The Lady Travelers Guide to Scoundrels and Other Gentlemen: A Historical Romance Novel by Victoria Alexander

Release Date: 05/23/17

Tracy’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that was provided to me by the author and NetGalley*

I love Ms. Alexander’s writing style – it is light without being fluffy, funny, emotional and poignant. This book had all those elements plus a bit of steam, a missing cousin, a road trip to Paris and wonderful secondary characters!

India Prendergast is a no nonsense, independent, sensible woman. She is trying to find her missing cousin, Lady Heloise and all her inquires have been ignored by the Lady Travelers Society. India goes to the society – bent on getting answers and proving that the society is a scam and seeing justice done. This is where she meets the most annoying (and charming) Derek Saunders.

Derek has been told in no uncertain terms that he must curb his scandalous ways or his uncle (Edward, Earl of Danby) will make sure he does not inherit his fortune when he inherits the title. To prove that he is mending his ways, Derek agrees to look after his great-aunt Gwen while his mother is away – what he finds is a scandal in the making – his aunt and her friends have started a travel society – but they cannot actually provide the services they promise and to make matters worse – one of their members is missing and her relative is threatening to involve the police! Desperate to save his great-aunt Derek declares that he will hire investigators to find Heloise and will trace her travels himself to find her. This is when he meets the maddening (and intriguing) India Prendergast.

India informs Derek that she will accompany him to find Heloise, she is convinced that he is the mastermind behind the scheme to defraud the members and doesn’t trust him at all. Gwen insists that they cannot travel alone and hires Professor and Mrs. Greer as chaperones. India lets Derek make their travel arrangements and the foursome sets off to Paris.

When they arrive in Paris, they are not staying at a hotel – but with Derek’s step-brother Percival aka Val, Marquess of Brookings. The scene when India wakes up and Val invades her bedroom is hilarious! India is unsettled, first Val invades her room, then her luggage turns up missing, then she finds out that there are over 20 “Grand” hotels in Paris – can this get any worse? Why yes, yes it can and it does – much to this readers delight!

At the advice of his uncle Edward, Derek is going to stall India in Paris for as long as he can, giving Edward’s investigators time to find Heloise and hopefully preventing India from having charges brought up against Gwen. He soon learns that India believes he is behind the scheme and to protect Gwen, he lets her. He and India spend a good deal of time together and slowly India begins to lighten up and starts to make some startling revelations about herself.

The journey to their happy ending is not smooth, but it is very entertaining. The book is well written, flows nicely, has an outstanding cast of secondary characters, a bit of steam, a bit of mystery and a lot of laugh out loud moments.

I highly recommend this book and cannot wait to read the next one!