Niki (mustreadalltheromance)'s Reviews > His Lordship's Incorrigible Wife

2.5 stars rounded up.

When Delphie Ballard and her brother must hide evidence of her father’s treasonous dealings, she winds up serving as lookout on a terrace. Things go awry when she is pestered by a determined suitor who takes umbrage at her refusal of his marriage proposal. She is able to get away from him, but he ensures her reputation is shredded and she is relegated to the country in disgrace.

Charles, Lord Kingsdown was a staunch supporter of the French Revolution until it all went south, and he scarcely escaped with his life. Now England is his home and if he hopes to inherit his English grandmother’s estate, he must find himself a wife and soon.

When he meets Delphie, he falls in love at first sight. But then Charles learns of Delphie’s tattered reputation and feels like she’s pulled one over on him, and she cannot fully explain without endangering her father. In the meantime, several close calls make it apparent that someone is trying to kill Charles and he and Delphie must earn one another’s trust and find the increasingly bold culprit.

This story has a lot going for it, but also a few elements that didn’t really work for me. I’ve never read this author before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I did like her writing style and will read her again. I enjoyed the fast pace of this story and the elements of intrigue, but I did struggle at times with the characters themselves. Neither Delphie nor Charles were particularly likable for me and by the time they became so, the book was nearing its conclusion. Delphie was very immature and frustratingly annoying at times, after she had been reasonable and enjoyable at first, so this switch was jarring and off-putting for me. I had a similar reaction to Charles. He was delightfully sweet to Delphie at first and it seemed he might be setting us up for some stellar communication in a new, instalove relationship, but sadly that’s not what happened. He refused to listen to Delphie at all, preferring to jump to his own judgmental conclusions, and hold on to his trust issues without once considering how his own reputation would seem to Delphie. He was a hypocrite, just as she accused, but her behavior was often too erratic for me to keep up with as well and I just wound up being frustrated with both of them. The villain here was predictable, and I wanted more vindication for Charles than we saw on the page, but I did enjoy the mystery element here. I also wanted the improved communication between Charles and Delphie to come a bit earlier on in the story, rather than seeming to be tacked on at the end. I was still left feeling that their relationship wasn’t quite stable, and I wanted more time on the page in which they were a real team and communicating openly rather than the few scenes we got. Overall, this was a solid story, though not a new favorite, and I’ll try this author again.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.