Love, Louisa

by Barbara Metzger

A RITA Award-winning Author Louisa should have taken it as a sign when she wrecked her fiancé's car on the night of their engagement party. And when he stands her up at the wedding, she has little choice but to leave her life behind. Honeymooning alone, she winds up hospitalized with a severe sunburn. Desperate to figure out her next steps, Louisa retreats to her mother's seaside summer cottage, where she mistakes a wealthy landowner for a handyman. But the last thing Dante Rivera needs in his life is another weak woman . . .

Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance

445 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Barbara Metzger is the author of over three dozen books and a dozen novellas. She has also been an editor, a proof-reader, a greeting card verse-writer, and an artist. When not painting, writing romances or reading them, she volunteers at the local library, gardens and goes beach-combing and yard-saling.

Her novels, mostly set in Regency-era England, have won numerous awards, including the Romance Writers of America RITA, the National Reader's Choice Award, and the Madcap award for humor in romance writing. In addition, Barbara has won two Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times Magazine.

Source: http://www.barbarametzger.com/about_b...

Reviews

[Pája · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tohle je možná moje nejoblíbenější kniha z řady Srdcovek. Po zklamání u Popelčiných střevíčků jsem si rozhodně zpravila náladu, protože tohle bylo úžasné. Skvělý příběh, prostředí, postavy, chemie mezi Luisou a Dantem byla úžasná, bylo to vtipné, romantické, prostě jedním slovem úžasné.

[Shauna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure how this book got on my list to read, as it is not the sort I usually read, but it was in my stack of holds at the library, so I read it. Fortunately, this was a pretty mild (I mean clean) kind of romance book, and good enough for a light summer read, but I got very frustrated with the seemingly requisite mistrust and misunderstanding between our two main characters. Until, of course, they finally see past all that. I was also disappointed that when Louisa finally gets a job with an art critic, we never get to hear interesting stuff about art. It's all about long sexy legs and manly arms, blah, blah, blah. Like I said, not what I usually like to read, and I didn't dislike it, but there wasn't anything to make this special for me.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew that wrecking her fiancé’s car the night of the engagement party would mean that he wouldn’t show up at the wedding. The elaborate wedding that she paid for her to please her groom’s prominent mother. Well, the groom’s mother did promise to pay for the specially ordered flowers, and even that didn’t happen.

Embarrassed in front of her family and friends, Louisa gave a valiant effort to make the most of the fancy reception, but you try being dignified and calm when the groom doesn’t show up. Well, at least Louisa had a chance to salvage something. She decided to go on her Barbados honeymoon by herself. She needed time to lick her wounds, think things through, and return with a plan. She hadn’t thought about the possibility of spending so much time in the sun there that she landed in the emergency clinic sunburned and eyes swollen shut. Ok. Time to return home and recover her dignity and an independent life.

Upon her return to the couple’s shared apartment, she finds herself locked out, her belongings boxed and left at the front desk. Oh, the fiancé was sorry…he left her a note telling her she could keep the engagement ring and he included a check for…$1000 to compensate her for his change of plans. Well, Louisa was having nothing to do with either one. She returned the check and the ring to the bum with a note saying that even though they would never be even, she was a better person than he. He could keep his remorse. “Love, Louisa”

Poor Louisa had nowhere to go, no job, and not much money to live on. It would be too embarrassing to ask her friends for help. Her mother lived in Florida and her own friends and card games to keep her busy. Her sister had a husband two out of control kids. The only idea was to return to the old family beach house (in a fictitious village along the not fictitious South Hamptons.) It probably needed a little tender loving care, but Louisa could live there, fixing it up little by little while she healed.

Well, a little fixing up was a stretch of imagination. The place is a shambles and the nearby houses have mostly been vacated. But…it’s ok. There are instructions for putting up fences and fixing sinks and repairing a sagging floor and roof...library books and internet are great tools, right? She can do this!

As you can imagine, Louisa is hardly prepared for all that she encounters, not just with the home repairs but with the rather unpleasant handyman that she met. What is his problem?
Louisa is inexperienced at all that she has taken on, but she is determined and she is strong and she is, to a point, independent. She may not have much money, but she can make do with her own ingenuity and her own willingness to learn. She doesn’t need the grumpy handyman. She has adopted a dog to keep her company and she is gradually venturing back out into society. She can do this, thank you very much.

