Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord by Sarah MacLean
Love By Numbers, Book 2
Avon
Historical
ISBN: 978-0061852060
Reviewed by Shayna




Lord Nicholas St. John loves women.  He just doesn’t love being hunted by them.  When a popular magazine names Nick “London’s Lord to Land,” he finds himself beset by admirers and seizes the opportunity to flee London in order to track down a friend’s missing sister.  What Nick doesn’t expect is that his journey to avoid matrimony will send him right in the path of the one woman who could tempt him down the aisle.

Experience has taught Lady Isabel Townsend that the one thing you can’t rely on is a man.  When her father, the “Wastrearl,” passes away, Isabel knows she has to do everything she can to protect her younger brother’s inheritance, not to mention ensure the safety of the troubled women she has taken in and made part of her household.  With almost no money, Isabel knows she has to sell her mother’s beloved marbles, and when Lord Nicholas St. John, a renowned antiquarian, practically falls in her lap, Isabel takes it as a sign.  But the attraction that simmers between her and Nick is something Isabel can’t afford to give into.  Nick keeps insisting she trust him with her secrets, but how can she?  Isabel might deny their connection, but she’s about to learn that “London’s Lord to Land” is nothing but determined when it comes to landing his lady.

Sarah MacLean’s signature spark is in full force in Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord, the sequel to her delightful romance debut, Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake.  I fell in love with Isabel and Nick from the very start and Ms. MacLean so effectively captured my interest that I read Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord straight through.  Isabel is a delightfully flawed heroine.  She is incredibly generous and warm-hearted, but her past has scarred her so she makes some fairly bad mistakes when it comes to Nick.  I adored her for both her strengths and humanizing vulnerabilities.  Nick, in turn, is everything I’d hoped he’d be after reading Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake.  It’s a good thing he stayed on the page, for I’d have wanted to knock Isabel over to get to him otherwise.

While Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord is the second book about the wonderful St. John siblings, it can be read as a standalone.  I’ll warn you, though: Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord will absolutely make you eager for the final St. John book, Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke’s Heart.  The irrepressible Juliana only has a small cameo in Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord but there’s a certain duke that, though needing to be knocked upside the head with a two-by­-four, is intriguing enough that I have high hopes he’ll be the one to meet his match in the lively Juliana.  Until then, however, I am more than happy to curl up with both St. John brothers’ books, for Ms. MacLean has a writing style that truly sparkles and makes every book of hers a joy to read.