| Title | : | Never Less Than a Lady (Lost Lords, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1420103296 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781420103298 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 335 |
| Publication | : | First published May 1, 2010 |
As the sole remaining heir to the Earl of Daventry, Alexander Randall knows his duty: find a wife and sire a son of his own. The perfect bride for a man in his position would be a biddable young girl of good breeding. But the woman who haunts his imagination is Julia Bancroft—a village midwife with a dark secret that thrusts her into Randall's protection.
Within the space of a day, Julia has been abducted by her first husband's cronies, rescued, and proposed to by a man she scarcely knows. Stranger still is her urge to say yes. A union with Alexander Randall could benefit them both, but Julia doubts she can ever trust her heart again, or the fervent desire Randall ignites. Yet perhaps only a Lost Lord can show a woman like Julia everything a true marriage can be…
Never Less Than a Lady (Lost Lords, #2) Reviews
-
I guess I am just relieved. Sadly relieved. This is much better than the ridiculous first book in the series (
Loving A Lost Lord) but still not a romance I would ever recommend to readers new to MJP.
For longterm readers of MJP like myself, this historical regency will come across as a bit generic. Having just reread
The Wild Child(1999) earlier this week, I couldnt help noticing how much shorter and choppier her sentences have gotten which is very on-trend, as well as the hackneyed "Mine. Mine. Mine!" love scene that I am beginning to hate finding in every historical I read now. I can see that the pacing and plotting were uneven and some alternative POVs to their initial meetings in the first book would have enhanced the romance. I can see all that but it doesnt matter much since I find that I can still be entranced by MJP's writing voice and root for her very likable, decent, admirable characters.
Content warning: details of the heroine's first marriage are horrifying, some violence.
Grade: B- -
I enjoyed reading this story.
Lady Julia is in hiding from her late husband’s family. After suffering an abusive marriage. Major Randall to the rescue when she is kidnapped. -
3.5 stars
Another audiobook I borrowed from the library, principally because Simon Prebble is one of my favourite narrators.
Julia, a widow, is a country midwife, who had captured the interest of Alex Randall in the previous book - although he was reluctant to show any interest and gave her to believe he disliked her. But Julia has a dark past and is hiding from her late husband's father, who believea that she murdered her late husband (who was Alex's cousin). In fact, he was an abusive bastard and she killed him in self-defence, but she knew she'd never have been believed and ran.
At the beginning of the story, she is discovered by two thugs (hired by her ex-father-in-law) and kidnapped; Alex rescues her and offers her marriage in order to protect her. She's reluctant, but sees the sense in it and eventually agrees.
Putney doesn't shy away from describing the horrors of Julia's first marriage, and her fears about intimacy and sex are well-grounded. I suspect her 'recovery' was probably quite fast, although I have absolutely no knowledge about how a woman who has been subjected to what Julia went through would have reacted or if she could ever have let another man touch her. But this is a romantic novel so one has to allow some degree of poetic license; and the author did a good job of giving the situation a degree of credibility and in showing Julia's struggles and both the forward and backwards steps that were taken in her relationship with Alex.
In fact, the part that felt least plausible to me came later in the book once Alex and Julia have discovered that she is, in fact, a great heiress and he begins to worry that she no longer needs him (a fact which rather wounds his masculine pride). But then, she had given him little reason to think otherwise, especially given her initial insistence on there being a way out of the marriage if she wanted it at the end of a year.
This isn't always an easy read, but it was an engaging story and I liked the characterisation of the two principals - Alex is kind and honourable, and Julia is no-nonsense.
Simon Prebble is an excellent narrator. He differentiates character voices clearly and although one or two of his accents were a bit wobbly, overall, I enjoyed his performance.
-
A slightly better read than the first book in the series but still, disappointing.
I enjoy MJP's style. I always have. One can hear her writing voice in this book, her signature style, so to speak. The first book in the series was very disappointing with 2 un-memorable characters. The heroine of the first book Mariah, featured prominently in this book too and I was bored out of my mind whenever Mariah popped up. She was a boring character then and a nuisance now.
