Title: Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover Series: The Rules of Scoundrels #4
Author: Sarah MacLean
Published: November 25, 2014
Genre(s): Romance: Historical
Page Count: 376
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:By day, she is Lady Georgiana, sister to a Duke, ruined before her first season in the worst kind of scandal. But the truth is far more shocking—in London’s darkest corners, she is Chase, the mysterious, unknown founder of the city’s most legendary gaming hell. For years, her double identity has gone undiscovered... until now.
Brilliant, driven, handsome-as-sin Duncan West is intrigued by the beautiful, ruined woman who is somehow connected to a world of darkness and sin. He knows she is more than she seems and he vows to uncover all of Georgiana’s secrets, laying bare her past, threatening her present, and risking all she holds dear... including her heart.
In some ways, Never Judge a Lady By Her Cover is the best installment in Sarah MacLean’s Rules of Scoundrels series. In other ways, it’s massively frustrating and eyeroll-inducing. But all things considered, it was enjoyable and a quick read and comfy-making, which are all aspects I look for in romance novels. MacLean may never be a favorite author, but I’m glad I gave this book a try.
The series’ main premise, of course, concerns four ruined aristocrats who banded together and created a high-class casino that attracts (and then ruins in turn) the men of the Society who spurned them so unfairly. MacLean has introduced us to Bourne and Penelope, Cross and Philippa, and Temple and Mara. And now, Never Judge a Lady By Her Cover concerns itself with the fourth partner: Chase…who happens to be a woman who dresses up in trousers and owns one-fourth of the most notorious gaming hell in all of London, because ten years ago, she had sex and got pregnant and is now irredeemably ruined because how dare ladies act like lords.
The thought rankled. Fathers’ sins never seemed to stick. It was the mother who bore the heavy weight of ruin in these situations. The mother who passed it on to the child, as though there were not two involved in the act.
I can dig it.
I feel like this series in general has dealt with women who are “odd” in terms of society’s standards. Spinsters, scientists, blackmailers in this book, MacLean is very blatant about her female empowerment agenda. After Lady Georgiana Pearson became pregnant out of wedlock at 16, she became a social pariah, and has devoted the last ten years to remaking herself into a woman who’s impervious to Society’s blows. Dressing up as a man, she’s a cunning business owner who trades in secrets; dressing up as a courtesan, she’s desired by every man she comes into contact with with the power to select and dismiss her lovers at will. But as Lady Georgiana, the ruined sister of a duke, she’s nothing more than fodder for gossip. It’s a telling situation: as a man and as a whore, Georgiana has complete freedom over her actions; as herself, she is trapped by Society and its expectations. And though, of course, MacLean is focused more on the sexytimes than all this feminist stuff, it’s important to note that the author is talking about it, and highlighting double standards quite handily. And it’s also worth noting that, 200 years later, our culture hasn’t changed much.
Even as she was the most powerful man in Britain, one who ruled the night, here, in the day, she was still just a woman, with a woman’s rights. And a woman’s insignificant power.
But anyhoo, on to the romance.
So Georgiana/Chase seems to have a pretty great life…except she has a daughter, Caroline, and must provide for her future. This means ingratiating herself with the much-hated Society and landing a titled husband (a rich husband isn’t necessary, since Georgiana has scads of cash from her casino). Enter Duncan West, newspaper magnate, who is attracted to Georgiana (though as he isn’t titled, he simply won’t do as a husband), but also wants to help her provide for Caroline’s future. So he launches a series of articles that convince Society to accept Georgiana and Caroline back into the fold, all while the two of them fall in love. Except their secrets threaten to ruin their relationship! (HAH.)
Far and away, the biggest problem I have with Never Judge a Lady By Her Cover is the complete and utter failure to communicate these protagonists have. I was unebelievably frustrated for about half of the book because Georgiana just refused to tell Duncan that her alter-ego was Chase, casino owner. For no reason, might I add! Almost the entirety of the romantic tension in this book comes from Duncan thinking that Georgiana is Chase’s mistress, rather than Chase himself. If Georgiana had been honest and open from the beginning, so many problems could have been solved.
But, of course, that’s not how a Sarah MacLean novel works. She’s all about dragging out the drama and the secrets and the lies to create a magnificent (read: annoying) grand finale in the last 30 pages. Not that the lack of communication is an anomaly in the genre—it’s fairly common. But I have read historical romances where the two protagonists talk and share about their pasts from the beginning, and you know what? There’s still tension and drama and grand finales—but they are infinitely more believable than the long, drawn-out conflict in Never Judge a Lady By Her Cover.
So, with that rather large and glaring obstacle in the way, it’s only begrudgingly that I’ll admit to really enjoying this book. But it made me laugh! Georgiana’s interactions with her three (male) partners were hilarious, and I loved how they treated her as an equal. Georgiana’s daughter, Caroline, was hilariously precocious, and I loved that MacLean included a female protagonist who had a child and wasn’t a virgin before her love interest came along. There were many aspects of this book that were refreshing, but the plot relied so heavily on an easily fixable problem that it threw shade on all those nice things, much to my disappointment.
My liking of Never Judge a Lady By Her Cover is conflicted at best, I admit. There’s definitely a mix of bad and good in this novel, and I’m not sure which side came out on top. Because of MacLean’s commentary on double standards and also for her humor, I’m inclined to say this was a successful story overall. But because of the protagonists’ nonsensical secret-keeping and non-communication, I will not sing the book’s praises too highly. This is pretty good, but absolutely nothing more than that.
