Een echte dame

Unruly Royals #2

by Megan Mulry, Karin Pijl (Translator)

Sarah James is schoenontwerpster en heeft een succesvol bedrijf in New York. Als het op mannen aankomt, is ze echter onzeker. Tot haar eigen verbazing beleeft ze in Engeland, tijdens de bruiloft van haar beste vriendin, een stormachtige romance met de adellijke Devon Heyworth.Wat Sarah, eenmaal terug in New York, niet verwacht, is dat Devon ineens bij haar op de stoep staat. Ze valt als een blok voor hem. Maar dan loopt alles mis... en gaat Devon in een vlaag van jaloezie terug naar de andere kant van de oceaan.Komt het nog goed tussen Sarah en haar prins?Megan Mulry (www.meganmulry.com)schrijft sexy, moderne, romantische vrouwenfictie. Ze werkte voor The New Yorker en Boston Magazine. Voordat ze met haar man en kinderen in Londen ging wonen, reisde ze door Azië, India, Europa en Afrika. Een echte dame is haar tweede roman. Eerder verscheen Prinsheerlijk.`De vonken vliegen ervan af! Heerlijk! Jill Mansell`Geef toe, stiekem dromen we hier als volwassen vrouw nog steeds over...' Chicklit.nl

Genres: Romance, Chick Lit, Contemporary, Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Adult, Royalty

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Megan Mulry writes sexy, stylish, romantic fiction. Her first book, A Royal Pain, was an NPR Best Book of 2012 and USA Today bestseller. Before discovering her passion for romance novels, she worked in publishing and finance in New York and London. She now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Reviews

[Maja · Rating 1 out of 5]

(Realistic rating: yeah, we're going down to 1 here, folks. This is not quite unreadable drivel, but it's close enough, and I'm mad enough about it, that we're rounding RIGHT on down. Fuck ALL the way off.)

Hey, quick question: what the FUCK is Megan Mulry doing??

I'm fully serious here. Like, is this her entire thing? Putting men and women together for brief periods of time and then separating them after a significant piece of drama and then bringing them back together for True And Permanent Love Eternal? Because, uh, I hate that. I hate it a lot!! Especially when surrounded by unsympathetic choices and side characters and unrealistic dialogue and terrible overall writing!! What the fuck are you doing, Megan!!! This is disastrous storytelling!!!

I mean, maybe it's just me? This book has a lot of high reviews, so -- I don't know, maybe this is what people want to read! Maybe, against all odds, people find a love story in which two people have sex once, then part for a week, then reunite and have sex again, then have a fight as a result of a bout of intense jealousy from the man due to [checks notes] another man helping the woman out of a car, culminating in him destroying an heirloom from her dead mother, followed by a breakup and a lengthy parting, after which they reunite and immediately decide that this is a serious and permanent relationship for them (and that's JUST THE FIRST TWO-THIRDS OF THE BOOK)... compelling? Plausible? Healthy? Enjoyable to read about? I MEAN, CLEARLY THEY DO, BUT I LITERALLY CANNOT EVEN REMOTELY COMPREHEND WHY, BECAUSE OH MY FUCKING GOD.

In all seriousness, though, here's the main reason I don't like stories like this, in which the love happens so instantly and so thoroughly, to the exclusion of all sense or reason or logic (apart from its total lack of realism): BECAUSE of said exclusion of sense or reason or logic, the prevalent emotion that comes through the story, for me, isn't the thrill of falling in love or the warmth of finding a soulmate or the sheer pleasure of reading about two people finding each other. It's fear; it's doubt. It's the acknowledgment of this being reckless and unreasonable and surreal and nonsensical. And that throws a shadow over the entire experience for me, because if the characters are acknowledging it and jumping in anyway, and that's still the main emotion I get from the entire thing, then the author isn't doing a good enough job of convincing me that there are reasons for them to be ignoring those feelings. The good emotions aren't enough to balance out the bad. I don't want to read about intense and passionate relationships that happen super quickly and are acknowledged as scary and irrational and taking-the-plunge-type things! That's not appealing at all! And maybe it is for some people, but they are entirely lost on me, and that seems to be Megan Mulry's contemporary jam, so -- we're going to choose not to engage with her ever again, mmkay? She's very much not for me (and I feel pretty strongly she shouldn't be for anyone, tbh).