The story is predictable, but Louisa is not. She is a strong lady and she doesn’t cry over spilt milk. She has a quirky sense of humor and a smile that doesn’t quit. She sees the possibilities rather than the rather gloomy present. She made me laugh. She is naïve but she is smart. She has a good heart but she sometimes got herself in over her head. It was Louisa that made this predictable story so engaging. She was not predictable. She will show her ex that she doesn’t need him and that, yes, she is a better person than he. Love, Louisa

[Zel Polev · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. I still prefer the author's regency works but this one was fine as well. It's a light four.

I liked the dialogue. I laughed when a man said that he didn't know and she should ask a lawyer. The table was silent because the man was a lawyer.

I liked the running gag of people throwing up in Dante's car.

I feel like the book had the great ingredients but it could be cinched up a bit more. I wish there was more to Dante and Louisa starting a family. I just felt like the storyline about Dante and his ex wife being pregnant didn't really go anywhere. It was there and then it wasn't. It was just there to show Dante was a caring man, which is already shown in many other scenes. This one in particular had more potential for deeper storylines and it didn't really lead to anything further.

The part that I disliked the most was the seventy year old eyeing Louisa as a future lover. That was all kinds of disturbing to me. She was old enough to be his grand daughter and the way he conducted himself like he was a young stud wasn't really funny to me.

The story revolves around Louisa. She was left by her fiance on her wedding day. He just didn't show up. He sought to make amends financially but prideful, she declined. She packed up and moved away from the city to a smaller town. She had nothing. She had quit her job prior to her wedding and she couldn't go ask for it back because her fiance worked under the same company. She had no money because she turned his guilt/bribe money away. She's making do with her limited resources. She seemed like a disaster.

Dante appeared to her as a handyman. He flipped houses for a living but she thought he was a simple handy man. She told him to relay a message to his boss about her noisy neighbours. Thus started their contentious relationship, at least in the beginning. They ended up befriending each other as her disastrous life was borderline comical. He helped her get a job in the library and later as a personal assistant.

He ends up falling for her. She falls for him. They get together and he asks her to marry him.

[Flo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Crazy Contemporary Love Story

Barbara Metzger is better at contemporary romances than her famous urgency romances. The banter is lol funny, the plotting is excellent, her characters are wonderful. I enjoyed every word of this ridiculous, screwy, mad love story from beginning to end.

[Anne Bryson · Rating 2 out of 5]

The saving grace is that the book is well written in the that the prose flows. It is light hearted easy to read and follows the usual formula of urgent lust building up to a climatic end. Not as amusing as the regency books, the main characters are quite unbelievable. The female is incredibly naive whilst the male is too good to be true.

[Maude · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely Hilarious

This author has always been one of my favorites.
She is one of the best Regency author's around bar none. But who knew she was also a great contemporary romance author. This book was over the top funny and romantic. Read it: you'll enjoy it.

[Aňu Mock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tak zaprvé, miluju ty obálky, jsou dokonalé. Samotný příběh byl taky super. Sympatická hlavní hrdina, pes a pracovitý, bohatý fešák. Je třeba něco doplňovat? 😁

[Reading With Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Krásná milá oddechovka, kterou jsem momentálně nutně potřebovala. Bylo to hezké a nemám co vytknout možná ten konec mohl být trochu více rozepsaný. Ale jinak moc doporučuji 👍🏻

[Fromsouth 8 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 a 1/2

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_kDm1rg9gb/

[Lucie Aran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skvělé, vážně skvělé...
Svižné, vtipné, zábavné, v rámci možností originální, k tomu sympatické postavy s vlastní, pevně danou osobností - no co víc si od příjemné letní oddechovky přát?

[Sara Trogen]

This has to be one of the best books I have ever read. I wasn't that optimistic, i thought I would read ten pages and put it away. But it really got to me, it took one Friday night to finish this book. It is a romance but It is not one of those typical ones, its a romance that really touches you. I almost cried when I finished because I was so sad it was over, I looked to see if there was a sequel but unfortunately there wasn't.

[JoyfulK · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not as funny as Metzger at her best. If you want some decent, very light reading, look for her Regencies. At least you'll roll on the floor laughing with them.

[Lynne Tull · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the only Contemporary that Ms. Metzger has written to day. Thank goodness...I prefer her Historical-Fiction....you can't beat it!

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had hoped for something better.

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Modern