Who Will Take This Man?

Author: Jacquie D'Alessandro
Published: September 2003 (Avon)
Category: Regency Romance
Rating: 6.5/10

Philip Whitmore, Viscount Greybourne, antiquarian, adventurer, heir to an earldom, and perfect physical specimen of a man in his prime, is unmarriageable. In the course of his travels, he read from a stone that cursed him in such a way that his new bride would die two days after their wedding. He chooses to tell the truth to the fiancée his father obtained for him with the services of Meredith Chilton-Grizdale, up and coming matchmaker to the ton. Of course, the fiancée jilts Philip, which leaves Meredith's business in ruins, as Philip is said to be cursed, insane, and impotent (and he keeps insisting that he's not) in the newspapers.

Philip refuses to get married unless he can find the missing piece of the curse stone, so Meredith helps him sort through the crates he brought back from abroad. And in true romance formula, they can't keep away from each other. Philip comes to his senses about their relationship rather early for a romantic hero, and Meredith refuses his suit because they come from different worlds. Basically, the only problem Meredith has, aside from her being his matchmaker, not a bridal candidate, is her past, being born as a bastard and stealing to create a better life for herself.

In addition to their romantic problems, someone is leaving threatening messages for Philip and sabotaging the search for the missing stone. I guessed the identity of the villain early on, and D'Alessandro tried throwing some curve balls, but it seemed that making Philip's best friend and faithful manservant mysteriously absent at the most convenient times, that it was too obvious as a decoy.

I don't think this is D'Alessandro's best. It's better than a lot of romances, but there was a little too much for me to suspend my disbelief. The biggest was the translation of the stone. How miraculous was it that the stone translated into a rhyming poem? And that the partial "words" that got cut off could translate into the first letter of the English word it corresponded to? The writing itself is good, but yet again, her writing has sparkled more in other books. Maybe I'm just being too hard on it because I loved Sleepless at Midnight so much.