Judith McNaught’s SOMETHING WONDERFUL – Good Regency Story but Something Needed in Second Half

  

This is the story of Alexandra Lawrence, an innocent country girl, and Jordan Townsende, the rich and powerful Duke of Hawthorne. They meet when she saves his life from bandits and her family forces him to “do the right thing” and marry her. They are on their honeymoon when he disappears. She is swept into London society where his grandmother attempts to make a lady of her. Little does she know that her new husband is a rake whose slept with most of the beautiful women she encounters. Soon she knows the truth and then he reappears.

 

The story held my attention as McNaught write very well. There's lots of sizzle in her romances and the love scenes are great. However, from this romance and ‘Once and Always, the first of hers I read, it seems to me that she has trouble finding the right balance between a rake’s bad side and his ostensible love for the heroine. The point where the hero is struggling to admit he loves the heroine fails to convince.

Even if you can get over that, the plot that has a duke (Jordan) who is a total rake and quite content with his mistresses, marrying a country bumpkin (Alexandra) who saves his life, and his back and forth in his feelings for her, had me on a teeter totter.

The second half, particularly from the birthday party on, is not as believable as the rest and frankly was disappointing. The final scene that did it for me, however, was the one in the cottage where he is suddenly calling her a bitch and all his loving feelings seem to go out the window. (I have seen this in other McNaught books as well.) It just didn't come across as a valid response. Sadness at a perceived betrayal, yes. Anger yes. But his "over the top" scathing anger after all they shared just didn't ring true for me.

 

There are some issues with details, too. For example, how is it the doctor says she is in a coma and dying and will soon be leaving them and then she's awake and talking? I also agree with one reviewer who said her total physical change from a plain bumpkin to a ravishing beauty in a year from age 18 to 19 was a bit unbelievable.

Still, with all this, it’s an enjoyable book. McNaught writes well. I just think some of her others are better.