Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover (Rules of Scoundrels, #4)

by Sarah MacLean

[Angie]

I was hoping that Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover would be the awesome, redeeming ending to this series. Sadly, it’s not. It was exciting to finally meet the mysterious Chase, and learn that he’s really Lady Georgiana from the Love By Numbers series! Ten years ago, she was utterly ruined. Then six years ago, she returned to cold stares and hard snubs. She opened The Fallen Angel as a way to exact revenge on those who turned their nose up at her and her daughter, but after a tasteless cartoon is published in the gossip rag, Georgiana knows something must change. She may be the most powerful man in London, but it means nothing when no one can know that it’s her.

Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover has an amazing premise! I also loved catching up with a character from the previous series. I was already invested, I should have loved this! Unfortunately, the story is painfully repetitive. The first few chapters are just Georgiana constantly telling us how she’s been ruined, how she needs to marry a titled man for Caroline’s sake, how she’s Chase and knows every secret with the possibility of ruin, but can’t use them. Over and over and over. Then once the romance starts, Georgiana and Duncan have the same arguments. Over and over and over. They get to kissing (and more), and then he wants her to leave Chase, she tells him it’s not that simple, he says it is, she says he doesn’t understand. Lather, rinse, repeat. It was their only source of conflict!

I really loved the idea behind Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover, but I could not get past the repetitive nature of the story. At one point, I honestly thought I had accidentally jumped back a chapter, because it was the same thing in a different setting! There’s a lot of potential here, lots of lies, secrets, deceits, and blackmail! There was really no reason for the same inner monologues and same conversations to be happening in every single chapter. I was also annoyed by Georgiana’s daughter Caroline. She literally only appears to be the voice of reason or to say something way too profound and insightful for a nine year old. Even though everything Georgiana is doing is for her, she’s noticeably absent except for when she’s “needed”. Awkward.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.