Lawrence Eddington and Clarissa Taylor grew up in the same village, and have been butting heads since they were children.  Lawrence is the son and heir of an earl, while Clarissa is a foundling who was adopted by the town’s Reverend and his wife.  Lawrence has since become the Earl of Marsden and prefers to be called “Mars,” while Clarissa has just suffered a failure at trying to earn her living as a lady’s companion.  HIS LESSONS ON LOVE interestingly opens with our hero, Mars, suffering the ill effects of a hangover, after a night of naked howling at the moon and nonstop drinking.  As he is in this sorry state, his former mistress bursts in, leaves him with an infant daughter he didn’t know existed and departs vowing to not be seen again.

Mars’s initial horror almost immediately turns to wonder as he meets little Dora, someone who truly belongs to him.  No one in his bachelor household has any knowledge of babies, so Mars ventures to the town matrons to seek help.  When Clarissa takes charge, Mars decides that she is the perfect nurse for his daughter.  Though at first reluctant, Clarissa accepts the position and becomes part of Mars’s household.  A surprise encounter with Mars’s estranged mother has him blurting out that Clarissa is his wife, and soon enough, the lie becomes fact, as they enter into a marriage of convenience.  Mars plans to soon forget that convenient part--Clarissa might be his nemesis, but she’s lovely, and he’s always admired her beauty.

Mars and Clarissa are both damaged people, based on childhood experiences.  Very early on, I really didn’t like Mars, but he began to change after Dora came into his life.  I watched him turn from an aimless, purposeless man who drank too much to a dedicated father, and a much kinder and thoughtful person.  Clarissa, too, changed from being critical and judgmental of Mars to someone who really saw him.  Mars and Clarissa quickly went from enemies to cordial colleagues to spouses to lovers, all in a very short amount of time.  This brief time, though, is filled with a multitude of revelations, trials, and some extensive character growth on both their parts. Cathy Maxwell's HIS LESSONS ON LOVE, the third book in the Logical Man's Guide to Dangerous Women series, is a fast moving story with a few twists and a sweet romance leading to a satisfying happy ever after.

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