A Royal Pain

Fun, light, and quick but some parts dragged and the main character displayed some particularly annoying personality traits.

Wow, there are lots of polarizing reviews on Goodreads - lots of people loved this debut novel and just as many despised it. I thought the author did a good job of providing the perfect fantasy male: handsome, smart (Ph.D. in economics from U of Chicago!), caring, sexy, funny, and oh by the way, also a rich British duke. The author also provided a smart, competent heroine who was neither klutzy nor ditzy (which too often happens in Chick lit novels). The first half was a real page turner, with lots of great chemistry between the leads. But the last half was significantly weaker, as the heroine started in on lots of whining, daddy issues, and pushing the hero away for no apparent reason besides the fact that the author apparently hadn't met her word count yet.

Mulry has a distinctive, modern voice, and I enjoyed this novel enough to put her next one on my TBR list. I have my doubts about the third novel in the series, however. Mulry indicates on her website that it is a romance for Max's younger sister, Abigail, who is a lesbian in this book with a steady girlfriend. Am a little uncomfortable with the idea that the right guy will "cure" Abigail of her lesbianism. We'll see where Mulry goes with it.