"An amusing contemporary romance"

American Alexandra "Alix" Freemar travels to England to get away from distractions in order to write a steamy romance novel. She has two months to succeed or her mother will add this on to the list of basic screw-ups that Alix has caused. She sublets a friend's London flat.

She meets her upstairs neighbor in her borrowed digs when Alix struggles to open the apartment door. Scotland Yard Inspector Alexander Black catches Alix "breaking and entering' when her key fails to open the lock and so she uses an awl to "teach" the bloody lock a lesson. Sparks fly from the start, but she wants a summer spree and he wants a lifetime fling.

This is an amusing Anglo-American contemporary romance that never takes itself seriously. Alex is a delightful somewhat stereotypical English stiff upper lip character. Readers will feel schizoid towards Alix. On the one hand one laughs at her antics and reactions; on the other hand want to scream at her to grow up, which she does at the end. Though profanity is used, but properly interwoven into the plot, IMPROPER ENGLISH is a genial romantic romp.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted March 2, 2003

American versus Englishman--will it be a war of wits, or a battle to find their hearts? Alix hasn't had much luck in her life, but a trip to London, a matchmaking landlady, and the handsome Scotland Yard detective living above her indicate her luck is about to change. Has she truly found her perfect man, or will the disasters that dog her steps destroy everything she's hoped for?

Summary

Alexandra Freemar should be in heaven--she's just been handed everything she's ever wanted on a silver plate: a three month stay in London, the time to write the book of her heart, and the chance to finally prove to her mother that she's not the miserable failure her past indicates. Free-spirited, unconventional, and able to find the absurd in almost any situation, Alix finds that heaven isn't what it's cracked up to be when fate, in the form of a matchmaking landlady who promises to fix her up with her perfect soul mate, hands her the devilishly handsome man who lives upstairs. Her perfect man? Hardly! Her perfect man is not a workaholic, straight-laced detective inspector from Scotland Yard who wouldn't recognize fun if it bit him on his (extremely attractive) behind.

Alexander Black is a man with a mission, and no one is going to distract him from that, not even the uninhibited, carefree American who personifies everything he dislikes in a woman: she belittles his devotion to work, insists on dragging him into the most unlikely of situations, exudes sexuality that makes his mouth go dry whenever he's near her, and teases him with a brashness that's utterly foreign to him. But underneath that sassy mouth and devil-may-care exterior, he senses a wounded woman who's calling out to him, and try as he might, he just can't refuse answering.