Also, I just cannot get over how unsympathetic both of these characters are, even disregarding how unsympathetic their relationship is! I am TOLD over and over again how competent and spectacular Sarah is and how well she's doing at such a young age, but we are literally always seeing her at a disadvantage or out of her depth or handling things poorly in this book?? She never shines in any capacity even once! (Except in bed with Devon, I guess?) And Devon... look, it's the 2000s, how can I still be expected to sympathize with a wildly rich and privileged white man who is just dilettanting about because he is ~scared of showing how smart he is because then he might.... have.... responsibilities...?? Yeah, FULLY miss me with that bullshit. Get all the way out of here and do not stop even once.

It's just... it's bad, folks. It's so, so bad. Megan Mulry is not a good writer, and I deeply regret picking up another book by her after this, and you can best believe I will very much not make that mistake again. AND NEITHER SHOULD YOU.

(OH and do not even get me STARTED on the lesbian character clearly getting set up for a romance with a dude further down the road WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, MEGAN!!!!!!!)

[Olga · Rating 3 out of 5]

El primer libro me gusto mucho y esperaba con ganas la segunda parte y me ha vuelto a encantar como construye los personajes masculinos ( Devon es un prisma de varias caras) y como siguen su historia Max y Bronte. Sobre Sarah decir que me ha gustado aunque a veces es demasiado inmadura ( aunque los personajes femeninos lo son un poco asi como un poco pesados)... Estoy deseando leer el tercer libro, sera la historia de Abby???

[Lmoore · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really intrigued by the concept of this book...old world dukes in a modern age. I was really disappointed in the execution. The book was basically about really rich British and American people. There was really no need for them to be dukes (and the hero of this book wasn't even a duke). It would have been so much more fun to have some of the constraints of the time imposed on the characters of this book. The plot itself was just kind of okay. The two main characters get together first thing, then break up, get back together, and it seems like they are apart more than together. It was tedious to read through...I just wanted them to do something together.
I was really hoping this book would be awesome, as I love me a good regency novel, but it just fell flat.

[Kelly Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Megan Mulry is definitely my new favorite contemporary romance author. If the Shoe Fits was just as good as the first book in the series, A Royal Pain.

This story features two characters from A Royal Pain: Sarah James, the sidekick shoe designer, and Devon Heyworth, the brother of the Duke of Northrop.

The plot really doesn't matter since it's pretty much the standard romance formula, but the characters are wonderfully written which is much more important to me.

[Julianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book would be a nice romance, difficult but worth it. The synopsis completely detracted from the novel. I thought that she wouldn't love him until later in the book, but instead she pined after him the whole time. Also, keeping a guy upstairs and bringing one downstairs - so not classy. Also, all her fights with him (the 'tension') was stupid.

[Cristina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entre 2y 2,5
El problema ha estado en que, pese a querer terminar la novela, no he empatizado con los personajes. El principio ha estado bien pero su relación me aburría y los motivos del alejamiento me parecían tan tópicos que no entendía como la autora había tirado por ahí.
Lo salva ciertos momentos de humor y algunos secundarios.
A ver qué pasa con el tercero

[Bren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Completely disappointed - I didn't like the characters and the humor fell flat.

[Maria Arroyo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow. This book was all a mess to me. So much of left me annoyed, frustrated and just confused on how to feel towards it. Firstly I want to say, the plot itself has so much potential. I thought it’s concept was going to be great, playboy of partial royalty meets the girl who changes his ways, can’t go wrong right? Well not on this one. It really misses the proper effect and emotion needed. The romance scenes were good until you realize the author doesn’t ever complete them and you’re left stranded when you’ve finally got to a juicy part. If that wasn’t enough to drive me insane, the way things were written here drove me nuts. There were so many moments when parts of the chapter should have just been broken up but instead it that entered a new paragraph instead. The writing is just all over the place with jumps in time that are ridiculously abrupt, you never find out if the female leads work issue gets resolved or what truly happens to it. The love plot was just a mess and not in the cute romantic way. Red flags are thrown throughout this book, and normally as a reader you expect them in bad boy romances, yet for some reason, in this book they drove me crazy with annoyance and I just felt like it was hurting the book rather than helping. I truly couldn’t stand the female lead at the end either. Overall this was 2.5/5 stars for me and I do not recommend.

[Karü Viera · Rating 2 out of 5]

Arranco buenísimo y después no hizo mas que decaer. No solo en la trama, si no los personajes también hicieron una involución pocas veces vista. Amo el romance y encontré algunas partes empalagosas de mas y no hablemos de los problemas de la trama que saltaban de la nada y se arreglaban prácticamente solos.

[Brenda Jaeger · Rating 1 out of 5]

Realmente disfruto de este tipo de lecturas pero con esta no hice click, Devon y Sarah fueron aburridos, no sentí una conexión, las primeras páginas fueron buenas, pero después se alargó mucho el drama.