Alexander and Julia met briefly in book one, and caught my attention right away. I was looking forward to reading their story and the beginning of the book (about 30%) was rather engaging. Things were looking good for Alexander and Julia. Having suffered abuse in her first marriage Julia was reluctant to accept Alexander. But somehow they agreed to get married, which was just as well. The plot was thin since Alexander and Julia pretty much had no conflicts between them at all. The threat was external and there was no difficult decisions to make. Julia overcame her "tragic past" quickly and settled into the role of Alexander's wife with ease. Theirs was not a great love story, no coming to terms with oneself or each other. I lost interests at around 60% when the story became about Julia's re-introduction into society and family reunions.
I wish I could recommend this book. If it wasn't MJP's work, I'd have abandoned ship in the middle of it. So far this series is unremarkable. I have the feeling that MJP is trying to re-create her Fallen Angels series with a new group of men, but these men are a lot less interesting than their predecessors and the relationships are a lot less meaningful. I just cannot feel that they cared for each other. But Alexander and Julia's story is better than Adam and Mariah's (book 1). I rolled my eyes every time when Adam and Mariah showed up in this book and appeared to be all lovey dovey. If you have read book 1 you'd know that they had absolutely zero chemistry and all that "my beloved" is just a load of baloney (excuse my language but this is just my personal honest opinion).
The first 30% - 40% of the book gets 3 stars from me and the rest a very lame 2 stars rating. Out of respect for MJP, I am settling on 3. -
Something seemed missing here. I've read all of Ms. Putney's books except the few dealing with magic. Almost all are on my keeper shelf. I don't think this one will be.
This one did not have the great historical details of the Fallen Angels series or the Silk Trilogy. This seemed like a plain old regency anyone could have written by throwing in a carriage, a long dress and a trip to Gretna Green. The characters seemed static not growing or changing realistically. Alexander was a grump in the last book, but here that was dealt with by a few sentences saying "That was just because I didn't want you to know I liked you." I would have liked to see him change before my eyes.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS
Julia has a fear of men from having an abusive first husband bad enough that she demands the ability to divorce Alexander after a year. Yet she is over it almost the first time they get together. Whoops non issue. It seemed there were too many irons in the fire. Was it the story of woman learning to trust again? The story of him saving her from bad guys? No real sense of danger was ever developed. Introducing her to society? We skipped most of the only ball/social outing. None of these issues was developed fully, leaving them all feeling underdone.
It was really only when they went to find her first husband's bastard son that I got interested. I liked that kid. I could have used a lot more of the three of them learning to be a family. And it would have been a stronger story if Julia had indeed been barren, making this part of the story more important.
Most of the book was formulaic and predictable. Of course Julia is really the daughter of a duke. Of course the boy was decent. Of course her brother didn't hate her. Of course the Earl of Daventry had a daughter and of course Julia, who thought she was barren, ended up pregnant.
This was just missing the depth of emotion that I have become accustomed to in Ms. Putney's works. Most of her works get 4 or 5 glowing stars from me. Sadly not this one. I will read the next one though because everyone is entitled to a not so good book now and then and Ms. Putney has long been one of my favorite authors.
. -
Bu kadının kitaplarında konu var da kalan kısmı hep bir meh! seviyesinde bence.
Hiçbir noktada beni tam anlamıyla tatmin etmiyor. Hep bir şeyler eksik.
Okuduğum ikinci kitabı, ikisi de beni bu düşünceden döndürmüyor. Devamını merak ediyor olsam bile bu duruma tekrar düşmek istemediğimden yazara sanırım burada veda ediyorum. :( -
If you read
Loving A Lost Lord, you probably knew that it was inevitable there'd be a romance between Julia Bancroft, Mariah's friend, who is a midwife in Hartley, and Major Alexander Randall.
I mean it was obvious, the way they instantly hated each other.
These two were meant to be.
The book starts with Randall being summoned home by his not-so-doting uncle, the Earl of Daventry. This is the earl who tried to starve Randall to death some years ago. Seems the last of Daventry's sons are now dead, so it's up to Randall to come home, marry, and carry on the earldom.
