REVIEW: Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover by Sarah Maclean
SPOILER WARNING: If you haven’t read the other books in the Rules of Scoundrels series, you might not want to read this, especially if you don’t want to be spoiled about Chase’s identity.
Dear Ms. MacLean,
First, let’s rebel and judge the lady on this highly suitable cover. That gaze, that pose, those tan trousers and belt buckle, and that rich white blouse casually left open to display a scantily-bared chest are just what you’d expect of…a hero. I love it. Avon artists, I tip my hat to you.
Now, if you will, let’s recreate Tuesday, November 25, 2014 (five shameful weeks before This Reviewer completed her review):
Hold everything! It is release day. Chase’s book is out and I must immediately go to Amazon and purchase it. You see what you’ve done to me, Ms. MacLean? I am a Pavlovian dog. All of 30 seconds after remembering, I dutifully surrender my $5.70 USD. I magically route the newly purchased book to my desktop, to my laptop, to my Kindle, to my iPad, to my iPhone. It is an Amazonian ritual I love to perform. Let it be everywhere. Let the world abound in Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover and let it be good.
I’m highly grateful that I was on dinner break from work at the moment of remembrance. If I’d remembered your latest was out during a client meeting, I might have been in torture for hours before I could download it. I have no patience, but thankfully, my lack of patience is paired with a terrible, Generation X memory when it comes to book release dates (and tv show release dates and movie release dates). When technology is here to remind me, why waste brain power on such things? So I’m only tortured when I actually remember what the hell I’m supposed to be tortured about. This sterling memory kicked in as soon as I read your email informing me it’s time to give you money again. Yes, it is.
To be honest, I was a bit worried. I did not enjoy your last book. Mara, the (anti-)heroine from No Good Duke Goes Unpunished, is one of my least favorite heroines in the history of historical romance. Sorry, but that duke most assuredly did not go unpunished with her at his side. He got stuck with her the entire book, and worse, for the rest of his imaginary life. If Mara were letters I’d picked up in Scrabble to play my turn, she’d be I-I-I-U-V-I-I. It would be impossible to create a high-point word out of her or any decent two-word plays. (Shut up, shut up, I am super cool.) If Mara were an original vampire from The Vampire Diaries (or The Originals), I would dagger her immediately and store her in a coffin for centuries. If Mara were an internet connection, she’d be dial-up. If you haven’t caught on yet: I didn’t like her. I also didn’t like the first in the series much, though the second was very decent.
So let’s assume I have some issues with this series. Still, we are aided by the fact that the heroine of this newest release is a character I already love. We met her many books ago, in a different series. And that series, I adored (though I had problems with the heroine from Ten Ways as well). (Keepin’ it real.) Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake is one of the best historical romances I have ever read, easily earning a spot in my top 5. Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke’s Heart is certainly in my top 20. I have a lot of investment in this heroine. You teased us and teased us and, in the last book (No Good Duke), we were finally rewarded after months and years of speculation. Even then, we had to wait until the new book summary was out to confirm the identity.
Georgiana’s book is here at last, and now I’m leaning forward and wondering, and hoping, and hungry, because I remembered your book as soon as I went on dinner break and all I’ve done is read and there’s been no dinner involved on this break. On the one hand, food would be nice. On the other, who needs food? Georgiana’s book is out. My priorities are clear: Read the book. Now. (Plus getting dinner means standing up and reading means staying seated, so there’s a clear victor here.)
Recreation of Release Day over.
I was disappointed that some of my favorite characters in your world did not appear: Simon, Duke of Leighton, and his wife, Juliana. As Georgiana’s brother, it would have been natural to have at least one scene with him and Juliana. They were mentioned a few times, but never appeared on-page. It’s a shame. Still, you have to go where the plot dictates, and it’s best not to indulge my obsessive love of Simon and Juliana if your plot suffers for it. I will suffer instead. Not in silence. Never in silence.
After two chapters, my eyes had glazed over in that wonderful, must-turn-the-page, this-must-not-end way. Georgiana and her daughter, Caroline, were featured in a scandalous cartoon in a gossip sheet. She realized if she didn’t marry well, she could never redeem her reputation enough to give Caroline the life she wanted for her, respectful and happy, opening all doors for her. For Caroline’s happiness and reputation, she opens herself to the miserable world of the ton and becomes one more title-hunter. A title buys respect where money cannot.
I’m not quite certain how marrying a title gives any more impact to her daughter than having the Duke of Leighton for an uncle, but it’s necessary to the plot that she take action, and I can sorta-halfway see the reasoning. In any case, it catapults her straight into the vipers’ nest and that is highly entertaining, so I will forgive the sketchiness of just how necessary her marrying a title may be to Caroline’s happiness or reputation.
She enters society a decade after her scandal, when she revealed herself to the world as a teenage unwed mother (see: Eleven Scandals, her brother’s story). At age 26, she is nowhere near innocent or naive. She returns to Society well-equipped to handle it. (Actually, it wasn’t a return, since she became pregnant before she ever made her debut.) She more than holds her own in a beautiful confrontation of Mean Girls v. Georgiana. They didn’t stand a chance; they are so unprepared for her competency and intelligence and cruelty. Absolutely her cruelty. Chase, co-owner of The Fallen Angel, can be vicious, and it shows in how she handles the situation.