[Jennifer Gallagher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another typical “common girl becomes royal” story... but a) that’s what I wanted and b) it was written well. I love series because you get some great cha after development and this is no exception. Plus all the yummy shoes? This is a great second installment!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun series. I've read three of the four and quite liked all of them.

[LadyTechie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an early release copy of If the Shoe Fits from netgalley. I have to admit that now that I read some pure romance books this one falls within the realm of the type I enjoy most. I seemed to have a fondness for the royals or wealthy men meeting and falling for someone that is not part of their crowd. In this case Sarah James is non-royal but she does come from a wealthy family and in her own right is very successful and wealthy. I loved her more in the first book in the series. In this series I was slightly put off by her attitude towards commitment. Not that I have not seen good reason to stay away from them both in my reading materials and in real-life. I just could not get a good feel for her reasons for her attitudes. I felt like I was missing it so I did not identify with her or understand some of her decisions.

I love reading books based in London, really things in the entire U.K. region and Europe. This series always does a good job of giving that feel for location even when they are in New York. I did not recognize all of the streets but had a great desire to walk those streets and see if some of the buildings actually exist. Things look so different over there due to differences in architecture and purely because of the age. This book is not designed so much for an armchair travel book but it does provide good atmosphere when describing decor and buildings. Devon's mom seems to be a bit prejudiced about the 2 women that are dating her sons and I just did not get a great feel for why she was more companionable to Sarah James versus Bronte Talbott but, I think it might be in the books so I will have to re-read both to detect the nuances. I suspect it has more to do with her relationship with the sons spilling over onto her relationships with the women. Megan Mulry does a good job with characterization. Overall it is a great story and I hope to see more in this series though I tend to shy away from books that cover different relationships as part of the same series.

Review can also be seen at LadyTechies Book Musings http://LadyTechiesBookMusings.blogspo...

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shortened names abound! The author even managed to work in Sar as a replacement for Sarah. There were several typos and a lot of extra jargon that added nothing to the story for me. Sarah is a 25 year old out to rid herself of her virginity after years of being a workaholic and seemingly a little asexual she just wants it over and done with. So she does and suddenly her body awakens to this whole new relam of feeling. The guy she loses it to doesn't know she was a virgin but still managed to treat her right enough that she became the afore mentioned sexual dynamo that cannot be satisfied with anything but him. He is dumbstruck with love despite being a 28 year old confirmed bachelor. She is a shoe designer who opened a store in her own home in Chicago and lives upstairs but still manages to have a wonderful weekend tryst including hot screaming sex without any customers hearing. Because she also doesn't have to work on saturdays and can afford to spend only two weeks each month in Chicago because she also has business in New York. Anyone who works in retail knows weekends don't really exist. I first thought that the house was in the woods somewhere but it's a well visited store so it must be in town but holy cow no matter where it is it's her private residence and a store. In short didn't like the writing style, jargon, or the inconsistent logic or narration. One paragraph would be in Sarah's head the next in her unimportant grandmother's. DNF.

[Susan Scribner · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a major disappointment after the fun read of Mulry's debut. Instead of the first book's sexy romance, this time around we get a lot of sex but not much romance. The hero and heroine jump into bed together and spend 300 pages unable to keep their hands off each other. The hero acts like an ass several times, and shows very little character growth or remorse. The heroine goes from insecure virgin to sex goddess in the blink of an eye. I was charmed by the studious, series hero of Royal Pain but disgusted by this book's hero, who at the very end of the book is still unwilling to go public with the fact that he is actually smart and successful.

The head-hopping throughout the entire novel was very disconcerting and annoying as well. One second the POV is the hero, the next it's the heroine and a minute later it's a secondary character.

I'll probably still read the third book in the series to see what Mulry does with an American businessman and a British royal lesbian, but I think that is where Mulry and I will part ways.

[Elb4966 · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a disjointing read. That made it a bit difficult to follow at times and caused me to loose interest. About a third of the way into the book, I was skimming the book so that I could find out what happened. When I was only 30% from finishing the book, I lost interest in doing that.

I would not recommend this book even as a read when you are trying to kill time.

[20012206 · Rating 4 out of 5]

El libro me pareció divertido, sin embargo hay momentos en los que uno esta leyendo y me pareció que la escritora se perdía contando historias que no eran importantes ni para el desarrollo de la historia principal ni para describir la personalidad de los protagonistas

Aunque en general me gusto la historia.

