Since being named "London's Lord to Land" by a popular ladies' magazine, Nicholas St. John has been relentlessly pursued by every matrimony-minded female in the ton. So when an opportunity to escape fashionable society presents itself, he eagerly jumps - only to land in the path of the most determined, damnably delicious woman he's ever met!

The daughter of a titled wastrel, Lady Isabel Townsend has too many secrets and too little money. Though she is used to taking care of herself quite handily, her father's recent passing has left Isabel at sea and in need of outside help to protect her young brother's birthright. The sinfully handsome, eminently eligible Lord Nicholas could be the very salvation she seeks.

But the lady must be wary and not do anything reckless and foolish…like falling madly, passionately in love.

Listening Length

11 hours and 14 minutes
Author

Sarah MacLean
Narrator

Mary Jane Wells
Audible release date

May 13, 2014
Language

English
Publisher

HarperAudio
ASIN

B00JMN7EUA
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	11 hours and 14 minutes
Author	Sarah MacLean
Narrator	Mary Jane Wells
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	May 13, 2014
Publisher	HarperAudio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00JMN7EUA
Best Sellers Rank	#29,231 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #154 in Regency Romance #1,693 in Historical Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #2,815 in Regency Romances

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

1,188 global ratings

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3 star		13%
2 star		2%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Underwhelming second novel, do not read as a standalone

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 4, 2018

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After loving the first book in this series, ‘Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake’, I found this follow up to be a bit of a letdown in several ways. That’s not to say I did not enjoy ‘Ten Ways to be Adored When Landing a Lord’ but I found that it lacked the fun, humour and smoldering passion of Book 1. If you enjoyed the first book, I suggest you do give this one a chance as a lot of the characters make appearances and it is a good stepping stone to the third novel, ‘Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart’.

‘Ten Ways to be Adored When Landing a Lord’ is the second novel of the Love by Numbers series by Sarah MacLean and revolves around Lady Isabel Townsend and Lord Nicholas St. John, brother of Gabriel St. John the rake from Book 1. The novel tells the story from both Nicholas and Isabel’s POV, sometimes switching from one to the other without clearly delineating the change which can be a little confusing.

For those who have read Book 1 you will remember Lord Nicholas St. John, Nick, as the light-hearted flirt to his grumpy twin brother Gabriel. In this book we get a lot more of his background, including an introducing his constant friend and companion Durukhan, who he refers to as Rock. A Turkish man who rescued Nick from a Turkish prison which is also the origin for the story of how he got his scar. I would have liked this introduction to have taken place during Book 1 as I did find it a little disorienting to suddenly have such a close friend.

Nick’s background is also a lot darker in this novel and whilst I did like the extra depth that added to his character I felt like some of that detail conflicted with his depiction in ‘Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake’. I also felt that Ms MacLean dragged out the explanation for his scar and prison time too long. By the time we got the account of why Nick’s had his deep dark secret that had caused his pain and behaviour, the whole thing felt overdone and a bit dry.

Our heroine is Lady Isabel Townsend. She has spent her entire life in the country at her father’s estate in Yorkshire, never having a season in London nor any real interest in city life. Her father is a notorious gambler and she commonly refers to him as the Wastreal for his dissipated and spendthrift ways. At the start of the novel Isabel is dealing with a man whom her father has promised her hand in marriage in exchange for forgiving his latest gambling debt. I loved this scene and felt that Isabel was plucky and brave. However, for the rest of the novel these qualities got pushed into the background and I never felt that she rose to that level of boldness again.

The story starts off with Nick receiving a request to track down the missing sister of the Duke of Leighton as they were apparently boyhood friends and Nick is a renowned tracker. At the same time an article has been published in the ladies publication, Pearls and Pelisses, on the eligible bachelors of London and how to land them. Of which, Nick is one of the preeminent bachelors mentioned and all the single, and some not so single, ladies of London are after him. The chance to escape London is jumped upon and leads Nick and Rock to Yorkshire and the neighbourhood of Isabel.

