Laura Lee Guhrke 'Secret Desires of a Gentleman'

I have two exams next week so now is clearly the perfect time to read and review a few romance novels. :) Racy Romance Reviews has covered the seeming trend of obnoxious male commentary during sex, so I'd like to turn to the recent rise in rather long titles for romance novels. Am I being terribly bias when I let Julia Quinn get away with it because, well, she's so, you know, cool; but then have problems when it spreads from Kresley Cole to Edith Layton on to Laura Lee Guhrke? Truthfully I don't normally notice the title of these books but now that I have to type them into the titles of my blogs, well, I'm mildly annoyed.

What about the book? Yeah, yeah, don't get your knickers in a twist. (Don't you love that expression?) This is the third installment in the girl bachelor books from Guhrke, and I had almost the exact same reaction to this one as I did to The Wicked Ways of a Duke. Maria is the daughter of their cook and Philip and Lawrence are the sons of the Marquess of Kayne. When Lawrence imagines himself in love with her, Philip, the new Marquess, buys her off. Years later she is about to open a patiserrie when she finds that her perfect location is in a building owned by Philip.

All three of these books feature hero's who are less than likable. But unfortunately Philip is the least likable in many ways. Even so, I almost completely fell for his conversion, helped by the flashbacks he has and the sentimental plot device I won't reveal. But, strangely enough, his character falls apart for me in the emotional climax. This is so out of character for him I just couldn't buy it. *cringes in the bright light of reality* Maria isn't stupid exactly but instead of falling into the strong category for me, she falls into the angry category. Again, this is subtle, this isn't a terrible book, just not up to the initial promise of the characters of And Then He Kissed Her. So, read the first book, then if you have a lot of time on your hands, you can decide if you want to read the others. I'll buy her next book, but I'm kind of relieved this series is over.

Historical Romance 2008: 3 out of 5 chocolate tarts.