connected to How to Seduce a Scoundrel and others?
I loved Tessa, our heroine. She was creative, unique, and strong. I also liked Hawk, the best friend of our hero, Tristan. For the most part, I like the dowager duchess as well – especially as I got to the end of the story. Unfortunately, the characters that I liked end there. Tristan is very ‘cookie-cutter’ not to mention judgmental; he is the completely typical hero. Usually, having one or two distinguishing characteristics is enough to set a hero apart – unfortunately, Tristan was bland and didn’t have those characteristics that would have made him special. The book’s characters and slow plot were really what made this book so average.
Not only were the characters so-so (cardboard cutouts) but the plot was bleh. There was no substance. Dreiling tried to infuse some excitement, but I just couldn’t find myself caught up in any of her attempts at suspense. It was slow and boring and dragged on. I felt like Dreiling wasn’t moving to the climax, but rather describing separate scenes involving the same people. Also, Tristan’s inability to decide was REALLY annoying. And the whole thing with Richard was resolved too quickly for the amount of prevalence it received. Lots of hype for no action. One thing that kept jilting me as I attempted to read was Dreiling’s poor writing. In the world of romance there are a lot of descriptions that are no-nos, one being describing the first stirrings of love as a digestive disorder. Ew.
And finally, one thing I hate, hate, HATE is unreasonable reactions – the author wants to have the whole fight-kiss-makeup scene and so they create some tiny conflict and have the guy get super pissed about it. What the hell? Its not piss-able, heroes! Dreiling does this at the end of the book and it was so false. It was annoying. Really. I mean, can you blame the girl for not blurting her past liaisons to every man she meets? Plus, why would anyone want to read about a hero who overreacts all the time? Ew. Not my man.
Favorite quotes:
“Suppose you were competing with another man for a girl’s affections. The other gentleman brings flowers and sends poems. What would you do to top him?” (Tessa)
“Shoot him.” (Tristan)
Alas, he could not abide the thought of spending a lifetime with Her Gracelessness.
“Sexy”ness rating: Hot
Overall Rating: C
Bottom Line: This book was an average historical. It has average plot lines and average characters. Eh.
Pages: 432 pages
Published: December 9, 2010
Genre: Historical
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