I love, love, love a heroine unafraid of bullies. Georgiana is magnificent the whole way though this book. With about six years of experience running The Fallen Angel with the series’ other heroes, she stands up for herself effortlessly, making the mean, gossiping queen bee sorry she ever spoke a word. When she’s finished, Duncan West applauds her.
Duncan is a newspaper magnate who owns five of the most successful newspapers in England, including the one that published the horrid cartoon of Georgiana and her daughter. More than that, though, he is well-acquainted with Chase, aka Georgiana hidden from the masses. He has never met Chase in person but has corresponded with the mysterious owner of The Fallen Angel for years. Add to that the fact that Georgiana dresses up as Anna, the head madam of the prostitutes at The Fallen Angel, and as Anna, she’s flirted with Duncan more than a few times.
You can tell from the start that Georgiana fancies him, and has for a while. Though they are both clearly good people, this is balanced by an abundance of ruthlessness. Georgiana and Duncan are both fierce. They’re dangerous. Chase and Duncan can both ruin a man at the drop of a hat in different ways, and at times, together. They are feared. They are respected. With Georgiana finally face-to-face with Duncan, as herself rather than as a painted-up madam, they meet in a remarkable interplay of chemistry and candidness.
At some point, I had the presence of mind to make myself a sandwich.
Duncan believes Anna (London’s finest whore, as he calls her in his head) is claimed by the never-seen Chase. It’s what everyone believes. She partners with no one else as she manages the other women at The Fallen Angel. She has a unique, direct connection to Chase and is usually his messenger. When Duncan discovers Georgiana is Anna (who always gussies herself up, wears a wig, etc.), his jealousy of Chase grows. And of course, Georgiana is Anna is Chase, so he is jealous of her for want of her.
His brown eyes searched hers, and when he spoke, it was a low, dark whisper, demanding honesty. “Do you belong to him?”
She should say yes. It would be safer. It would keep West at arm’s length if he thought for a moment that Chase might fight him for her. He needed Chase and all the information garnered and protected by The Fallen Angel.
She should say yes. But in this moment, with this man, she wanted to tell the truth. Just once. Just to know what it was like to do so. And so she did. “No,” she whispered. “I belong to myself.”
A heroine who knows her own worth is equal to a trillion of any other kind.
The hero is also excellent. He’s built himself up as a new man after a bad history and he’s absolutely keen to keep that history hidden. He tries not to make long-term attachments because he knows that some day, his past could be paraded in front of everyone, and he would probably be hanged by a court of law, and he refuses to bring that shame upon any woman he might marry. So he keeps his distance. But with Georgiana, the last thing he wants is distance. It’s like he becomes addicted to her. I don’t blame him. Any romance hero would fall hard, no matter his convictions. Hell, I’d marry her myself if she weren’t fictional. She is a force of nature.
I love Duncan because of how much respect he has for Georgiana at every point in their acquaintance. Unfortunately, he is always telling her that Chase doesn’t appreciate her, that he misuses her, and of course she returns that Chase does nothing of the kind, that she needs him, that Chase and she are two sides of the same coin. Duncan gets angrier and more frustrated and more desperate to know why she is so faithful to a man who keeps her dressed as a whore at a gambling club.
Poor guy has no idea he’s insulting her when he says Chase misuses her, because it’s like accusing her of misusing herself. The last thing she wants is to be held to someone else’s standards of who she must be. She rules her own life. She rules everyone’s lives. She stands above them and watches and decides who will be ruined and who will be spared. She is Chase. She is the titular fallen angel, suffering betrayal and ruin, and emerging the stronger for it. She is the damsel in distress, deliberately made into a knight in shining armor so she can save herself. She can do anything she wants.
But when she starts to want Duncan, she is not ready for the consequences.
Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover was an impressive read from beginning to end. A-.
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Suzanne, I ate the book up! I loved it, even though there were times I wanted to smack Duncan. Chase was such a strong character and I loved every minute of her. I loved the power she exuded and the way she took bullies apart. I think it was also nice to see that even with all of her power, she was not unthinkingly cruel. When the time came, she was able to back off on the girl who wronged her. I truly enjoyed this book and, like you, was counting down the days until it was released. I need to read it again!
Thanks for the review. I have this book downloaded to my e-reader, but I haven’t read it yet. I liked Georgiana from the Rules series and was hoping she’d get her HEA. However, in the last book, Mara really cast a pall over this series. I really disliked Mara, so I haven’t been in a hurry to read this one. I wasn’t sure if the bad traits in Mara would show up in Georgiana.
I agree with you that Mara was truly an unlikeable character and not really a heroine. I saw that the author posted that women are always harder on other women in reaction to some of the negative commentary. I just saw the character as incredibly selfish and self-serving and not well-conceived. Glad to hear that this book is much better.
I’m so glad to hear that in Never Judge A Lady By Her Cover, the series bounces back.