What follows after Nick and Isabel’s initial meeting is a rather rapid insta-love story with lots of boring filling, how long can you read about roofing and marble statues without tuning out? In general, I have a problem with insta-love stories as I find that they just don’t read true. You add that to an era where women were restricted and repressed, and with our heroine who has no romantic experience but she is fooling around with Nick within 24 hours, and I felt that Isabel was acting against her nature. I would have preferred a slower burn for the romance, but this felt very situational. Nick was the first gentleman that Isabel had met and boom she was in love.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad book but it did not live up to Book 1. There were several major plot and character issues that didn’t allow me to enjoy the story as much as I wanted. The sexy times scenes also follow (almost exactly) the pattern of ‘Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake’ and I would have liked to see something a little more original.

3.5/5 Stars! If you have read and enjoyed Book 1 in the Love by Numbers series I recommend that you also read this novel, but I do not suggest that you read this as a standalone novel.

7 people found this helpful

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Decent but not her best

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 1, 2019

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Overall: 3.75 rounding to 4 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 4 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Feels: 3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sensuality: 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I tried to go into this book without comparing it to Nine Rules. I wanted to love it. I set my expectations high because of what I know of Sarah MacLean as an author, as opposed to what I thought it should be because of Nine Rules. In truth, it’s difficult not to compare the two for obvious reasons. But the characters are so different that you really need to judge it on its own merits. If you go into this expecting another Nine Rules, you’re going into it the wrong way.

I loved Nick. He’s so different from Gabriel. Gabriel is for when you want the arrogant, commanding, takes what he wants with no apologies alpha hero. Nicholas is for when you want the arrogant, commanding, follows his lovely heart and will give you the world if only you’d ask for it, gamma hero. He is my favorite kind of hero. He’s strong and protective, but with a sweetness and tenderness to him that just make you melt.

Isabel is about as unspoiled as they come. She’s a lady but has never had a single thing handed to her. She’s on her own, completely, and needs absolutely no one to take care of her. Only, she wants someone to take care of her. And those are two totally different things. At first, she doesn’t own that she wants that. She thinks she wants to be independent and it takes her a while to understand is that letting someone take care of you isn’t a weakness.

And Nick, all he wants to do is take care of her. He’s the guy who can’t help but fall for a damsel in distress. For him, it is a weakness. And it takes him a while to understand that a woman doesn’t need to depend on him to want to depend on him.

This romance is more gentle than Nine Rules. Nick doesn’t come on super strong but the chemistry between them is still excellent. In the beginning, there is a tentativeness about their relationship that makes you hold your breath, while they try to figure things out. They approach each other slowly. There is hand holding and caresses and gentle kisses and honesty. There is a lot more talking and sharing in this book. The beginning set a perfect tone, but it fizzled in the middle and the book lost some of its intimacy.

Nicholas has a much more interesting past than I expected. It was completely unexpected, in fact. I couldn’t have dreamed it up. Of course, after reading Nine Rules, I wondered how he got his scar. That was the point after all. But I imagined something…different. It was darker than I expected. And this is where the book started splitting into this weird dichotomy for me, where I simultaneously felt that Nick was super intriguing and also too mysterious, because Sarah MacLean simply didn’t develop his background enough. In fact, the whole reason he ended up meeting Isabel in the first place is glossed over even though it’s an important part of his history.

I felt like Nick was a bit forgotten in this book. We don’t get a lot of his inner feelings and I wish Sarah MacLean had spent more time on his wishes and worries. They were things we didn’t truly get until around 85% and that’s when the feels started hitting home and it was just too late in the book to have real impact.

The love scenes, while explicit and plentiful, were more about the mechanics than they were about feeling. I really expect more from her at this point. Approximately 10% of them were from Nick’s perspective and that is such a shame. It was too one sided. Especially since we have a book here where the hero loves first! Such a rarity that it was a missed opportunity for sure.

All things said, this was a pretty good romance. If I think about it against many other books I’ve read, it’s wonderful, but it did not quite meet the Sarah MacLean benchmark. There were things I loved about it and some things that just never quite reached its potential.

