Review: The Lady Makes Her Mark (Goode's Guide to Misconduct #3) by Susanna Craig

Print Length: 297 pages

Publisher:  Kensington Publishing, Zebra (May 27, 2025)

From Goodreads.com: Known only as “Miss C.” Constantia Cooper creates satirical cartoons for Mrs. Goode’s. But her anonymity hides a more shocking secret—one that requires she remain elusive. When a scandal at the magazine threatens to expose her, Constantia packs up and flees. But in her haste, she is struck by a carriage and suffers a blow to the head. Fortunately, she’s rescued by a gentleman. Unfortunately, he is all too familiar. Feigning amnesia seems Constantia’s best strategy . . .

 
Alistair Haythorne, Earl of Ryland, would never turn away a lady in distress—even if he’s often the target of said lady’s biting satire. In fact, while “Miss C.” recuperates, he will have her teach his sisters to draw. Perhaps it will inspire a more flattering portrait of him . . .
 
But secrets make interesting bedfellows and as Constantia and Alistair grow closer, their opinions of one another change—drastically. With love in the air, two things stand between Alistair’s need to marry an heiress to keep his family’s estate intact . . . and a series of threats that endanger Constantia’s life. Can what keeps them apart ultimately bring them together?

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My Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5

By now, I am used to the fact that there is no obstacle too insurmountable for this author's characters to overcome, but not only was this one was just entirely too far fetched even for me, but there was so little happening that often times I found myself bored while reading it. 

To be honest, sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't have been better for Constantia to actually have gotten amnesia from her fall, that way we wouldn't have been subjected to her assumptions about Alistair & his friend (who was now married to one of her friends) every few chapters. Even once she started to get to know him, she still couldn't help but fall back on her old assumptions. I think I would have liked him to try and help her find out who she was (especially considering she didn't even have all of the answers to her own background). 

But as it stands, we have Alistair - a broke peer living in a crumbling estate who needs to marry a wealthy woman immediately, and Constantia - a woman with potentially dangerous secrets and a gift for art. Alright, we can still get an interesting story from that right? And I mean there were times when the conversations between these two flowed smoothly, and I loved his sisters and what little interactions we got to see between them and Constantia while she was attempting to teach them to draw. I even liked the idea of Constantia (who has by this point realized she had feelings for Alistair) being commissioned by his aunt to paint his portrait so that she may take it back to Bristol with her to find him a wealthy heiress to marry. 

It was at this point that the author could have chosen to double down on the theory that someone was chasing Constantia for nefarious purposes. They could have had the aunt take the drawing to Bristol and come back with a wealthy heiress or three in tow. Heck, they even could have had Alistair ask Constantia to paint his portrait and have the aunt and wealthy heiresses show up whilst it was being done. Instead, none of these things happened. 

In fact, when it came time for the big reveal to happen, it was so anti-climatic that I felt disappointed to say the least. I was torn between after all of that, this is what happens? And well at least they got their happy ending? 

Sadly, out of the entire series I think this one was my least favorite, however I have read other stories by this author that I absolutely adored so I would read more from them in the future. 

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.