@Jennifer U: I wanted to smack him too, for loathing Chase so much especially. But I forgave him because I understood why he felt that way.
@Kim: I call bullshit on the whole thing about women being harder on other women. Mara was not a likable character. She treated the hero like crap for years (and when I say ‘like crap’ I mean that she didn’t CARE he got blamed for her misadventures and was shunned his entire adult life). Then, when they met again, she treated him like garbage, as though he had rightfully earned the reputation that she gave him herself.
She was one of the most selfish heroines I ever read; I don’t care how many orphans loved her. It’s easy to construct two-dimensional orphans to love a heroine, and I rolled my eyes heavily at the stupid orphanage crap (sorry, orphans, but you’re fictional and I don’t care about you because you’re a plot device meant to give the heroine depth, and you fail at it). Seriously, she’s a selfish woman but we should like her anyway, because orphans? Am I stupid?
She acted like the hero owed her something and kept basic information from her (whether they slept together in actuality, whether she got pregnant), just lording it over his head and saying, “What will you do for ME if I pretend to act like any decent human would act by default?” She tried to extort a fortune out of him before she’d tell him the truth. Whenever he tried to call her on her bad behavior, she got angry at him and acted like he was the mean, unreasonable person in this relationship.
She was reprehensible and I liked 0% of her.
Ahem. Not good at keeping my opinion to myself. Anyway, I am beyond relieved that Georgiana is nothing like her.
After a really promising prologue, I expected so much more from this ruthless, cunning, self-made business woman. After she is ruined and shunned as a girl, the heroine becomes the puppet master of the aristocracy in one of the most lucrative gaming hells in London. She is a tough, confident, driven highly intelligent woman. Unfortunately, to me, she just seems insecure, and lonely. Why she would want to kowtow the same people who turned their backs on her all those years ago is a mystery to me.
I’ve read the first two books in The Rules of Scoundrels series and have been waiting for this fourth one. I’ll be sure to buy this one as soon as it goes on sale at B&N.
“She keeps immaculate yearly spreadsheets of every book she’s read, the number of re-reads per book, and her personal rating. Doesn’t everyone? ”
Thank God someone else does this. I thought it was only me. I get such weird looks from people when I tell them I do this…..
@Julie: I totally hear you. I guess she was just desperate to have her daughter accepted in ways she wasn’t, and was willing to sacrifice a lot for that. We’re not always the most rational or principled when it comes to fighting for those we love. I do agree that it’s a weak part of the plot, and is one of a couple reasons this review was A- rather than A. But in all, I loved it and I still think she maintained her brilliance throughout. But I’m sure others will react to her differently.
@Georgina Fletcher: I always just assume everyone should do this and if they’re not, they’re not doing it right. :)
I started this series because I’d heard about Georgianna/Chase and it sounded like the coolest thing ever. I read halfway through the first one but couldn’t handle how the hero treated the heroine. I knew that I could never buy him being reformed after how he treated her. Having said that, I’d still really like to read Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover. Do you think I’d be okay reading it without reading the other ones first?
@Jenna: Yeah, I think you’d probably be fine. It’s all pretty insulated; she does a decent job of keeping everything pretty centered on these two characters. There are the other characters from the other books in the series who hop in every so often, but I think, if you keep that in mind, you’ll be fine reading it on its own.
I loved the strength of Georgiana, but Duncan’s insufferable jealousy ruined some of my enjoyment. I dislike jealousy as the romantic tool many (many, many) romances use to display how much a Hero wants/ loves the Heroine. It is a trait that signifies emotional juvanility and selfishness for me and a belief that you somehow possess the other person’s choices, sexual or otherwise. I don’t mind a few pangs, but the Hero’s overbearing jealousy became a bit… well… overbearing. Ultimately I didn’t believe a character like Georgiana would accept his jealousy driven demands as passively as she did, I was waiting for a verbal dressing down that never came. I agree with you about Mara, however I do think people would have been a lot more forgiving had she been the Hero and not the Heroine. Hero’s tend to get away with treating all manner of women terribly, including the heroine.
@Monique Suna: I definitely agree with the assessment of Duncan’s jealousy, and it was one of the handful of things keeping me from giving the book a full A or A+. I could understand it, to a certain extent, but I was very glad when he just found out the truth and felt like a prat. It irritates me when one character doesn’t take the other character at their word when it’s sincerely given.
Regarding Mara, I would hate any character who acted that way, male or female. I don’t forgive duplicity easily and I require them to take responsibility when they do. She never did, and took it as her granted that she be loved and forgiven by virtue of being physically desirable, so I hate her.
I can’t speak for others but I don’t know of even one favorite character of mine who acted so shamelessly, unless it’s Lisa Kleypas’s Derek Craven or Sebastian (St. Vincent). Strange how they’re both wildly popular Kleypas heroes. And both of them were highly humbled in their stories and understood how much they’d erred, which is a road toward redemption. For Mara, there was no road paved. She just expected to sweep everything under the rug and carry on forgiven, and that is unacceptable.
Fun discussion. :)