Nowhere Near Respectable (The Lost Lords series Book 3)

This was my first book by Putney. I enjoyed it! The title is amazing, which is what drew me in, but the book was definitely engaging and kept me entertained. I'll look for other Putney titles to add to my list.

First I have to say I'm a diehard Putney fan so, even at her worst I really enjoy her books. The 3rd story of the Lost Lords should be the Lost Lord and his Lady. I loved this book! Kiri is a "take no prisoners' kind of girl. She knows who and what she is and she won't apologize for it. I can relate to that. Because she was raised primarily in India she has a different view of the rules that young english girls have to follow.Once she meets Damien MacKenzie, she finally finds a man who doesn't view her as a "slut" because of her Indian blood, after overhearing the mother of the man she was considering as a husband, talking with her sister about Kiri's "heathen bloodline" and making disparaging remarks about her mother, Kiri leaves immediately. Unfortunately she's captured by smugglers, one of whom wants to rape and then kill her. Damien offers to buy her to help her get away. Of course nothing is that easy but they do get away.Damien is adorable, he doesn't have any false pride or macho front. He also knows who and what he is and he knows that Kiri is way above the byblow son of a English baron and his actress mistress. He has his own code of honor. He is fully accepted by his brother and because they were so close, he was sent to school with his brother.Damien owns a popular gambling club but works with Kirkland who runs an spy network against Napoleon. Kiri can identify people by their scent, thanks to her ability as a perfumer. She stops a kidnapping when she visits Damiens club and because she can identify one of the kidnappers by his scent, she insists on helping thwart a plot to disrupt English politics. They accept ther help because the plot has to be uncovered ASAP.This book was humorous, exciting and very romantic. I loved it and I loved Kiri, she one of the most unconvential heroines ever. I think Ms. Putney has a winner and although it didn't influence the purchase - The price was fabulous! Thanks Ms. Putney (and Zebra) or thinking about your e-readers!

Well, this Lost Lords Book #3 is actually better than Book 2, which in turn was way better than Book 1, but still...it's not like the Putney books of years past (The Fallen Angels series, THE RAKE, to wax nostalgic about a few). I'm fond of characters of mixed ethnic origins (my own family being full of them) so, at first, the heroine seemed to be a winner. Remember Adam, the Duke of Ashton, from LOVING A LOST LORD (he whose mom is a Hindu his late father married in India)? Our heroine here is his sister, Lady Kiri Lawford. She's now living in England with her mother Lakshmi and stepfather General John Stillwell.It's a given that she'll encounter prejudice among the upper-class snobs but she did not expect it at the home of her possible future husband. She overhears a conversation unflattering to herself and abruptly cuts short her visit, borrowing a horse and setting off for home. Naturally, on the way she meets up with a band of smugglers who take her captive.Enter our hero, Damian MacKenzie, illegitimate half brother of Lord Will Masterson and friend of Alex Randall (the H in NEVER LESS THAN A LADY). Mac owns a gambling and dinner club and has dealings with these smugglers to provide his club with the finest French liquors. So here we have the requisite rescue of h by H and they escape together. (It should be noted that h had already almost rescued herself by the time H gets there.)Now, here's where it gets to be too much for me. Mac, as is usual for heroes of this period, works undercover for good ol' England, against the evil French. Kiri gets recruited to help and moves into an apartment house for spies because, well, it just makes so much sense, doesn't it?We have lots of intrigue and adventure, attempts on Princess Charlotte (daughter of the Prince Regent and his unloved [by him] wife Princess Caroline), and various other actions/adventures. Kiri was recruited and is invaluable in all of this because she has The Nose. She has smelled all the bad guys and they need her to go around to different clubs, pubs and meeting places to sniff out (literally) the bad guys. She also knows Kalarippayattu, a Hindu art of fighting, and is quite the butt-kicker. So if you like action/adventure, you may very well enjoy this book.The romance part was OK but nothing to get my jaded heart pitter-pattering. And there's that predictable conflict: He says "I'm a bastard and nowhere near respectable enough for a duke's sister" and she says "I don't care, I'm a mixed breed and don't mind scandals" and he says "Oh no, no, no, your brother would kill me" and she says "Oh pooh I'm not even an innocent" and he says "Well, OK then." After the fact, he, of course, discovers that she's a non-innocent virgin. Can their love ever be a lasting union with 2 people of such disparate social standing or will this just be a short-term secret affair? Oh, the tension of not knowing how it will turn out.Why, you may say, did I read this when I did not like the first two Lost Lords books very much? Well, darned if I know. Hope springs eternal maybe?

A highly enjoyable read. I did find parts of it though highly unrealistic but in my opinion, that’s what fiction is for. A good book is one that keeps you to so entrenched you don’t want to put it down and when you get to the end, you still want more. The story was highly enjoyable. I enjoyed the different plots and twists that went on. I highly recommend Mary Jo Putney. I’ve been a fan of hers for over a decade. Love the Lost Lords Series. The series is best if read in order though, in my opinion.

This is the 3rd book of four, I have really enjoyed the writing and they have got proper stories, which keep you reading well into the night, there's excitement, mystery, murder and romance (and I say romance as its nice and flowing - not raunchy but subtle and beautiful). This is the type of book you could recommend to your mother or your grown up daughter without feeling its too sexed up. These are by no means cute little stories, the author deals with real hard issues in each story - and you say to yourself afterwards - I never read that in a book before - but of course it happened, but other authors were probably too scared to write about such issues or didn't know how to bring them into the story and deal with them properly . I have really enjoyed this book and look forward to the next one, I loved the way the past characters keep coming in and out of the stories. I hope somewhere in the next book or a possible 5th one bit written yet, that there is romance for Mac's" brother, Will.

Not as riveting as No Longer A Gentleman which actually comes after this book in sequence tho I read it first!Several of the same characters and as is always the way with a series of books if you read them out of sequence there are always characters and events referred to that you haven't met before tho this does not distract from the main plot.Kiri Lawford the part indian sister of a duke who mixes scents in her spare time is an irrepressable young lady with an attitude to life very different to that expected of young ladies of the ton .She definately meets her match in Mac the illegitamate son of a Lord and the owner of a gaming hell!Mix in smugglers spies and sedition in high places and you have a great read.

I enjoyed this book. I liked the disreputable Damian and there was plenty going on.

Unrealistic as a story and plot.

A very entertaining book Recommended.