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Review: 123. No Proper Lady by Isabel Cooper...

September 10, 2011
Isabel Cooper is a new-to-me author, and I was intrigued by the combination of time-traveling assassin and regency romance...

no proper ladyTitle: No Proper Lady
Author: Isabel Cooper
ISBN-13: 9781402259524
ARC: 331 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc., 2011
Purchase at IndieBound, Amazon, The Book Depository
Source: Sourcebooks

drey's thoughts:
Every time I look at this cover, I wonder why the girl has a tattoo--it's so not in keeping with historical romances... Then I realize "duh!" she's not from the times, she's just in the times. Or there wouldn't be a story!

Joan comes from "our" world, but a version of our world that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemies... Or yours. Demonic hordes are systematically wiping out humanity, and the last survivors are flagging and running out of options. Their last-ditch effort? Sending Joan back in time. Her mission: eliminate the magician who set loose the hordes, before he gets strong enough to do so.

And so this warrior from a bleak world drops onto a pretty pastoral England, and winds up saving the life of Simon Grenville. Coincidence or dumb luck? Who knows. And Joan doesn't care, as Simon is a fortuitous ally--he's got a score to settle with Alex Reynell as well.

The two bring to mind scenes from Pygmalion as Simon and his sister attempt to tutor Joan in the manners and behavior expected of a proper Victorian lady--which she'll need if she's to catch Reynell's eye while out in society. Never mind that she's not a lady, never mind that she cusses like a sailor, and never mind that she's there to kill. What she is is focused on her objective, and she deals with the bewildering array of differences between their worlds with humor and sometimes awestruck joy.

The plot is plausible, the characters endearing, and there's a happy ending (it is a romance novel after all). A nice twist on historical romance with a touch of magic.

drey's rating: Pick it up!

Have you read No Proper Lady? What did you think?

3 comments:

holdenj said...

The tattoo caught my eye as well. The time traveling explains all!

justpeachy36 said...

Love the cover on this one... very eye-catching and makes one wonder what's up with a tattooed lady in a historical fiction novel??? Adding to my Wishlist...

drey said...

Hmm, I think I need to throw together a post on urban fantasy heroines--tattooed vs non. Though I think it would turn out to be more of a compendium than a comparison... And then go trawling for historical romance covers with tattooed heroines... :D

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