[Debbie is on Storygraph · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the sequel to A Royal Pain and also suffered from the completely unrealistically unwieldy dialogue. It's the pretty standard romance formula but the characters are fun enough that I didn't really care. I probably won't be continuing on with the series but the first two books were a fun diversion.

[Annalynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as enjoyable as the first in this series, but still a fun, light read involving two of my secret obsessions: royalty and high fashion. Its like the "Go Fug Yourself' gals wrote a book for those of us closet blog readers.

[Denise DeNunzio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bad even as a mindless vacation read.

[Abby Jean · Rating 2 out of 5]

vacuous tripe

[Nilam Suri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is actually good. I love the chemistry, but the writer put too much description. Keep going on and on, not enough conversations.

Too much telling, not enough showing. Such a shame.

[Jo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Este libro fue como leer un fan fiction mal hecho de Wattpad.

Sarah James es una mujer independiente y éxito que no necesitó de nadie más que su creatividad y necesidad de buscar la aprobación de su padre ah, claro, y los montones de dinero que su padre ya tenía que le sirvieron para empezar su negocio de zapatos y mudarse a Francia.

Devon Heyworth es un Lord que la prensa AMERICANA llama Duque porque su hermano tiene un título sobre Duque y simplemente suponen que por ser menor, él debe de ser un Duque (lo cual no tiene sentido porque la realeza es un tema muy delicado que no tocas a menos que estés seguro al 100% de lo que es) y se la pasa teniendo sexo con todo lo que se mueve.

Se supone que estamos hablando de la realeza en los tiempos modernos pero, por más moderno que sea todo el mundo a su al rededor, un Lord no puede ir causando problemas por ahí y ganarse una mala reputación. Más que nada, fue de personas con mucho dinero que gozan de todos los placeres de la vida y tienen problemas amorosos. Fin de la historia.

Hay muchos momentos en este libro en los cuales no entendí nada de tan mal escritas que están las cosas y sin orden alguno, por ejemplo: hay un capítulo en el que nos cuenta la historia de estudios de uno de los personajes principales, Devon. En esta ocasión ya se separó la pareja principal y da un brinco a decir que después de 4 años Devon cometió un error en clase al alzar la mano y dar una respuesta en clase de matemáticas (quien por cierto, es un genio que oculta su conocimiento para que no lo juzguen y es co-dependiente de su hermano mayor, Max) y luego se salta a que lleva años trabajando en una empresa y da un proyecto por primera vez y luego ya le deben un departamento cerca de la oficina pero ¡esperen! Eso no es todo, después de hacerte pensar que todo eso pasó hace años, te das cuenta de que es en el día presente porque empieza a hablar de la chica, Sarah. Cuando alguien hablaba, costaba trabajo darse cuenta quien era ¡porque no decía el nombre! Solo ere "dijo" y probablemente en la versión en inglés sí se entendí pero, creo que al traductor no le ensañaron a conjugar "dijo" y que para el pronombre "él" y "ella" es lo mismo.

Otra cosa muy importante y que me desespero a más no poder, fueron los personajes(y las escenas de sexo pero esas simplemente son estúpidas y demasiadas). Parecía que a la autora se le olvidaba que sus personajes ya eran adultos de 27 años hechos y derechos porque todos (hasta los secundarios) se comportaban como niños mimados que creen saberlo todo. Sarah no sabe nada de relaciones de ningún tipo, pero aun así es una experta en el sexo y en el coqueteo.

Tiene la típica historia familiar en la que el segundo hijo más pequeño es el único al que la madre quiere y pone atención que, obviamente, es Devonon. El "duque" que tiene la peor reputación con la prensa , se acuesta con todo lo que se mueva y estudia para ser arquitecto porque definitivamente todas las mujeres se acostarían con un arquitecto antes que con un Lord. No solo es una mentalidad muy tonta sino que, ¿desde cuándo ser arquitecto te da un título más arriba de ser parte de la realeza? Por favor.
También tenemos a la típica hermana menor que es lesbiana, tiene problemas amorosos del tipo que se la pasa triste todo el día y es negada y odiada por la madre conservadora que ojalá hubiera dejado de tener hijos con el tercero (en serio dijo eso).

