Nothing to Commend Her by Jo Barrett

Title: Nothing to Commend Her
Author: Jo Barrett
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Publication Date: 2009
Genre: Historical Romance
Length: novel
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Author Website
Heat Level: sensual
Reviewer: Dana Dean
Date: January 2010

Miss Agatha Trumwell believes she has nothing to offer a gentleman of the ton. She fails to meet the standards of simpering, blond beauty and rarely practices the decorum necessary to bite her tongue when silence might be the better part of valor. However, she has risen above such petty concerns and grown content with her life as a spinster. She cares for her aging father, dallies with scientific experiments with no husband to insist she set aside less than ladylike pursuits, and hidden behind her very practical spectacles, she attends parties only to observe human nature. Why would she want more?

Lord Magnus Leighton knows he’s a monster. Left scarred by fire and betrayal, he understands the empty life before him, even accepts it, until a pretty dark-eyed lady knocks him out of his comfort zone and offers a tiny glimpse of what could be. Her straightforward manner and obviously generous nature allow him hope – something he had given up on long before.

Insecurities and misunderstandings both draw these two together and force them apart in Ms. Barrett’s Nothing to Commend Her. In actuality this novel has a great deal to commend it. Ms. Barrett uses timeless concepts inherent in stories such as Beauty and the Beast, yet creates a fully original and charming tale. Though I usually find myself more connected to the heroine than hero, my heart ached for Magnus. I couldn’t wait for Agatha to see the truth. Although the overuse of some rather flat adjectives, homophone confusions, and a few punctuation errors kept me from giving this novel a perfect score, the story itself shone past such flaws and made it definitely worth reading. I will certainly look for more of Ms. Barrett’s work.