Never a Lady (Avon Romance) [Mass Market Paperback]

I generally enjoy Marlene Suson's books, but I don't know what happened with this one. I couldn't make it to 100 pages before I put it down.The themes in this plot are so tired - the independent, take-over American girl who disdains English society and teaches everyone how "superior" Americans are...the evil stepmother. When the heroine decided to teach the Duke his responsibilities, I decided it was all too much for me. The characters are not especially likeable or realistically drawn and in the end, I simply couldn't believe in this romance. I'll wait until her next book and hope for better.

As part of a character building "task" imposed by her father, Virginia Blair travels from America to England with her stepmother Rowena to live among proper society. This doesn't sit well with Maximilian Chartwell who is in charge of protecting the young Esmond, Duke of Penrose. Rowena would like nothing more than to see Virgie married to Esmond, but Virgie stuns everyone by declaring she will marry for nothing less than love. Opportunity may knock, but the characters here don't quite know when to answer the door. The characters were so wrapped up in concern for themselves that they seemed to forget about each other in the process. This reviewer saw no sympathy for any of them, and wondered, quite frankly, about the relationships among the characters and the relations between America and Britain in the mid 19th century.

Miscommunication abounds in this novel about a wealthy American heiress and the English Lord who looks upon her with distrust. Bad communication is a plot device I am not fond of and here it used to keep characters apart and supposedly to raise the tension.

Heiress Virgie is a strong, independent minded American who is being forced by her father to leave her beloved California ranch and act like a lady for six months. Her conniving stepmother is her chaperone and also the one who has to report how Virgie behaved in London. Virgie's step mother has grand designs for Virgie to marry a Duke so she has ingratiated herself with the Duke of Esmond's mother and now they are visiting his home.

Lord Maximilan Chartwell is the cousin of the young duke and is determined to stop a marriage between Virgie and his cousin. He and Virgie immediately have sparks fly and there is deep distrust between them mainly because they both believe half-truths about the other. Max feels the only way to show Virgie's true character is to seduce her away from his cousin.

Virgie has a completely different view of marriage than Max. As most nobles, he sees marriage as the uniting of two families for business and societal purposes whereas Virgie will only marry for love. This leads to some heated discussions with Max having to rethink his position on his own upcoming betrothal.

There is also a secondary romance between the Duke and his aunt's companion which got little time from the author. I would have liked to have seen the natural progression of their story.

The characters here never display strong feelings. Virgie never came off as a the self described tomboy, yes she wore pants, and was direct in her speech but I never pictured her as anything but ladylike. She was very impulsive. Max just seemed boring. The Duke was unsure and his ladylove too shy. No one had a forceful dynamic personality which would have made this novel much more enjoyable.