Marques Harry Haversham, forty-five year old widower, decides he needs a wife, a good stable woman, to help him raise his five unruly children. She must have a "certain charm to her appearance", though it's not absolutely necessary. While she might not have to be toothsome, he would like to look at her and not think of a bulldog!" Feeling too old to enter the marriage mart, and not wanting to suffer the torture of the Ton, he places an advertisement in the paper. To his dismay, he receives numerous applications from all types of women. He finally chooses the thirty-third interviewee, "Plum" Pelham, as his spouse. She desperately wants a family, would love children, but no man in all of Dorset would have her "after the scandal" - well, no man except Harry.
After they marry, Plum learns that Harry is marques, something he conveniently forgot to tell her. He also concealed the five kids he expects her to mother. Though clearly taken aback, Plum adapts because she has a secret too. Two decades ago, she married, well almost married. Charles her husband, forgot to mention one little thing before their marriage -- that he already had a wife! Of course, her family blamed and disowned her. Also, she is an author of "The Guide to Connubial Calisthenics" -- a book judged so obscene to be banned by the government. Her past surfaces when her first "spouse" tries to blackmail her, but even worse someone is trying to hurt the children. Plum will do anything to protect Harry and the kids and he feels likewise.
This is a terrific Regency romance starring two delightful forty-something protagonists who think love has passed them by. The secondary characters propel the tale as the children add comic relief (There is little India -- not such a little angel, hell bent to know about the birds and the bees, the twins trying to "fly" from the barn roof, Marston -- Harry's heir - who would rather be a blacksmith than the next Marquis, and MacTavish who presents his father with his latest "treasures"). The accidents begin to occur and her "ex" provides a hint of intrigue. The suspense flows smoothly till the end.
From the opening scene in which beleaguered Harry is trying to explain the facts of "womanhood" to his eldest daughter - I was laughing out loud! This book is a sheer delight from beginning to end! Katie Macalister is one of the most delightful (and prolific) writers in Romance today. When I want sheer fun, I look for a book by Katie Macalister. There is nothing as special as a writer who can leave you feeling good all over. A+

I laughed through this entire book. Laughing is good for the soul. I am sending this book to my daughter-in-law who is expecting.
L

I am not sure what Katie MacAlister was trying to achieve with this novel. Others have summed up the plot so I'd rather just give some comments.

Yes, it's an amusing story. The concept of our heroine having written a Guide to Connubial Calisthenics was quite unusual and clever but never really added much to the character of Plum except to give her some surprising sexual tastes and knowledge. Our heroine was, I am afraid, rather two dimensional and, as one reviewer has said, her actions and overall character were terribly inconsistent. Harry was amusing - how nice to have a hero wearing spectacles but as a real, genuine man (and father), he was totally unbelieveable.

Was this meant to be a regency historical? If so, I could not find a single sentence that fixed the timeframe. The story and characters could have been from any genre timeframe you care to mention as there was no narrative description to speak of.

All in all, the child characters were so over-drawn that they were beyond even farce - they were simply irritating. Too bad because I quite like a story with naughty children but Barbara Mezger could have done them much better.

I won't be put off by this author but I do nonetheless feel that the ecstatic rave reviews were a bit surprising. Not enough meat to the story, characters that were, in the end, non-engaging, and nothing here to indicate this was a regency-set story. The author's prose is reasonably good and she obviously has a great imagination but as a sum of its parts, this book just was not memorable for me.

Don't get me wrong, I love Katie Macalister's contemporaries but she's a breath of fresh air with her historicals. It's so nice to read a historical with such a great sense of humor and such strong and fiesty female leads.

Harry needs a wife. He's got five out of control children and is in desperate need of a woman to run his household and, er, attend to his needs. Enter Plum, a woman who's been ruined by her first husband over 20 years before. She's also the mysterious author of a very racy sex book. Both the romantic leads are over 40, something that pleased me compared to books with 19 year old women married to 35 year old men.

Of course, this being a Macalister book, silly hijinks ensue, the kids are wild, the household staff are a wild assortment from the lothario butler to the bodyguard footmen and Harry and Plum engage in all manner of bedroom gymnastics with great energy and creativity. Plum is no pushover and even when it becomes obvious that someone is out to harm her new family, she does not waver. You gotta love the heroine who doesn't wilt at the first difficulty. You also have to love Harry for loving Plum so much.

All in all, The Trouble with Harry is an amazingly entertaining read that will supply plenty of laughs and more than a little heat between Plum and Harry.

It seems that I have a love hate relationship with Katie McAlister. I absolutely couldn't stand her vampire novels but on the other hand, I absolutely loved The Corset Diaries. The Trouble with Harry is very clear from the beginning - Plum. I couldn't stand the main character. She lacked consistency, at times completely self involved and delusional and at others selfless and matronly. I got no true sense of who she was because she never developed completely. I gave the book two stars because the plot was interesting, but the mystery only remains a mystery because MacAlister witholds information from the reader. The children were a bright spot, and incredibly funny. All in all not the worst book I've ever read, but I probably won't be rereading it.