Randall is hardly keen to do anything his uncle asks of him, but he's fed up with soldiering, so what the hey. Once he reaches British soil, though, he's not so sold on the idea of presenting himself to Daventry—let the old b**d wait. Randall decides to head north to visit his pal Kirkland. Maybe he'll drop by Hartley on the way, so he can scowl some more at Julia.
Unfortunately, he's not the only guy who wants to scowl at her. Three thugs arrive at her home first and drag her off in chains. Randall rushes after them, determined to save the day.
Backstory: Julia has been hiding for the past few years after killing her husband. Well, sorta killing him, if pushing him away when he was trying to kill her counts. Seems the sick rapey b*st*rd was drunk and he clunked his head and died. Aww shucks.
To pile coincidence on top of coincidences, the creepy, rapey, liked-to-use-a-knife dead hubby just happens to be Branford the heir to the Daventry earldom, until he croaked. In other words, he's Randall's cousin.
Randall's solution to Julia's problem is genius.
...because evidently if she's his wife and thus necessary if the earldom is to continue, Daventry will call off the hounds.
After being raped, beaten and carved on by her last hubby, Julia's not so keen on marriage. It takes a bit of persuasion for her to agree to a chaste union, and a LOT more persuasion for her to agree to an UNchaste one.
The periodic attempts to kill Julia kept me from being too bored with the will-she-won't-she angst. Lots of logic flaws in this . Even despite the logic issues, this is a fair read. 3.5 stars. -
Nem értem, miért nem kedvelik sokan a szpojlereket meg a romantikát. Roppant megnyugtató érzés úgy olvasni, hogy az elején tudom, mi lesz a vége. :D
Abszolút kiszámítható történet... és ezzel együtt imádtam, csak túl gyorsan véget ért. Egy utószót mindenképp elbírtam volna. :)
ui.: Hanem a fordítót a szerkesztővel együtt visszaküldeném az iskolapadba, a fenyőbe is. Hát senki sem tud már a fordítók közt annyira sem angolul, sem magyarul, hogy tudja, egy Miladyt nem tegezzünk?! Senki sem olvasott klasszikus irodalmat? Miért fordít és szerkeszt az olyan, aki ennyire nem ismeri a kulturális hátteret??? Őrjítő!!! Meg aszongya: Sir Lovag. Mi van? Egy Whoopi Goldberg vígjátékban elmegy egy Sir Főnök, no de hol marad a 'lovag úr'?
Ha ez így megy tovább, teljesen lemondok a fordított irodalomról, és nap mint nap hálát adok az égnek, hogy tudok angolul. -
***Caution***
Julia had a late, abusive spouse who left emotional
and other scars.
Regency. Alex, former military man & midwife Julia met
again. They had common friends in Adam & Mariah (bk
#1). Julia distrusted all men & did not like to be touched
by or in close proximity to men. Someone tried to harm
Julia. Alex suggested he wed Julia to protect her. She
agreed, with several conditions.
They wed. It seemed Julia needed more time than the
story allotted to feel comfortable with Alex. It felt rushed.
Then Alex learned she was an heiress & pondered: would
she need and want him once out of danger? She could have
any man.
Too many lose ends were tied up too perfectly in the end.
The antagonists needed to calm down or go away. Ben
nearly stole the story. -
Ondanks de verschrikkelijke cover is dit boek het lezen waard . Alhoewel niet alles even fijn is om te lezen , de mishandelingen die Julia en Alex en later in het verhaal een kind moeten ondergaan is op z'n zachtst gezegd niet leuk om te lezen . Dit is waarschijnlijk waarom het verhaal minder romantisch aanvoelt dan het werkelijk is .
Een vlot geschreven verhaal die ik in 1 dag uitgelezen heb .
NB. jammer dat er bij de vertaling zo gerommeld is met de titels - gravinnen die opeens hertoginnen zijn en omgekeerd . -
It was just ok, and frankly slightly boring.
I had not read the previous instalment in the series in which Randall met Julia and not having insights on the future couple's first meeting is always an intense disappointment to me. Several times I almost felt like the author was trying to rub in that number 1 in the series should have been read before.
