Victoria Alexander "The Princess and the Pea"

Okay, so how do you deconstruct a decent author when they write a not so decent book. The Princess and the Pea is about a Chicago heiress who goes to England to pretend to be looking for a titled husband; get a particular Earl on her hook and then humiliate him by dumping him. (His family turned down a friend of hers.) The two meet each other without being properly introduced so he thinks she is the daughter of a butcher and she thinks he is a penniless inventor of automobiles. They fall in love and he breaks it off because he can't offer her any real commitment since he has to marry to save the family estates and such.

Where did it go wrong for me? He writes her a note and instead of actually reading it, or insisting on finding him to make him explain (she is supposed to be headstrong and impetuous) she is heartbroken and angry at him. She's an intelligent woman, who takes her sense of honor seriously, and she acts like he rudely broke her heart with no rhyme or reason. It's downhill from there, he vacillates between not understanding why she wouldn't be relieved that she's rich and that solves all his responsibility problems to deciding that he will give up the title and go with her to America and screw all the tenants he was so worried about before, then he changes his mind, he really likes his estates after all.

Too long, not enough sex, although I didn't care since I didn't really like these characters and what a strange side story about the parents. Bummer.
Historical Romance 2009: 2 out of 5 missed assignations at the Tour Eiffel.