Loretta Chase: Miss Wonderful ja Lord Perfect

Loretta Chase on kirjoittanut parikymmentä historiallista viihderomaania, joita ei voi erityisen omaperäisiksi kehua, vaikkakin teoksissa on ajoittaista huumoria ehkä enemmän kuin tyylilajiin yleensä kuuluu. Carsington-veljeksistä kertovassa kirjasarjassa sattuu ja tapahtuu ylenmäärin, ja historiallista ajankuvaakin on mukana kohtalaisessa määrin, ihan pelkän pintakiillon varassa näissä romaaneissa ei liikuta.

Miss Wonderful (Piatkus, 2006; ISBN 978-0-7499-3710-2)

Due to his history of expensive romantic entanglements, Alistair Carsington now has six months to find either a useful occupation or a wealthy heiress to wed. To prove he is not an idle fop only concerned with sartorial pleasures, Alistair agrees to help his old friend, Lord Gordmor, by traveling to the wilds of Derbyshire to convince Gordmor's neighbors to support the nobleman's proposal to build a canal.

Upon arriving, Alistair, a famous war hero and eligible bachelor, finds everyone couldn't be nicer, everyone except for respectable, practical, spinsterish Mirabel Oldridge. The last thing Mirabel wants is for her tranquil little corner of England to be destroyed by a noisy, nasty canal, and she is prepared to use every weapon at her disposal--including her disheveled coiffure and unstylish wardrobe--to stop Alistair.

Lord Perfect (Piatkus, 2007; ISBN 978-0-7499-3728-7I

The heir to the Earl of Hargate, Benedict Carsington, Viscount Rathbourne, is the perfect aristocrat. Tall, dark, and handsome, he is known for his impeccable manners and good breeding. Benedict knows all the rules and has no trouble following them—until she enters his life.

Bathsheba Wingate belongs to the rotten branch of the DeLucey family: a notorious lot of liars, frauds, and swindlers. Small wonder her husband’s high-born family disowned him. Now widowed, she’s determined to give her daughter a stable life and a proper upbringing. Nothing and no one will disrupt Bathsheba’s plans—until he enters her life…

Then Bathsheba’s hoyden daughter lures Benedict’s precocious nephew into a quest for a legendary treasure. To recover the would-be knights errant, Benedict and Bathsheba must embark on a rescue mission that puts them in dangerous, intimate proximity. It’s a situation virtually guaranteed to end in mayhem—even scandal!—if anyone else were involved. But Benedict is in perfect control of events. Perfect control, despite his mad desire to break all the rules. Perfect control. Really.