Ilze

This one was just OK.  The plot with the villain who is harassing Lady Avis doesn't work at all, and pretty much throughout the book I was wondering, where the heck were Lady Avis' brothers, who were supposed to protect her both from her original disastrous engagement, and from the harassment and social ostracism she's undergoing at the time of the book???  First, they should have prevented her from even meeting the guy she got betrothed to, since his proclivities and general sociopathy were well-known in the neighborhood. Second, why didn't Avis' brother Benjamin Hazlit the super-sleuth investigate the background and history of Lily, Avis' "companion" before hiring her?  How did she even get considered for the position? And how could Benjamin have been totally in the dark about Avis' problems with her neighbours? What happened to the other brother, Vim, who is also supposed to be protecting her?  He seems to have fallen off the face of the earth in this story. (I guess if the brothers had been looking after Avis properly there would have been no story.) 

So - even though Avis and Hadrian are sweet characters and there are some sweet scenes in the book, it is has too many problems for me to rate it any higher. I also went back to re-read the story of Avis' sister Alexandra in "Ethan, Lord of Scandals", which I originally rated quite highly, and had to downgrade its rating too, because it just didn't stand up to a second reading.