Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord is the third book in the Summer of Sarah MacLean event being hosted by Kelly Gallucci (bookish.kelly on Instagram) and Dana Cuadrado (To All the Nerdy Girls on Instagram) and if you would like more information about the event you can look at my review of our first book, The Season. This is where I stand with my Summer of Sarah MacLean Bingo Card:
This is the second book in Sarah MacLean’s Love by Numbers trilogy. Yet another fabulous rhyming title – I mean, who wouldn’t want to be adored?
This novel focuses on Nicholas St. John, the brother of the hero in Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake. I adore trilogies or multi-part books because you tend to already know some of the characters and I must admit Nicholas stole a piece of my heart in the first book, so I was eager to read his love story.
Our poor hero is being plagued by women in London due to a popular women’s magazine listing him as an eligible Lord and offering the kind ladies direction on how to land a lord. The advice is shared at the beginning of each chapter and really is quite delightful. But not so delightful for Nicholas, who chooses to flee London at his first opportunity – when the Duke of Leighton requests his help tracking down his missing sister. Nicholas and his good friend Rock set off to find the missing Lady at once.
Our heroine is Lady Isabel Townsend, and like the MacLean’s heroines who we have met previously, Alex and Callie, she is a strong independent woman. Isabel has not had an easy life and it greatly impacts her views on the world, particularly concerning men and marriage.
I adore how MacLean and so many romance writers have strong, smart, feminist heroines. Women we can aspire to be like and women who get what we all deserve. Isabel has turned her home into a safe haven for women and it is her drive in life to keep this home running. She does this while caring for her young brother. The woman has a lot on her shoulders and she handles it admirably – but that doesn’t mean she couldn’t use some help.
Isabel and Nicholas meet when he saves her life. Really, swoon, what is more romantic than that? It turns out Nicholas is a specialist when it comes to marbles and to save her home Isabel has decided she needs to sell hers. And this is where I embarrassingly tell you that I thought she was referring the round balls you can hold in your hands and play games with – I was wrong. Turns out Isabel owns HUGE marble statues! Isabel invites Nicholas to come and appraise her marbles.
This book is FULL of delightful moments, really anytime Isabel does something to make Nicholas mad, I am DELIGHTED! So I’ll just hint at one when Nicholas arrives not when he is invited he finds Isabel on the roof, needless to say, he is a little more than alarmed. I truly think the way Isabel handles Nicholas’ reactions to her doing things that a Lady would not do customarily – wear trousers – leaves me no doubt that she is the woman for him.
To his credit, Nick realizes he loves her pretty early on. Convincing Isabel to believe in love and marriage is a whole other mountain to climb. He has managed to find the one Lady in all of England who isn’t trying to land a lord – she just wants to take care of her house and the women in it.
While the book mainly focuses on the love story between Nicholas and Isabel we do get a side story with one of the ladies who lives in the house and Nicholas’ friend Rock. It is a joy to see their affection grow and I also like how MacLean with Rock’s concerns about being a Turkish man dating an English lady.
I have to say I really did ADORE this novel and am so happy that Nicholas and Isabel will live happily ever after!
You can purchase Sarah MacLean’s Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord at Kobo and Amazon.
