Something Wonderful

Something Wonderful almost gets a five star rating it was enchanting, extremely well written and very witty. The major drawback is the heroine seems to switch personalities mid stream in the book; this was jarring as I absolutely loved her character up to this point in the novel.

Jordan the Duke of Hawthorne is jaded world weary, resigned and has almost no trust in anyone except perhaps his grandmother. He is accosted by highwaymen and who should ride to his rescue but what looks like a knight in shining armor, or in this case rusty armor. I actually laughed visualizing this scene.

Alex is heading home from a birthday party that had a jousting tournament when comes to the rescue of this man. He takes her to an inn believing she is hurt and discovers the lad is really a girl.

Alex is simply charming and unaffected, truly one of the most sweet and caring heroines Miss McNaught has ever written. She is guileless, so it is with a heavy heart that she is forced into marrying Jordan due to her mother's insistence about her reputation being ruined when the locals talk about her and Jordan at the inn.

Jordan goes along with this mostly because he feels he owes Alex for saving his life. Their time together during their first days of marriage is lovely because Alex shares her absolute love of life with Jordan. McNaught really shines here, the scenes are beautifully written with tender dialogue.

Unfortunately, during their first week of marriage, Jordan is kidnapped and finds himself imprisoned for over a year, but he just cannot forget his lovely wife and wants another chance with her.

Alex is heartbroken over Jordan, he is believed dead. She goes on with her life and when she discovers that her husband was a womanizer before they were married she becomes livid and changes from a heartbroken grieving widow into the darling of the ton. Here is where I had problems with the story. Why would this seemingly sweet noble woman hold Jordan accountable for things he did PRIOR to their meeting. It is patently unfair. Also, her character became more cynical and hardened.

When Jordan comes back to London he finds his wife wants nothing to do with him. I don't even think she asked about his imprisonment, she certainly shows no sympathy for this man who endured a year of terrible hardship. Again, this was not the same sweet girl in the beginning of this novel. She publicly humiliated Jordan, letting the ton know she was through with him by placing a wager she would not support him in a well attended race. Jordan overreacted to her antics which prompted Alex to become even more contrary.

Fortunately, both of these people come to their senses and rediscover why they liked each so much. The ending of this novel is as sweet as the beginning, if only the middle portion were too.

I liked this book a lot. It was rich in detail, plotting and character development. This is my second favorite McNaught book(Kingdom of Dreams is number one for me).

This book was in my tbr pile for over a year. I was convinced that no book could live up to the hype or even the title. I was so wrong. Jordon and Alexandra were a great couple. I was fully invested in their love story and was so happy when they FINALLY got their HEA.

A few minor gripes which in no way detract from the overall quality of the book: 1) the HEA came rather abruptly 2) the book dragged at sometimes. A little bit too much detail 3)Jordon, like some other McNaught heroes-most notably Clayton in Whitney, My Love, jumped to conclusions about the heroine and, in his mind convicted her without giving her a chance to explain herself.

But for these little issues, the book could have been called Something Perfect, because it was darned close to it.

McNaught has a knack for making you fall in love with her characters. I feel as though I know them so well and I become so engaged with her books for that reason...I become emotionally invested in the outcome of the characters. My only complaint about this one is that the ending was too abrupt. After going through so many struggles for so long, it just ended too quickly. But I still thoroughly enjoyed the story and highly recommend.

I loved every single page of this book, every single emotion that was living in this book, waiting to be exposed!!! I strongly recommend this to all the fans of McNaught and also to all fans of romantic novels, the story of Alexandra & Jordan will get you involved as soon as you'll open the first page, it will make you laugh our loud, shout out loud and cry - first of sorrow, then from happiness. You'll want to read this story over and over again and never become bored of it!!!

When the innocent country girl Alexander Lawrence saves Jordan Townsende, the handsome powerful duke of Hawthorne, she is on the verge of being ruined for the act. The duke decides to take pity on the plain 17 year old, and marry her. After another attempt on his life causes them to separate for A year, Jordan comes home to find that the plain child has turned into A beautiful woman who has the whole ton at her feet. Will they trust one another enough to build A love that none can destroy?

I am being generous with A 3 star review because even though this book did not really thrill me, it had some good qualities. The beginning of the book up to Jordan's and Alexander's seperation was great. I laughed out loud reading the scene where she saved him and that was one of the funniest scenes I ever read! I loved Alexander's innocent and adoring character in the beginning. She blurted out the sweetest things to Jordan and I thought she was adorable. I know some other reviewers did not find Jordan appealing, but I thought that JM portrayed his character wonderfully. I love reading about A handsome rake that every woman wants! It was nice to see A little reality in the fact that his mistresses were actually fond of him and was hurt when they could not have him. I hardly ever see that in A romance novel. The mistresses are usually evil women who are only after the heroes money and title and couldn't care less about them. I really wanted to like this book because of those things, but it took A turn for the worst in the middle.

My biggest problem was that Alexander's character went from the sweet girl that I fell in love with, to the mean heartless heroine. The change in her personality was so drastic that I found myself disliking her immensely. I was also very disappointed that she did not seem happy when Jordan returned. Actually, I was shocked that no one seemed really happy that he was alive. No one even asked him if he suffered much! That annoyed me to no end! Another problem with this book was that when Jordan was missing it became boring. I didn't really care about Alexander becoming all the rage. especially since I couldn't stand her anymore. It was all down hill from there. The book never redeemed itself and did not hold me enthralled again.