The Truth about Leo by Katie MacAlister

Image linked from Goodreads

If this hadn't been an ARC from NetGalley, there is no way I would have made it past the first chapter. I just plain do not like Dagmar (Dagmar?). She is headstrong as well as ignorant and just something of a spoiled child. Yes, I get that is supposed to be her character, but we don't really see any evolution. She just magically becomes a good person... or maybe her negatives were just over-emphasized and then suddenly de-emphasized. It was odd. Anyway, she needs to escape her current situation so when she finds a near-dead English soldier in her garden, she marries him.
Only it turns out he's not just any soldier, he's an earl. The seventh earl of March, Leopold Ernst George Mortimer doesn't know what's going on. He's not in heaven because it seems he's surrounded by harpies. Luckily, those harpies save him. And one is even his wife! That's a surprise.
While there were a lot of issues with this book (a LOT of issues), Katie MacAlister overall weaves a wonderful story as long as you can really, really suspend your disbelief (e.g. use of the word recap which didn't come into the current use until the 1920s. Even the first use wasn't until the 1850s).
Overall, an enjoyable story. Not as good as the first book in the series but definitely better than the third.
It's coming out on August 5.

The Trouble with Harry by Katie MacAlister

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Harry, Marquise Rosse, is in a bit of a pickle. He has five children (including a daughter on the brink of womanhood.) So, he decides to advertise for a wife. And, ooo, does he get a woman.
Plum, Fredericka Pelham, has a rather scandalous past. Now forty, she is anxious to create a family of her own. She seizes the chance not realizing exactly what she's getting herself into.
Are the children plot moppets? Yes. Yes they are. Sometimes annoying and occasionally adorable but plot moppets.
While I liked Plum, I hated that she and Harry never talked (common Romance trope, right?). More than one of their conflicts wouldn't have been conflicting

if she had just asked Harry how he thought she was doing

. I did like that Harry was so accepting of Plum's "secrets."
Not as good as the first book in the series but worth a read for the unconventional heroine.

Noble Intentions by Katie MacAlister

Image lined from Goodreads

Huh. When I got this book from NetGalley, I had no idea it had originally been published over ten years ago. 
When the book opened, I was scared. "Oh, great. Another clumsy heroine" because, you see, our heroine, Gillian Leigh, has set the curtains of a duchess on fire. Not an auspicious start to her season, especially for someone who already has a black mark by being half-American.
But that's okay for someone who's on the fringes of society himself, the Black Earl, also known as Lord Wessex. Semi-accused (only in whispers, don't ya know) of murdering his first wife, it's also known by most of the ton (though not Charlotte) that he has a bastard son that he openly acknowledges. However, he needs to find a wife to preserve the line and he figures Charlotte will do just as well as any other, assuming that she really is the timid spinster that she appears on first sight.
So Charlotte and the earl marry, very, very quickly. She immediately becomes the bright spot in his life... and his son's. And she sticks by him even when it becomes preposterous to do so. There is, of course, a requisite bad guy who is causing the trouble and he's fairly easy to spot but it doesn't take away from enjoyment of the book.
Yes, there are a lot of things that could be annoying in this book but I quite enjoyed the romp and MacAlister's writing. My first thought on turning of my Nook with a sigh, "I can't wait to read the next book in the series."