it.
    • 4/5
      Loretta Chase never disappoints. This isn't my favorite book by her, but it is worthy of her - it steers clear of the worst romance cliches, because it doesn't need them in order to build tension or generate heat. The writing is smooth and rich, characters are complex, there's a dose of fierce passion and of humor, too. A relationship between equals, a strong female lead, a good supporting cast.

      That being said, it's not Loretta Chase's most powerful book - it doesn't have the sturm und drang of Lord of Scoundrels, or the hijinx and unexpected pathos of Mr. Impossible. It's a romance, not an adventure or a mystery - it takes place almost entirely over a period of a few weeks spent calmly in the country, and the two leads are mature, self-aware people who behave as such. There are complications, lives are changed, but even these earth-shattering events are rather domestic.

      But one thing I like about Loretta Chase is that she tries new things. Among books of this kind, the ones that revolve around house parties and match making and the profitiability of country estates, with occasional references to pig breeding and wall hangings, this one is head and shoulders above the rest.
    • 4/5
      I really liked both Darius and Charlotte, and I enjoyed the way Chase mirrored their paternal relationships. They're pretty cute together. More sentimental than most of her novels, but perhaps that just reflects Charlotte--she's all emotional and angsty once her secret baby shows up. Yes, this is a secret baby novel. Not the best, but certainly not the worst of those I've read. Not much plot besides Darius/Charlotte interaction, so if that bugs, stay away.
    • 4/5
      A charming romp through the English countryside presents us with Lady Charlotte Hayward. At the spinsterish age of twenty-seven, Lady Charlotte appears to be every Englishman's perfect woman: she has impeccable manners, she is well educated (for a woman), is an authority on the social graces, and has killer good looks. She has had years perfecting her technique of deflecting the attentions of marriage-minded gentlemen while still retaining their friendship. No one has guessed that buried in her youthful past is the sole indiscretion that makes her unmarriageable. Enter Darius Carsington, new landlord to Beechwood - the estate that borders the Hayward property. Although highly educated in the field of animal husbandry, this youngest son of the Earl of Hargate is considered a rake of the highest order who draws the line at seducing 'innocents'. Of course he is instantly attracted to Lady Charlotte. With the stage for romance thus set, it is only a matter of time before these two run far enough in opposite directions only to find themselves learning to appreciate each other as friends. But will Lady Charlotte's secret, which even her own father hasn't guessed, relegate these two to a lifetime of being friendly neighbors, or, will a young ten year old lad be the key to melting Lady Charlotte's resolve to come clean of her past and accept love into her life?
    • 4/5
      It took me a while to get into Not Quite A Lady - mostly because what I assume is supposed to pass for humor regarding the hero's rakish yet scholarly ways seemed very off to me. Darius Carsington is described as a servant of logic, an intellectual of sorts who studies and analyzes agriculture and animal husbandry. Love doesn't exist to him, but sex is a rule of the natural world and so he follows that rule most assiduously, if dispassionately. The pseudo-scientist and rake mixture, however, didn't come together all that well, so that Darius is really just a big old rake who sleeps around but never, never with "innocents." It's an old story that overshadows the scholarly aspect of his character, which struggles to show through the typical rakishness but only succeeds in making Darius come off as oddly robotic in his thoughts and actions. He's supposed to be a cold cynic without a heart, but he ended up appearing awkward and nonhuman. The heroine, Lady Charlotte Hayward, isn't much better. She's a fallen woman who's managed to hide her fallen state for the ten years since her indiscretion. She had a child out of wedlock, thanks to an evil man who used her and left her, but because she couldn't bear the thought of disappointing her father, who loves her very much, she gave the child up. In order to keep the secret of her non virginity, she's contrived to avoid marriage and chase off any and all suitors the doting father has thrown her way. So we’ve got two characters who’ve sworn off marriage and love. No big surprise there. Charlotte is full of angst, guilt, and grief. Despite or because of the surfeit of pathos, I didn't have much sympathy for her, if only because she shows such little backbone, and is such a weepy martyr. I'm gratified, when, at the very end she admits that at the age to twenty seven she's been acting like a childish sixteen year old, with her big secret and the fear of hurting papa's feelings. But my gratification is only slight because the whole secret child plot is such a nuisance. Before this aspect of the plot kicks in however, and after Darius and Charlotte start interacting more and getting to know each other, I really enjoy their story. They each start to come alive and become more human. Their growing love knocks the cynical/intellectual posturing out of Darius, and Charlotte stops needlessly, excessively persecuting herself for her mistake (for a little while at least). Thus their annoying/stumbling start doesn't seem so annoying any more once it’s apparent that they are each starting to grow and change and make the other better than they were before. They come together so nicely, and are really adorable at times. But the problem is it's just a start, and before I can be convinced of their romance, the story unravels about half way through when it switches focus to Charlotte's mess, which Darius gets to clean up. It's all very frustrating. Her secret illegitimate child problem is neither interesting nor well developed, and it got harder and harder to plow through the rest of the book, which became predictable and mundane. The fact that this author writes so well, even with such a bland story to tell, makes Not Quite a Lady an even bigger disappointment.
    • 3/5
      An enjoyable and light novel. This book is, well, sweeter than some of Chase's other work. The heroine tries her best to be good and dutiful, despite a scandalous secret in her past. The hero is supposedly an unemotional rake, but turns out to be caring and honorable. While there was less of Chase's witty dialogue present in this story, I felt there was more character development, particularly for the heroine. Her struggles to hide her secret and not dishonor her family gave her greater depth. This was also more of a character driven story than plot driven story, and it has a slower pace than some of Chase's other novels. However I found it to work well and to be an enjoyable read.
    • 5/5
      I so enjoyed this book -- it's a top-notch romance. I have completely overlooked any inconsistencies and impossibilities (of which there are many) because the scenes between the two characters made me melt.
    • 3/5
      This one started out great, but I have to say I felt the ending was a bit rushed. It felt very anti-climactic. Not a bad book, but I'm a bit disappointed overall.
    • 5/5
      Really, Loretta Chase is a grand master of the regency romance. It was just effortless. I read it in an afternoon and immediately thought, I have to read this again, and savour it this time, not gulp and devour it. A definite keeper, a beautiful, believable, wonderful romance. You want to befriend these people and stay with them for a long time.
    • 5/5
      Loretta Chase is one of my favorite romance authors and books like this are why. Loved the main characters.