The heroine had been through very difficult experience, with physical and mental abuse from her first husband, an accident perceived as murder, reject from her father, an escape masqueraded as a suicide and then 10 years (more or less) working as a midwife in a small village. She should have been interesting and touching. But at the same time and once again, she was so ladylike all the time never slipping from her pedestal of supreme perfection that she did not interest me that much.
The hero also did not have much personality. He's supposed to always have been opposed to marriage before the starting of the book, I'm not really sure I understood why he changed his mind so quickly.
The plot could have been ok, except there are 2 huge coincidences in the story which rang absolutely fake and destroyed the credibility of the story in my eyes.
And the last part turned too cheesy.
If I could, I'd put 2.5 but did not manage to settle at 3. -
Aku ingat di seri Loving a Lost Lord, Ashton punya teman-teman setia yang menyenangkan.. Kecuali satu orang: Mayor Randall. Sumpah, aku kesel banget sama ini orang. Bisa-bisanya menganggap Mariah seperti perempuan penggali harta karun yang matre dan gak tau diri...
Gak taunya, di seri Lost Lord #2 ini, Randall lah yang menjadi male lead nya. Sungguh tak terduga. Dan ternyata sikap Randall yang sebenarnya cukup manis juga. Siapa sangka dia memendam cinta sendirian pada sahabat Mariah yang bernama Julia. Wkwkwk.
Randall dan Julia adalah dua orang yang sama-sama memiliki kehidupan yang tidak mudah di masa lalu. Mungkin itu yang membuat mereka cocok dan mengerti satu sama lain. -
Yep it's official I'm hooked on this series. So far I'm just loving these Lost Lords. Randall was a great character in the first novel as was Julia, I really enjoyed getting to read their story. Learning about Julia's secretive past was of course greatly anticipated and this didn't disappoint.
So after the mild antagonism between these two in the first book of course they were going to be the subjects of the second. I did just adore Randall as the knight in shinning armor though. He's such a gentleman and yet his military life has shaped him into a man of honor and integrity with a backbone of steel. He has such a wonderful need to help the damsel in distress. For all that she's a damsel, and in distress, Julia to slightly mis-quote Disney's Hercules "She can handle it."
Julia has had a ton of strength to get herself out of the awful situation she was in, abused by her first husband, to escape and fake her own death while finding a career for herself. She's learned plenty to become the competent midwife she is now thought to be. I love that Randall respects that about her and doesn't try to curtail the natural power she's found for herself.
I liked how the relationship between these two developed. The marriage was conceived under harsh circumstances and the questionable nature of that came back up later. Things weren't too easy for them. They had to learn about each other and work past their issues to get to a point where trust was eternal and each could be comfortable that the other wanted the same things from them. Sure some things were undoubtedly going to go the way neither of them suspected but I liked that both of them faced their fears and moved forward.
I loved reading this story and will definitely be moving on to see what Ms. Putney has in hand for the next of her Lost Lords! -
Pretty good.
Mature hero and heroine both with a lot of sense. Solid reasons for getting married. Beliveable and multilayered romantic conflicts. Audiobook with Simon Prebble doing fantastic narration. Great way to pass a few hours. -
I was finding the writing of this story very prosaic, so when it turned out to be one of my least favorite romance themes -- the heroine afraid of sex -- there seemed no point in continuing.
-
Novel kedua seri Lost Lords ini masih membuat saya "lost" dgn logikanya. Entah mengapa saya merasa plot ceritanya terlalu menggampangkan segala sesuatunya. Bahkan banyak hil yg mustahal di buku ini.
Randall adalah seorang mayor, prajurit yg dipanggil pulang sbg pewaris cadangan Daventry, pamannya, yg sudah kehilangan anak lelakinya sekaligus istri terakhirnya keguguran terus. Randall enggan tapi yg membuatnya lebih males adalah mencari istri. Dia menyukai Julia Bancroft, teman dari Mariah (heroine di buku pertama) istri dari Ashton.
