No Proper Lady

by Isabel Cooper

[Angie]

I am disappointed. I generally love the combination of Historical Romance and Urban Fantasy, so I was excited to read No Proper Lady. I also love time travel, so that just added to my excitement. Unfortunately, the paranormal and sci-fi elements are lacking and as a Romance, it's simply boring.

Joan is from a Post-Apocalyptic future where demons have taken over and destroyed much of civilization. She's been sent back in time to stop the wizard responsible for unleashing the demons to save her world at her own expense. There she immediately meets Simon who is acquainted to this evil mastermind and wants his own revenge. This all sounds fun and exciting, but it wasn't.

There's a six week time jump, which I assume is just Joan's "training" in etiquette and the like. But after that...still nothing. It's boring. Joan is attempting to seduce this wizard, which seemed to take no effort at all. In the meantime, we're constantly told how aroused Simon is by Joan. Their first sexual encounter was brought on by an aphrodisiac that the evil wizard slipped into Joan's drink for no apparent reason (he didn't even make a move on her, just sent her home). It just wasn't good.

No Proper Lady's only interesting character was Simon's younger sister, Ellie. She's the reason for Simon's revenge. This evil wizard had summoned a demon who then possessed Ellie's body! That is screwed up. She's now dealing with the aftermath of that, and I wanted to know more about her.

No Proper Lady had all the makings of an excellent hybrid novel, but it fell short on all elements. The lovers are boring. The relationship took too long to get going and then wasn't believable. The bad guy was also boring and defeated easily. The ending was beyond cheesy.