Review: If The Shoe Fits by Megan Mulry

The only thing worse than being in the spotlight is being kept in the dark...

With paparazzi nipping at his heels, Devon Heyworth, rakish brother of the Duke of Northrop, spends his whole life hiding his intelligence and flaunting his playboy persona. Fast cars and faster women give the tabloids plenty to talk about.

American entrepreneur Sarah James is singularly unimpressed with "The Earl" when she meets him at a wedding. But she's made quite an impression on him. When he pursues her all the way across the pond, he discovers that Miss James has no intention of being won over by glitz and glamor—she's got real issues to deal with, and the last thing she needs is larger-than-life royalty mucking about her business...

The pairing of Sarah and Devon was hinted at in Ms. Mulry's first book, A Royal Pain, so I was interested to read how Sarah and Devon would conquer the Atlantic Ocean and achieve their happily ever after.  Unfortunately, If the Shoe Fits missed the mark for me.  

Sarah and Devon have great chemistry, so I wanted to see their relationship work.  Watching it unfold on the page, however, was not a pleasurable experience.  Sarah, while she is a successful businesswoman, appears to have come from money via her father and her maternal grandmother, who lives in France.  Devon, of course, is "The Earl".   It wasn't their money and the jet-setter lifestyle that bothered me, though; it was their personalities, especially once they decided to move their relationship forward.  When Devon's jealousy reared its ugly head in a moment that could have quickly turned very sour and Sarah simply closed her eyes, that's when they lost me as a couple.   

It's a shame I won't be continuing this series because I really would have liked to see how Ms. Mulry paired Devon and Max's younger sister, Abby (who has seemingly been in a lesbian relationship for ten years) with Eliot Cranbrook in R is for Rebel (November 2013).

 

(A very special thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of If the Shoe Fits.)