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Carol Cork

A most enjoyable story with interesting characters, a passionate and sensual romance

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 31, 2019

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I absolutely loved Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake, the first book in this series, and had high expectations of Ten Ways to be Adored When Landing a Lord. I have to say that, although it was good, it did not quite live up to my expectations. But, to be fair, Nine Rules was always going to be a tough act to follow.

What can I say about Nicholas? He is just gorgeous! He is not only devastatingly handsome, intelligent, charming and super sexy but also a genuinely good man. Given how his mother’s desertion had destroyed his father and his own betrayal at the hands of a woman, I could fully understand his attitude towards love – to be avoided at all costs. He has his own rules when it comes to amorous affairs…

No mistresses. No regular assignations. And, most definitely, no wife.

But we all know that rules are meant to be broken, as Nicholas (Nick) discovers when he meets Lady Isabel Townsend. He cannot resist a lady in distress, even if she is the most intriguing, infuriating and secretive woman he has ever known. He is also drawn to her combination of strength and vulnerability.

I love how honest and forthright Nick is with Isabel and how he does everything he can to protect not only Isabel but also her ten-year-old brother, James, now Earl of Reddich, and the women of Minerva House.

“I am not perfect. I cannot promise you that I will not do things that will hurt you.” He paused, his scar a pale line against his darkened skin. “But I will do everything in my power to protect you and James and these girls.”

I also adore how Nick takes James under his wing and becomes like a surrogate father to him. The scenes between them are quite charming such as this one.

Nick turned. “Would you like me to teach you?”
The boy’s eyes lit up. “Would you mind very much?”
“Not at all.” Nick removed the strip of linen from his person and placed it around James’s neck. Turning the boy to the looking glass, he walked James through the movements until the cravat was a fair approximation of the knot Nick had created earlier.

Isabel’s life has not been easy. Her late father had always neglected his wife and children, leaving them in the country, while he went off to London to enjoy a profligate and scandalous life. I admire Isabel’s courage in rising to the difficult challenge of running the estate and her resolve to provide a safe haven for the women at Minerva House and give them a fresh start in life. She is also determined to ensure that her brother, James, receives an upbringing and education befitting his position as earl. Those around her believe that she can face any challenge but are unaware that she is just as afraid and uncertain as they are. but hides it behind an air of confidence. Seeing this vulnerability in Isabel made her more relatable.

Poor Nick! I felt so sorry for him because it is obvious how deeply he loves Isabel but she continually pushes him away.

How many times had he worked to regain her trust, to prove his worth? And how many times had Isabel rejected him?

I can understand Isabel’s initial reluctance to trust Nick. After all, her father’s irresponsible actions would hardly have convinced her that men were trustworthy, and the plight of those women who sought refuge in Minerva House would only have reinforced that opinion. But her constant refusal to trust Nick, even after he proves himself over and over again, was just so irritating. I wanted to grab her and shake her for not having faith in him. Luckily, she finally comes to her senses and it is refreshing to see the heroine forced to do some grovelling, rather than the hero.

The romance between these two is quite steamy and Ms. MacLean certainly knows how write the most sensual scenes. One that particularly comes to mind is the scene between Nick and Isabel in the statuary. A cold shower is definitely recommended after reading it!!

There is a sweet secondary romance between Lara, Isabel’s cousin, and Durukhan (Rock), Nick’s companion and friend, which plays out in the background and forms a nice contrast to the more passionate one between Nick and Isabel.

I enjoyed the scenes involving the ladies of Minerva House, particularly the one at the beginning of the book when, in male disguise, they are helping Isabel to get rid of yet another man to whom her father has promised her hand in marriage, in payment for his latest gambling debt. I grinned all the way through it.

He turned on Isabel. “What’s this, then?”
The stable master slapped her coiled horsewhip against one thigh, the thwack of the leather causing Asperton to flinch. “We do not like you raising your voice to a lady, sir.”
Isabel watched as the angled notch at his thin throat quivered. “I—I am …”

I enjoyed catching up with Gabriel and Callie (Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake) and I’m looking forward to the arrogant, rude and overbearing Duke of Leighton meeting his match in the final book of the series, Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke’s Heart.

