The Lady Travelers Guide to Scoundrels & Other Gentlemen by Victoria Alexander (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"Embark on the breathtaking romantic adventures of The Lady Travelers Society in the brand-new series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Victoria Alexander

Really, it's too much to expect any normal man to behave like a staid accountant in order to inherit the fortune he deserves to support the lifestyle of an earl. So when Derek Saunders's favorite elderly aunt and her ill-conceived—and possibly fraudulent—Lady Travelers Society loses one of their members, what's a man to do but step up to the challenge? Now he's escorting the world's most maddening woman to the world's most romantic city to find her missing relative.

While India Prendergast only suspects his organization defrauds gullible travelers, she's certain a man with as scandalous a reputation as Derek Saunders cannot be trusted any farther than the distance around his very broad shoulders. As she struggles not to be distracted by his wicked smile and the allure of Paris, instead of finding a lost lady traveler, India just may lose her head, her luggage and her heart."

My Thoughts:

I feel like this is going to be a hard review for me to write because I was very in the middle when it came to my feelings on this book.  I never really was able to put my finger on why but I didn't connect with this book like I had hoped to.  I didn't dislike it to be clear but I also didn't love it.  I just found myself kinda underwhelmed by it all.  I'll try to explain why but it is hard when for me when I'm just kinda meh about it.  I'm almost wondering if my reading experience suffered because I was in the middle of a reading slump.  I kept trying to push through on it because I was supposed to read it for a blog tour and I don't think that helped.  I loved the premise of this book because it sounds like a romance and adventure combined.  It was those things but it was also a bit meandering if I'm being completely honest.  I think that part of the problem was that I didn't connect to the main character India Prendergast.  I don't think that the reader is meant to like her in the beginning really but that also made it hard for me to connect to her and the story as a reader.  Usually when I read romances I'm really rooting for both of the main characters to fall in love and find their happy ever after.  Instead I was only rooting for Derek Saunders (the hero) as his character was one that I could get behind.  He was a romantic at heart and someone that I enjoyed reading about.  I just wish that I could have cared about them both because that would have made this book that much more enjoyable.

One thing that I did really enjoy with this book was the mystery of what had happened to India's missing aunt.  I found myself reading this book more to find out where she was then for the actual romance portion.  I was really surprised (and I won't say more than that) when we did actually find out the answers to the mystery portion.  It made the last part of this book much more fast paced for me compared to the rest of the story.  I also have to add that I really, really liked some of the secondary characters in this book.  I have high hopes that Derek's brother will be featured in the next book as I believe this is the beginning of a series.  I would definitely want to read that one!  I also found Derek's aunt and her friends to be a delight to read about.  I would really, really like to see more of them as well.  It sure sounds like I'm going to have read the next book, doesn't it?  LOL!  Now you can probably understand why I had such a hard time deciding on how I felt about this book.  Mixed feelings anyone?

Overall, I found this to be a good read but not great.  I can't honestly tell you if the book was to blame or if it was just my reading mood at the time.  I enjoyed it enough to plan on reading the next book in the future.  On the other hand, there are other romance reads that I would recommend before this one.  I'm glad that I stuck with it though as I found the ending to be much more in line with what I had hoped the entire book would be like.  This may have been my first book by this author but I don't think that it will be my last.  Recommended but with a few hesitations.

Bottom Line:  A book that left me wanting in ways and satisfied in others.  I can't say it better than that.

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book thanks to NetGalley as part of a TLC book tour (I also completely missed my tour date and am just now posting my thoughts.  My apologies.