Karlynp & The Doggone World

Overall it was a well written and enjoyable regency historical, pairing a runaway countess (Lucinda) posing as a military widow, with a penniless lord (Hugo) who recently returned to his rundown country estate after 10 years of war in France. The story itself is simple; she has fled London and the emotional and physical abuse of a horrible husband. Hugo is instantly attracted to her and is set on having a physical affair. In the day-to-day adventures of life in the small village, she keeps crossing paths with Hugo until their passions sweep them away. The story kept me engaged, but I found myself getting upset with the hero and heroine for different things. For the heroine, I understood her need to lie about her identity, and I can even look past the fact that she was ‘cheating’ on her husband as that behavior was more acceptable and typical for that era. (However, I realize most romance readers will not be so acceptable of a cheating heroine.) But her continued lack of honesty with Hugo, and then her seemingly lack of remorse for it, set my nerves a blaze. And one point she actually ponders something like ‘I don’t know what I have done to upset him so?” (or something along that lines.) I wanted to scream “Duh!!” I didn’t hate Lucinda, but I didn’t like her either. And as hero’s go, Hugo was only OK too. We didn’t really get to know him as a person, and the author did one thing that drives me nuts. She gave him the plot device where he blames himself for things that any moron knows was completely out of his control and not his fault. This book does have it strengths and the story is quite compelling in many places, but it missed the potential of being so much more.