Disinilah author mulai "memudahkan" semua hal yg sebenarnya pelik. Sebenarnya bagus sih Julia jujur sejak awal bhw dia mengalami kekerasan dari suami pertamanya yg tak lain tak bukan adalah anak Daventry. Julia jadi paria tidak diakui oleh ayahnya dan mau dibunuh oleh mertuanya. Tapi toh ada Randall, si pangeran berkuda putih yg selalu siap menolong tuan putrinya.
Yg paling menggelikan adalah Randall yg terpincang-pincang yg ternyata ada sisa pecahan meriam di pahanya yg sudah mengendap selama setahun. Bayangkan!!!! 1 tahun?!!! Gak busuk apa tuh paha???!!! Gak infeksi dan masih hidup aja si Randall mukjizat. Entah bagaimana Julia yg cuma bisanya membantu melahirkan anak tapi bisa mengorek tuh pecahan. Yasudahlah.
Yg berikutnya adalah bencana dan pembunuhan yg selalu nyaris merengut nyawa Julia, yg hebatnya layaknya kucing dgn 9 nyawa, Julia selalu lolos dari kematian. Lagian si Crockett itu ky pembunuh kurang kerjaan ketimbang pembunuh profesional.
Dan masih banyak yg lainnya yg menurut saya mengada-ngada dan halu dari awal hingga akhir cerita. . Apa saya kapok membaca seri ini? Tentu tidak. Lanjut ke buku ke-3. -
Not quite as compelling as the first book in the series but still enjoyable. I'm looking forward to (re)reading the rest of them.
-
Four stars. Enjoyable Regency with excellent character building and no crazy sub plots crammed in at the end like the first book in this series. Looking forward to book three.
-
3.5 stars. I would have enjoyed an epilogue.
-
I finished the series, and it was as good or better than the rest!
-
This the second ins the Lost Lords series and I enjoyed it. Narration was nice as I do love Simon Prebble as a narrator.
3-Stars -
"You're the answer to prayers I didn't know I'd made."
So begins the second in Ms Putney's Lost Lords series, this one following Major Alexandar Randall and Julia Bancroft (ney Lady Julia Raines). Oh my how wonderfully did these two fit!
"Half the military campaigns of the last fifteen years are engraved on my hide."
Both Julia and Alex bear both physical and mental scars from the abusive and neglectful familial relationships they endured. Both were able to overcome them through their individual strengths of character, their stubborn desire to survive and the people they met after their initial tragedies who helped shape them into the adults they became (Julia's Mrs. Bancroft and Alex's fellow lost lords as well as Lady Agnes and Westerfield Academy.)
The way Putney paralleled Alex's chivalry and desire to save Julia as a knight to a lady was, I thought, incredibly sweet and romantic. That he fell in love with Julia made it all the better! And Julia. She may have wanted to run and hide many times, but my goodness this girl has the backbone of granite! To face up to not only her a-hole of a father-in-law, but her truly nasty real father showed such strength. And then to not only seek out and rescue - but then accept and adopt her terrifyingly horrid first husband's bastard child. This woman has guts. And Alex recognized it repeatedly.
"You have a woman's strength, which equals that of any warrior."
I really liked how the characters blended together in this story, better so than the first book,
Loving a Lost Lord, which I felt was just too... too. Too sweet. Too many conveniences. Too - too! So I came into this one hesitant and worried it might ruin the rest of the series for me since I actually enjoyed Randall and Julia's characters in Lost Lord. But this one did not disappoint! I'm eager to read Mac's story with Kiri and to follow up on the previous characters, Adam and Mariah and Alex and Julia, as well as follow along with the other Lost Lords. -
3 stars seems a bit of a stretch for this notch in Putney's regency romance series. Let's just say that if I read this one first, I would not be motivated to ever pick up another Putney book.
I found it sadly lacking. Julia and Randall's characters were not at all engaging. Randall remained very flat throughout the entire story; I couldn't seem to mentally inject any emotion into any of his dialogue. I felt like yawning every time a paragraph started in his mind, which is unfortunate because Randall was a very admirable, attractive character. There was just nothing to bind me to him.
