Ten Things I Love About You

by Julia Quinn, 377 pages

Gentleman rogue Sebastian Grey's uncle, Lord Newberry, hates him so much that he is on the lookout for a young wife solely for the purpose of siring an heir and thereby cutting Sebastian out of his inheritance. For his part, Sebastian couldn't care less, as being up or down an earldom won't make much difference in his circumstances: he'll still be handsome, popular with the widows and bored married ladies of the ton, and happily supporting himself writing pseudonymous gothic novels. But when his smarmy uncle sets his sights on Annabel Winslow--a smart, vibrant, forthright innocent whose large family has fallen on hard times and could use the financial stability such a match would bring--Sebastian finds himself rather more irritated than he expected. Perhaps thwarting his uncle in just this one instance would be worth all the trouble it's bound to stir up.

This is the latest in a series of novels centering on a handful of loosely connected characters wandering in and out of the London social circles (the others being The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever and What Happens in London). Quinn does a good job of fleshing Sebastian out and making him as contrary and quirky as suggested by his peripheral appearances elsewhere in the series, although his clownishness has been toned down a bit for his role as a principal, which I find a little disappointing. Annabel has some clearly defined personality traits, as well, what with her filter-less way of speaking and her family's penchant for voting its members "Most Likely" to accomplish various tasks, such as "The Winslow Most Likely to Fall Asleep in Church" (Annabel) and "The Winslow Third Most Likely to Outrun a Turkey" (also Annabel). The couple's dynamic is fun, though it's harder to maintain when things get more serious and confrontations arise, as sometimes the drama feels contrived and the reader's not even sure why the two are fighting. I also found the pair's shared habit of listing things in tens (or elevens or twelves, they seem to have difficulty counting) to be inconsistent and artificial, as though a mere characterization gimmick hastily added in later simply for the sake of having a gimmick. But overall the story works well enough for what it is, a light historical romance with a pair of smart-alecks at its heart.