No hay una cosa que esté bien en este libro más que el punto que da fin a toda la horrorosa historia.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creo que a este libro le doy un 2.5 en realidad.
Me ha gustado bastante menos que el anterior.
Puntos fuertes: Se lee muy rápido, engancha mucho y es entretenida. Las personalidades de los personajes me han gustado y sobre todo Sarah me ha parecido muy entrañable. También me ha gustado que la autora se tomara un par de capítulos para relatar la infancia de los dos protagonistas, creo que es una forma genial de entenderlos más y de conectar con ellos de una forma más profunda.
Puntos negativos: No me gusta nada el instalove. Es un cliché al que le he cogido manía y no puedo con él. Algunos dirán que lo que hay entre los personajes no es un instalove pero yo estoy totalmente en desacuerdo, ya que se ven (literalmente) tres veces. Además, me ha parecido que la trama era muy similar al libro anterior. En el sentido de que se conocen, pasan un tiempo juntos, drama, se separan, se vuelven a juntar y felices para siempre. Sé que si alguien me lee pensará que es la base de cualquier historia romántica, pero hay que leer los libros de esta trilogía para entender a qué me refiero, hay demasiados elementos en común. También vuelvo a decir que después de todo el drama las cosas entre los protagonistas se solucionan demasiado rápido y, como en el anterior, el final después de que se haya solucionado todo, me parece muy precipitado.
En resumen, es una historia entretenida, para pasar un buen rato y coges cariño a los personajes, pero, en mi caso, no va a ser la mejor historia que he leído.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up the first book on sale due to the premise, and ended up glom-reading all four books within a week due to travel. So my reviews are all a bit wrapped up together, and won't be super detailed for each one due to not being able to tell them all apart.

This second book follows the romance between Devon, the second son and third child in the family, as he falls in love with Sarah who is Bronte's best friend. We also learn a bit more about Abigail, the fourth child and second daughter, whose story is the fourth book in the series.

I loved Sarah and her shoe company a lot, especially the aspects of the story that focused on the shoe design and how she got there, like her internship at Louboutin - man that sounds fascinating! I was less impressed with Devon in general, especially his secretive nature, and he did deserve an ass-kicking and needed to grovel more than he did. The author repeated the "long break" between the big fight and the reconciliation, and I found it annoying in this story after having read the first one immediately before. I enjoyed this book more than the first.

Overall, fun reading for plane trips, but nothing earth-shattering. I'd rate this a mild R for its sexual content and swearing.

[Monica Mi burbuja de lectura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tenía muchas ganas de leer este libro, porque el primero me gustó mucho, pero la realidad es que he tenido sentimientos encontrados.
Los primeros capítulos se me hicieron cuesta arriba y me costó bastante entrar en la historia. Creo que me costó tanto porque los personajes no acababan de convencerme. No me han parecido coherentes y no he podido conectar del todo con ellos.
Los saltos en el tiempo tampoco han ayudado. Me han desconcertado y, en mi opinión, no aportan mucho a la trama en sí y solo enturbian la lectura.
También me he encontrado con partes de la trama que se plantean pero que no se resuelven (y que no tienen que ver con los hermanos de Devon, que podrían resolverse en los siguientes libros).
Bronte y su duque, al igual que Eliot Cranbook, han sido de lo mejor de la novela, lo que me hace tener esperanzas para el siguiente.

[Tina Chaffin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is your typical boy meets girl, they are from two different places but both grew up with luxury. The author uses entirely too many "big word" adjectives. So many off the wall it distracts the reader. The conversations were not realistic, nor were their breakups and back togethers. I wasn't a fan, and don't know that I'd read anything else by this author.

Word: Parure: A set of jewels intended to be worn together.

Quote: "Just because I don't attend, doesn't mean I'm not dedicated"

Reading Challenge Prompt: A book with a shoe on the cover.

[Mariya Valcheva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Лек, приятен, чете се на "един дъх". Рядко чета такъв тип книги, обикновено ги ползвам за рестартиране между книги на историческа тематика.
" Ако обувката е по мярка " ме впечатли с лекия начин по който е написана. Забавна, разтоварваща, докосваща. Благодарение на начина по който пише Меган Мълри успях да почувствам главната героиня и емоциите през които преминава.
Определено препоръчвам да се прочете!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Devon is such a man-child! It would be interesting to see the author's idea of what he looks like, because he is described as quite gorgeous. I love that Sarah is so blunt and does not play games. It seems like such a small problem that they have, but really it boils down to communication being key. It takes quite awhile for these two to figure that out and settle into their HEA.

[Bree · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy Megan's overall writing style, and her characters are funny, but I'm beginning to get uncomfortable with some of her character's actions.

And I'm really annoyed that this book hinted that Abby is going to get "turned" for Eliot. I'd rather read Claire's or even Sylvia's second chance than watch a perfectly decent lesbian go straight just to fill a book.