How to Train Your Baron by Diana Lloyd – a Review

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Description:
When Elsinore Cosgrove escapes a ballroom in search of adventure, she has no idea it will lead to a hasty marriage. The youngest daughter of a duke, all she wants is to make her own choices. Now she’s engaged to an infuriating, handsome Scottish baron who doesn’t even know her name! Using all her feminine wiles, along with advice gleaned from a training guide for hunting hounds, Elsinore is determined to mold her baron into the husband she wants.

Quin Graham is a man with many secrets. If another scandal can be avoided with a sham marriage, so be it. Only his fiancée isn’t at all what he’s expecting, and the clumsy, curious, and clever Elsinore refuses to be set aside. For reasons he’s unwilling to explain, the last thing Quin needs is to fall for his wife.

Review:

As a woman, the world provided her with only three opportunities–spinster, wife or demirep. Her life would be defined by the men in it, be it father, husband or rake.”

Rankles, doesn’t it? Clever Elsinore, you’ll come to discover, doesn’t have a fondness for convention. She purposefully ruins her chance at a noble arrangement, opting for adventure and an unexpected future, with a kiss! Scotsman (and Baron) Quin, was just being helpful, but acquiesced to the norms of society when caught in the compromised position. The marriage will alleviate Elsinore’s woes, but Quin’s past might make her regret her hasty decision. How to Train your Baron, a What Happens in the Ballroom novel by Diana Lloyd, was a bit of a trial, much like its title. There was hardly a moment’s peace with Quin and Elsinore’s insecurities and assumptions disrupting a path to HEA.

The scandal was clever, in my honest opinion; I deduced Elsinore to be resourceful and challenging when cornered. Unfortunately, her schemes quickly became irritating antics! Elsinore, though desperate to escape the confines of the peerage (reckless behavior for the win), is making good on a book acquired through her brother’s library. Only “Oglethorpe’s Treatise on the Obedient Canine” is now being modified to bring her fiance up to scratch! I’m going to blame it on age/naivete, but wasn’t Elsinore the one who got them in this mess? To kiss Quin inappropriately (though he’d never complain, the gentleman!) only to plot yet again in hopes of delaying the wedding because of impossible notions she’s drummed up!? If things didn’t go Elsinore’s way, another plan was dispatched. What do you want, daft girl?!

Quin’s aforementioned demons harangued him to the point of paranoia; essentially drawing a line in the sand that was to remain in place throughout their marriage. And he’s supposed to be the experienced partner. You’ll be hard-pressed to identify the “mature” voice.

“Elsinore was beautiful, witty, intelligent, and adventurous–she was also willful and impulsive. They were all qualities that would make her difficult to safe-guard and hard to hold. He could not lose his heart to her. Loving him was death.”

This all got convoluted, and unnecessarily so. The bones were there for a great love story: push and pull, give and take, hurt and forgive. But the whiplash of emotions and feelings made it a frustrating read. Aside from self-sabotage and fruitless comparisons, threatening notes meant to blackmail Quin tack on heightened danger. Ashamed of his past mistakes, Quin chooses to spare Elsinore the corresponding stigma attached to his name and engages in poor choices. If remaining loyal to someone when times are tough isn’t the definition of love, isolation awaits.

Be prepared to lose your patience with both MCs, but trust that Diana Lloyd makes it come together. The writing was strong and her intent was note-worthy. She just needs to stop undermining what the heart wants by testing it at every turn. Even the most straightforward love story contains magic. I appreciated Ms. Lloyd’s finale enough, a mutual awakening, to anticipate the next installation.