A Lady's Guide to Improper Behavior

By Suzanne Enoch

“Suzanne Enoch’s sparkling talent makes each book witty, romantic, and always an eagerly anticipated pleasure.”
—Christina Dodd

 

Adventure and heart-stopping romance go hand in hand in A Lady’s Guide to Improper Behavior, the second book in New York Times and USA Today bestseller Suzanne Enoch’s breathtaking Regency-set Adventurers Club series. This fun, emotional, sexy, and exciting story of a lady’s attempt to civilize a rogue by most improper means is a perfect example of the romantic storytelling mastery that has inspired superstar Julia Quinn to call Enoch, “One of my favorite authors.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Apr 27, 2010
• ISBN: 9780061991240

Suzanne Enoch

A native and current resident of Southern California, Suzanne Enoch loves movies almost as much as she loves books, with a particular soft spot for anything Star Wars. She has written more than 50 books, including Regency romances, historical romances, and contemporary romantic suspense. She shares a home with various humans, tropical fish, a dog (Tiki), a tortoise (Lucky Jo), five lizards, six finches, and a parakeet named Fozzie.

Reviews for A Lady's Guide to Improper Behavior

[myab-3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Tolly was a good lead and I loved Tess. She was a strong woman and made him a great match. I enjoyed watching her stray from the rules of proper behaviour and how she would justify it, as well as how Tolly couldn't get Tess off his mind. Still would love a book about the Duke of Sommerset.

[Christiane · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It had two plots going on at the same time.

[vicaporter · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

brilliant, as always :) Don't know why should I say anything more than that to get posted.... ;)

[dibs139 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A thoroughly charming romanceWhy? Well written, interesting heroine and hero – she’s besotted with propriety (she’s anonymously written a book on the subject), he’s a war survivor whose war experiences are not believed by his country – he has a very bad knee wound that hasn’t healed after months. He’s in pain, he lost his men in India to a Thugee attack, he’s a surly mess. It reminds me of Georgette Heyer’s The Grand Sophie, but with a twist. Theresa (called Tess and Troll -but only by her brother) is Sophie-competent, but hides her brains behind her excellent manners. She doesn’t use her powers to help others to better lives the way Sophie does. Tess uses her powers to avoid commitment and keep her life smooth, even, unexciting. Over the course of the book and through the power of love for an irascible hero, she comes to see these societal virtues are no sort of life for a woman as competent and powerful as she.Colonel Bartholomew James, called Tolly, should have died in the ambush that killed fifteen men. He really should have. Instead life has cruelly left him with a badly healed knee, a painful limp, and survivor’s guilt that appears insurmountable. But he does surmount his pain and his guilt – through the love a beautiful, caring woman who is a pattern card for respectability.There are no two characters more opposite (one of the tropes I love), their stumbling blocks are believable, as is the gradual transformation from irritation sparks to love. On the downside, the end felt rushed. At the end of the book, Lord Montrose, one of Tess’s suitors is present at the grand confrontation – why? I think the ending was meant to be longer, slower, with Montrose’s situation resolved. Even the villain’s fate is revealed to us in a very short, unsatisfying epilogue. Frankly, for a man this bad, I wanted to see him punched out by one of the five men on Tess and Tolly’s side. Or hauled off in chains. Something commensurate with his villainy.

[bookaholiccat · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Torture hero Sweet and smart heroine Fun and cute story = Winner! A perfect read for a gloomy day.

[cranberrytarts · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another solid entry in the series. I really liked how damaged the hero was. It added a layer of depth to the story and gave both characters added purpose.

[jedisakora_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

FIVE STARS all the way. Suzanne Enoch is the queen of writing tortured/wounded heroes as far as i'm concerned. *Bows down*. The book is so utterly good that i'm finding it troublesome to write this review because everything about it was just so perfect. I have nothing to complain about. The pacing of the romance was good. Tolly was *la sigh* and Theresa has to be one of my most favorite heroines of all time. I think the thing i really love about this story is that their romance rings true even thought it took part in over a short period of time. After nearly being killed and left for dead by some Indian "Thuggie" Tolly comes back to England a wounded man in both body and mind. He wants nothing, but to be left alone. At the beginning he was determined to get that no matter how rude and how much he made people hated him. Theresa was the stickler for propriety at the beginning. That all ended with Tolly rubbed her the wrong way at dinner with her cousin (whom is married to Tolly's older brother) and she left it lose at him. This starts a battle of the wills between the two and an eventual friendship. This friendship later turns to love. The best part for me in the book was when Tolly got the operation on his knee, knowing he could possibly lose his leg, because he wanted to be able to dance with Theresa. I fell in love with him hard there. Then Theresa barging in on the surgery and helping the doctor... WOW. I could never do that. I would be with Tolly's brother, sister, and Amelia (Theresa's cousin) outside. Another thing that i really loved about the book was the ending. You know Tolly and Amelia get's their "happily ever after" without it being all perfect. Tolly's reputation is still up in the air. The only thing is that people accept him enough to not shun him anymore. To me this was perfection since it wasn't a perfect ending. It was as close to real life as you can get. And i thank Suzanne for this.Next up it's been confirmed that Bradshaw Carroway get's a book!! *squee*Rating: 5 STARS. Perfect plot, characters, romance, and just everything *^o^/*

[reesa00 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed the hero and heroine but something bothered me about halfway through the book – it felt a little like déjà vu. Then I realized, this was a very similar plot to Enoch’s England’s Perfect Hero. A tortured hero who is the only survivor of a massacre; he has just come back from war and his supportive family is trying to help him heal; a heroine who is the belle of the ball; heroine is encouraged towards a proper suitor but likes the hero; hero’s military feats are questioned by authority and he potentially faces charges; heroine has to determine whether to stand with hero against society. Now I did like A Lady’s Guide better and there were some differences (here the hero has physical as well as mental wounds). A few issues with the book about the number of secondary characters (we don’t need to set up the whole series here) and a forced “incident” at the end to create some conflict between h/h. But I loved the hero and thought his struggles were portrayed well. The chemistry between the hero and heroine and how they dealt with their growing attraction was really well written. Overall a great book.