Karen Hawkins and Holly Crawford, $1.99
Historical Romance, 2012
Jane Doherty, Baroness Kilkenny, is meant to be a doctor. Oh, hush with the “Kill Kenny” jokes – she’s not that awful. She’s self taught, by her own late father! Anyway, her biggest heartbreak is how she couldn’t save her husband eight months ago, despite having read up on books day and night. And then came that awful doctor, Sir Richard Thornton, who was respected as doctor because he is a man, but dismissed her husband as a gone case shortly after he came to look at that man! She blames him for her husband’s death! Really!
And to think those people of her time claim that women are overemotional creatures. What gives them that very idea?
Anyway, the two of them soon end up sharing a patient, and sparks fly. But Richard, being a nerd, is predictably stuffy despite his stiffy, he says all the wrong things and acts like a boor, which only makes him an awesome romance hero because endless brooding is so romantic. And that’s basically The Lady in the Tower.
It takes two authors to write this rather short thing, since there are two authors listed on the cover, and it really feels like it. Often, the two are acting like bickering puppies in a kiddie show, and then, woosh, she’s getting “wet” and he’s having hard “erections”, and I get mood whiplash because we have gone from G-rated Little Pony cuddles directly to full blown donkey hump without any preliminaries.
It also doesn’t help that the heroine is basically ridiculous when it comes to her dead hubby’s croaking being pinned on Richard. You can argue that maybe she’s not in the right mind – eight months aren’t that long for some people to move on, after all – but if that is the case, then maybe she’s not in the right mind to find a new boyfriend too. Also, much of this story is from her point of view, so I see her panting, moaning, thirsting, and getting flustered for Richard, while Richard, when he gets his point of view, is like, “Eh… woman… weird… but I have an erection so ugga-ugga!” The whole thing makes me feel quite sad for Jane. Girl, he doesn’t seem that into her, and maybe it’d be easier to just get whatever they have for a battery-operated boyfriend at that time.
Still, despite the fact that the heroine comes off often like a dog panting and pressing her nose against the window at the huge… bone displayed at the butcher’s store, this is a clean and easy read. It follows the tropes very well, so if you can overlook the heroine’s often cringe-inducing addled antics and melodramatic flailing as well as the hero’s predictable “hard-hearted nerd” antics, this one may just be a quick and breezy read. Me, I suppose this one is okay, especially since it has the grace to end before things get worse on me.