MY VERDICT: A most enjoyable story with interesting characters, a passionate and sensual romance and delightful touches of humour.

3 people found this helpful

Alice in Wonderland

A heart warming romance

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 21, 2012

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This is the second book in Maclean's Love by Numbers trilogy, following Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake (Love by Numbers) . It follows Nick, Gabriels twin brothers, who runs to yorkshire in a bid to hide from the marriage focused debutants and their mothers, and finds instead Lady Isabel Townsend, sister of an Earl, daughter of the infamous Wastreal, and a Lady with many secrets! Invited to come and appraise her marbles (not a euphinism), Nick and his friend Rock feel that something strange is happening in Minerva House, and they are going to find out what it is. However the more Nick stays there, the stronger his conflicting intrests are as he becomes more and more drawn to Isabel.
I did enjoy this book alot, the plot was intresting, there were background storys, the relationship between Nick and Isabel, was warm and sweet and passionate, but yet I felt there was such possibility for me to enjoy it alot more than I did. I felt as if Maclean tried to do too much at once and so didnt put enough focus on the main story of the romance and gradual love between Isobel and Nick.
However saying that, I did enjoy this book, and I do believe it deserves 4 stars, or at least 3.5, and i think one of the reasons it fell short was because Nine rules to break when romancing a Rake, was so good, this book had very high expectations to live up to. I am looking forward to reading the third book, Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart (Love by Numbers) , which tells the story of Nick and Gabriels younger half sister.

5 people found this helpful

Josie82

Entertaining novel but a little lacking

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 25, 2010

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Lord Nicholas St John is determined to get away from London and the simpering misses determined to catch him since he was named London's Lord to Land. So when he's hired to find a missing heiress in Yorkshire he jumps at the chance.

What he doesn't expect is to find Lady Isabel Townsend - daughter of a nefarious wastrel and the most enticing and infuriating woman he's ever laid eyes on.

Isabel has serious money worries and serious secrets that she's determined to keep. What she doesn't expect is that Nick could be the solution to all her problems and might uncover he secrets one kiss at a time.

Like another reviewer said, this book suffers massively when compared to MacLean's previous novel, Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake , which I agree was a truly wonderful read.

Having said that, I did actually quite enjoy this book on its own and although it didn't set my world on fire, it's still a well-written and fairly enjoyable tale to pass the time.

This book features Nick, the twin brother to the hero of Nine Rules... although the books do stand alone quite nicely and you don't have to have read the first one to read this one. Personally, I would have liked to see more of Gabriel and Callie from the first book but that's just me.

Both Nick and Isabel were likeable and sympathetic characters although I didn't feel any deep or memorable emotions either for them or from them. Regardless, I liked their interactions and thought they went well together as a couple.

I think the main problem with the story was that there was too much going on. With Minerva House, the love story, the secondary love story, the Duke, the boy Earl - there wasn't enough time dedicated wholly to Nick and Isabel to make me truly believe.

After all I've written I'm beginning to wonder whether I've been too generous with my 4 star rating. But when I look at the book as a whole I enjoyed reading it, it was well written and it captured my attention so I've decided to stick with the 4 stars. It's not the best but it's worth a look if you have it on your shelf or you enjoyed MacLean's first book. I also look forward to reading MacLean's next book Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart which I'm hoping will be Leighton's story to continue the series.

3 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Anachronistic and American idioms

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 24, 2016

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The scanning isn't perfect and there are a few typos and words used incorrectly, as well as a number of American idioms, all of which are distracting. The story sets up the better Rogues series and gives us more of Leighton, who is clearly to be important in the next volume in this series. Whilst he is presented in a way that suggests the reader should find him attractive, he is the opposite. Why women readers are expected to desire a character who behaves like a self-centred, arrogant, ruthless, snob on the basis of hinted 'concealed sterling's remains a mystery.

Nora H

Great story!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 18, 2021

Verified Purchase

Excellent!!! I discovered this writer and instantly became addicted. Once you start the book you cannot put it down. Easy and so enjoyable to read!! Funny very romantic and sexy!!! keep on writing!! Sarah

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