SidneyKay's Reviews > What A Lady Wants

Wayback Machine time! Well, that was fun!

You know, I’m a big fan of quick-witted comebacks. The reason for that is probably due to the fact that it takes me days after the fact to come up with a zinger. I’m one of those, “I-should-have-said-that” people. I’m always impressed with written dialog which lends itself to repartee. One of my favorite movies from my top 100 list is the old classic His Girl Friday. The rapid-fire quips, and overlapping dialogue in that movie are due to four things: the director, Howard Hawks, the actors, Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, but most of all to the writing of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. Yes, an actor can bring the written word to life, but without some good writing, the actor just doesn’t have a chance. And, it really doesn’t matter how many awards an actor has won, they need something to play upon. Well, my little Petunias, on the pages of What a Lady Wants you will find a prelude to some rapid-fire dialog. The words in this book open up all kinds of visual panorama. Granted, the hero in this book was not as suave, or cleverly sly as Cary Grant. Nigel Cavendish is more muddled than suave. He is just never able to keep up with the heroine, Lady Felicity Melville, no matter how much he tries. And, he tries.

Since I have managed to fail in my Lorraine Heath author glom, I decided to jump into the Wayback Machine and reread some of Victoria Alexander’s old books. The Last Man Standing series was my pick. I couldn’t get into the first book in the series, A Little Bit Wicked (2006). But the second book, What a Lady Wants (2007), was highly entertaining. I loved almost all of it! If I had any qualms, it would be the hero turning into a bonehead toward the end of the book, but thankfully that didn’t last for very long. My other issue was: fate. Fate was a big part of this story, and was mentioned a a gazillion times!!! I could have done with a little less “fate” talk.

Anyway, Lady Felicity Melville is wishing on a star, when there is a noise in the neighbor’s house. A big noise, an irate husband noise. It seems that the neighbor’s wife is having a little “roll” with our hero, Nigel Cavendish. Nigel climbs out the second story, runs to Felicity’s house, climbs up her trellis and steps into Felicity’s room. A bunch of fun dialog happens, and Felicity decides Nigel is her destiny. And, nothing Nigel says through the rest of the book can deter her.

I loved Felicity. While she had a bit of a stalker-chick about her, it was all fun. She was one determined woman, and Nigel was the man she was determined to marry. Nigel on the other hand, was a loose-screw who never wanted to marry. In fact, he and his three friends had agreed to a “not-ever-going-to-marry” tontine. I also loved Nigel; never was a man so befuddled, and, so desperate to escape. I think befuddled heroes are one of my favorite things.

Overall, I enjoyed taking a ride on the Wayback Machine, and rereading What a Lady Wants. Nigel and Felicity’s encounters made for a number of delightful moments. As far as the others in this series, it was similar to the Star Trek even/odd phenomena. I was not able to completely reread A Little Bit Wicked (2006), and Secrets of a Proper Lady (2007). But I loved What a Lady Wants (2007), Seduction of a Proper Gentleman (2009), and the short story, Lady Amelia’s Secret Lover (2009). I suggest you take a look at this series…in your spare time. Now on to further adventures in the Wayback Machine, and I’m looking in particular for some of my old author’s who have last names starting with A. I hope this brilliant idea works.