This book had a lot of things going for it. I liked the heroine, her son was realistic, the kick-off for the plot regarding her nieces being left alone after their father was sentenced to prison.

And then there was the supposed hero of the piece. I suppose my main beef with Mallery’s Ethan Hendrix was that there never enough from his point of view, and without his point of view I just didn’t feel connected to his character. The physical attraction between Ethan and Liz was very evident, but I suppose I couldn’t figure out why she’d be bothered with him. She spent the book in a town surrounded by people who accosted her and were downright vicious and Ethan didn’t get around to defending her until the end of the book.

Like the first book in the series, Chasing Perfect, the book was carried by the charm of the heroine, but even that book was propped up by the second half. Almost Perfect never really got going, in my opinion, and Ethan and Liz seemed to get together at end simply because Mallery decided it was time.

I couldn’t find myself rating it any higher than a C, and if I hadn’t been able to finish it it might have been lower. This book exemplified one of the characteristics that I like least about romance novels — it depended on a physical attraction to depict love and then told me the characters loved one another without any evidence in the first 200 or so pages to explain it.

Married young to a charming but improvident army officer, Eve Hawthorne was widowed with little left except for a few extravagant trifles. Desperate to avoid her domineering stepmother, she accepts employment as chaperone to the Earl of Stewkesbury’s American cousins. Who better than a levelheaded widow to remind these young girls that they no longer live on a frontier? But when she flirts with a handsome stranger who turns out to be the earl’s brother Fitz, Eve worries she’s given the wrong impression. Trying to prove herself responsible—with Fitz challenging her at every turn—is hard enough, but a blackmailer with an interest in Eve’s prior marriage proves far more troubling. With the earl away, Eve can turn only to Fitz for help. But dare she confide in him, when getting too close to this confirmed bachelor might risk her heart to his alluring ways?

In the third and final novel, SCOUNDREL OF MY DREAMS, troubled Lord John Redgrave arrives home at last to find his friends have a surprise for him–he just might be a father! Like Aidan, Jack visits the only woman he ever loved, who vehemently denies any such thing, leaving him no further ideas–until he discovers that one dark and tempestuous night in the past, someone else may have taken her place in his bed! Once he finds quiet spinster Laurel Clarke, he must hold her captive until she tells him the truth. Was she the woman whose soft whispers and wanton touch still haunt his dreams to this day? Is she the mother of his child?

Elinor thought it would very simple to marry a duke, until she found them in short supply

But what she discovers is that dukes are in very short supply so she hires solicitor James St. Maur to track down the most likely candidate. But the man she’s hired isn’t quite what he appears to be, and all too soon Elinor finds herself mad about the most unlikeliest of heroes.

Torn between the white and Comanche worlds of her parents, Indigo Wolf has grown up estranged from the townspeople of Wolf’s Landing, Oregon. No one understands her elusive spirit—until Jake Rand comes to town to act as foreman of her family’s ranch. But Jake’s real motives are as secret as his true identity, and as personal as his growing attraction to Indigo.

To her surprise, Lady Mallory Byron finds herself walking down the aisle with the last man she ever expected to ask for her hand.

Charming rakehell Adam, Earl of Gresham, has secretly loved Mallory for years. He lost her once to another man, but now he has a second chance to win her love––and plans to do so by any means necessary. Will Mallory’s heart give him what he so dearly desires? Or is the past too much to overcome?

The Dragon’s Captive

Villainy called Ruark back to the borderlands, but now that he’s claimed his “prize” his path is less certain. If he does not turn her over to his enemy, a boy may die. Yet gentle, lovely Rose soothes his vengeful spirit, and the longer she remains with him, the hotter his passion for her burns.

Back in high school, Liz Sutton was the girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Then she’d stolen the heart of the most popular boy in town, and their secret romance helped her through the worst of times. Until Ethan Hendrix betrayed her and everything they’d ever meant to each other. Devastated and pregnant, Liz left Fool’s Gold, California – forever, she thought…

Now Liz must return to town and face the man who doesn’t know of their son’s existence. And this time she won’t have the option of making a quick getaway. Ethan and Liz can’t deny their passionate attraction, even after all these years. But will their desire be enough to spark a second chance at love?