Miss Wonderful (Carsington Family, #1)

by Loretta Chase

I've loved the other two Loretta Chase books I've read but this one just missed the mark. It wasn't bad - just kind of boring and it seemed endlessly long because of it. The biggest problem beyond plot was that I just didn't like the characters. Alistair was kind of ridiculous and Mirabel was just drab. She had no real distinguishing marks, nothing to set her apart from the million other female characters I've encountered. There was very little witty banter and she didn't seem to have hobbies beyond liking nature and I just didn't care. Alistair was somewhat set apart as a clothes fiend and his insistent on his clothes and her clothes looking pristine and fashionable but it wasn't enough to keep my interest.

So apart they were bland and together even more so. I didn't really see why either of them liked the other and the chemistry between them was non-existent. And there was very little plot to occupy 300+ pages. I did like Alistair's solution to the canal problem (he suggests a railway instead) but it just wasn't enough to redeem the rest of it. 2 stars, edging closer to the 1.5.