Lady in Red [Mass Market Paperback]

This is the only one in the series I would give 4 stars to, as

oppossed to 4 1/2 stars for her other 4 books.

It was very good, don't get me wrong, but I was disappointed in

a few things. The biggest diasppointment I suffered was the

place in which Marcus decides to deflower Honoria. His behavior reminded me of how a teenage boy might act in this same situation.

He couldn't even wait till they reached their 'honeymoon' destination (such as it was). That was another complaint I had --

they had only ONE night on the outskirts of town for their

'honeymoon'.

Another thing I didn't like, was the way Honoria teased Marcus

with dangling the ring under other prospective buyer's noses.

During the scenes where she does this, she makes the reader feel as though she could not care less about his family's most precious heirloom. Very disappointing, with her being his

love interest & all. I wondered if she could be trusted. As it

turned out, she could, but I did have occassional, momentary

doubts at different times throught the story.

Now, the pluses to this book -- there were a lot of them -- my

favorite character, from the second book (Confessions of a Scoundrel), the butler turned coachman, Herberts - puts in an

appearance here. He is everybit as funny here as he was in

Scoundrel.

Other characters I liked were Cassandra, the eldest Baker-Sneed

relative after herself, and George, the youngest Baker-Sneed son.

I have not yet reviewed "Taming Rafe" by Suzanne Enoch, but I

can tell you, Karen Hawkins & Suzanne Enoch should get together & write a book for George Baker-Sneed and May Harrington. It would

take place several years after this book & Taming Rafe, and I

would purchase it without a second thought! George was great!

And, the French chef in this book added something special to

the end.

I will now attempt to try to rank these 5 books in my favorite order: 1. Confessions of a Scoundrel 2. An Affair to Remember 3. The Bride Wore Plaid 4. How to Treat a Lady 5. Lady in Red. 1st & 2nd place are tough, because I loved these 2 books

the most. Overall, I think An Affair to Remember has the best

story, but Confessions of a Scoundrel (and later, Lady in Red)

had the best character - Herberts.

One last thing -- this is one series that I believe should most

definitely be read in order of publication, because of the way

each story ends, it ties directly into its successor.

Eventually, I'll read another Karen Hawkins book, but for now,

I'm taking a breather. (Marcus, the biggest hold out brother

of the bunch, wore me out. Evidently, Honoria eventually wore

him out, too, because he finally came around in the last few

pages of the book).

I won't go into the plot because that's already been covered by other reviewers. I really enjoyed this book for a lot of reasons. It reminded me of Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series (and not many books can compare to that) in the sense that there was interaction between various family members throughout the course of the book. There were some scenes with Honoria's family that made me laugh out loud, such as her family's use of "sea language" that they picked up from their brother Ned. Also, George's frog and the problems it causes when it goes missing is the focal point of a very a cute scene in Marcus' home. Marcus and Honoria have a lot of chemistry and the romance between them is very *ahem* heated.

The writing is excellent and kept me engrossed in the story. The reasons I have to give it 4 stars instead of 5 are minor. I hated Honoria's name. Her sister's names were Cassandra, Olivia, and Portia. ANY of those names would have been better than Honoria.

** SPOILER ALERT**

Secondly, I felt that it was odd that Marcus and Honoria didn't acknowledge their passion for each other in any way. They would meet, he would want her badly, and then he'd go his merry way. She comes up with all these things that she wants in return for the ring (including him courting her sister) and never comes up with a plan that has something to do with their attraction? And neither does he? The "battles" were amusing, but somewhat unrealistic, I thought. Considering how much they make out in public places (his carriage, her house, the museum) it seems very rushed when a small kiss and horse accident in the park is what makes them get married. And that, too, near the end of the book. I would rather have had their "forced" marriage to take place earlier and not have to deal with her trying to force him to court her sister. (This seemed rather creepy since he was 39 and her sister was 18 and Honoria was so obviously attracted to him.)

But, overall, I felt that even if the plot didn't always take the direction I wanted, it was a well-written, sensual romance and a fan of Julia Quinn, Sabrina Jeffries, etc. would be happy to give up a few hours of sleep to read this book.

Karen Hawkins have done it with this book! I read nothing but regency romance and I hate it when there's not one book on the shelf worth reading. I still buy because I love to read but after a few chapters of NOTHING, I end up picking another book hoping it would be IT. Well, this one's special enough to encourage me to write a review. The hero and heroine seem too real they'll make you get in touch with your romantic side. They made me feel like I was in the same place they were in as they bantered with each other. They came alive as I read the book, which is really what I look for. This book doesn't drag and it's full of emotions and witty repartee even from the family and the coachman. I could not put this one down and I read it overnight! Marcus and Honoria's story will be placed among my collection of keepers and I look forward to the time when I think I've forgotten their story and read it all over again. Hurry up Ms. Hawkins and write another one just as excellent as this.