As for Julia, although she showed a range of emotions, I believe her character's development was very unrealistic. She suffered severe sexual, physical, and mental abuse for a good portion of her life at the hands of someone she once loved. It seemed that those scars were healed far too quickly upon meeting and marrying Randall. It left me wondering halfway through the book what exactly was the conflict that drove the story. It seemed non-existent.
That was the major flaw of this story, in my opinion. Putney seemed to lack any real conflict to keep these characters apart and the ones she used (very weakly, I might add) really left me bereft- not in a good way- as a reader. I expected they knew all along they loved one another and by the end, I was basically relieved they announced it so the book could be done because it seemed so drawn out.
As a side note, the ending was done poorly as well. The climax had pretty much nothing to do with the main characters and Putney leaves you with Julia and Randall, resolving their miscommunication but without any hint of their future. I hate that; add an epilogue!
If you are anything like me, you may feel you need to read every book of a series which is why I persevered through this book. However, I don't find myself obliged to recommend it otherwise. I doubt this is Putney's caliber because I've read others by her and have been delighted so bookworms- persevere if you must or bypass it entirely to find something much more satisfying. -
I do enjoy a skillfully written tale, and this one does not disappoint.
There are hints of Cinderella in this plot, but I won't spoil it for anyone. I like that the hero's insecurities are revealed and addressed along with the heroine's. The only thing that kept this book from a top rating is that while the heroine experiences emotional growth, the author didn't construct a hero who does.
The subplots and the main plot are interwoven to the point where some incidents have bearing on each. It was nice to see so many of the characters from
Loving A Lost Lord but they really didn't have much of an impact on the story line, I have the feeling that their presence serves mainly to promote sales of the next book in the series.
Another minor weakness of this book is that the villains are not very well-drawn, they seem kind of like cardboard cutouts. This didn't mean they were any less evil, just less breathably believable. That won't stop me from buying book three. -
This is the story of another Lost Lord of Westerfield Academy. Alex is a war veteran who returned from the battlefield when he found out he was heir-presumptive to his uncle, an earl. The previous heir, the uncle's son and his cousin, had died unexpectledly. Several years have passed and on his way through a village, he decides to stop to visit his late cousin's widow. He had always admired her and just recently found out where she lived under an assumed name as a much-loved midwife and healer. He arrives shortly after she has been kidnapped. Her saves her, of course. So the story begins.
The book revolves around solving the mystery of her kidnapping while watching Alex and Julia fall in love. I enjoyed these two flawed individuals. They each had their share of insecurities to work through. But they developed a wonderful relationship. They opened themselves up to love and disappointment while being willing to risk their hearts in the process. A sub-plot involves another bastard son, this time of Julia's late husband. Without spoiling too much, I feel like we may see more of him sometime in the future. Hope so, anyway.
I enjoyed this one. -
Reading for the second time I think. I hadn't reviewed it like the first, so not sure. I love the story of Julia and Rand. Julia has been abused by her father and her husband and doesn't trust men. Rand had met her when she chaperoned Mariah in the 1st book, and tried to stay away from her because he apparently was attracted to her right off. There are many twists and turns to this story and some miscommunications that caused some unnecessary heartache. We get to see the Duke and Mariah and Kiri again. On to book Number 3!!
-
This is yet another romance where all the ~tension~ would have been solved if character A would have just asked character B what was wrong. THEY BOTH ACKNOWLEDGED THE TENSION: JUST TALK ABOUT IT!! COMMUNICATION, IT'S KEY!! I've read the Cosmo articles; I know the drill.
Also, all the conflicts in the book were wrapped up in the last 2 chapters. Disappoint. -
Thought I'd give my first Putney a try. Some very nice moments in the first half (despite it totally being a road trip novel), but then it just faded so far so fast that I elected to tuck and roll off that carriage while I still could.
-
Part of the Lost Lords series troubled boys who attended the Academy.
Alexander Randall is very wonderful tormented character.
Reread in 2015. The attitudes of Alex and Julia are anachronistic and Julia's recovery not really believable but it was still a wonderful story.
