Too Wicked to Tame by Sophie Jordan
Lady Portia Derring is on her way to Yorkshire to meet potential groom when her carriage gets stranded and she’s nearly run by a horse over tramping down a muddy road for help. She’s on her way to meet a wealthy man her grandmother wants her to marry since their family is destitute. The horseman is none other than her potential suitor Heath Moreton, the Earl of Moreton.
When Portia finally makes it to the estate her grandmother has sent her to she realizes that Heath is the man her grandmother sent her to meet, but she wants nothing to do with him. Portia is an avowed spinster, determined to avoid marriage because that means she has to give up her freedom to her husband, which she doesn’t want to do. Heath doesn’t want to get married because he doesn’t want to pass on his family’s madness (for he’s known as one of the Mad Moretons) to any children.
Heath and Portia spar and work hard to avoid Heath’s grandmother’s schemes to compromise and force them to marry, as well as avoid each other.
Ok, so here’s the big problem with this book: porphyria aka the Maddness of King George III. That’s the madness that the Moreton’s are supposed to pass along to their children. Heath is afraid of passing this disease on to his children because his father and younger brother apparently went mad from the disease. The disease porphyria wasn’t named until 50 years after the action in the book takes place, which sounds to me like the early years of Victoria’s reign. There are references to the “king’s disease” and it wasn’t theorized that George III had porphyria until the 1960s. Read more on the links above if you want more information.
Oh, he’s also afraid of love, but that’s a different kettle of fish.
Portia is a spoiled, selfish bluestocking and she really doesn’t have very many good traits until too late. She whines about her mother leaving her and her family never caring about what she wants, but she doesn’t speak up for herself. Heath is an autocratic, arrogant jerk who believes all women are the same and rules his family with an iron fist. How these two fall in love is a miracle.
Then there’s the two scheming grandmothers who really don’t care for the wishes of their grandchildren, just the securing of wealth and maintaining social status. There wasn’t really a likable character in the whole book, and the leads took way too long to show their redeeming characteristics. At least they get a tongue-lashing and come around to get a HEA, but it doesn’t ring true because of the characters faults.
Grade: D- (I would have given it an F, but Portia and Heath do have that one redeeming characteristic that saves them, even if it is way too late in the book.)
