1.0 out of 5 stars A foolish muddle from end to end
This book is a complete slapdash, with none of the verve of quality Regencies.
First of all the book is riddled with errors-they are Simon’s half-not his stepsisters. They are clearly related to him, though he treats the girls, and especially the eternally barfing baby, as some rare species of insect. He has as much personality as one of his fine neck cloths.
I can’t imagine him being a rake-he is so full of himself, leers at every pair of breasts in sight, and is so meticulously dressed all the time that one would doubt he would ever do anything so undiginfied as sweat, let alone copulate.
Also, vis a vis the errors in the book, I am sure he does not go around showing his ‘labels’ all over the place-I am sure the author meant lapels.
As for the heroine, well, what can I say-the crippled heroine left on the shelf and rescued by the rake has been done to death, and done far better elsewhere.
The endless tantrums, dullness of the settings-a room with tall windows, a study, well gee, where is the sumptuous language we expect from a well-written book, are all too dull for words. The endless stream of vomit from the endlessly barfing baby is also unbearbale, not at all funny.
In fact, I really wonder what people find so amusing or even romantic about adultery and the social mores that allow men to treat women as little better than chattel. Where marriages of convenience are usually only convenient for the men, who do whatever they like and treat women like doormats.
Jane Austen was highly witty and amusing, but she dealt with the real world and issues too. This is just foolishness, selfishness and hypocrisy.
The supposed heroine traps him into marriage to get hold of his sisters as children. He insists he wants to bed her and give her a bottle of an abortifacient just in case because he doesn’t want kids and just in case the ‘sheath fails’. Revolting, not romantic.
As if all of this is not repellent enough, what on earth was the author thinking having THREE couples in the book if we include Rees the composer and his estranged wife. I know they are all out for trilogies and sequels these days because that’s how they make money, but every single book is supposed to be a standalone romance. And if the couple haven’t got enough meat to sustain us through the entire book, then the author is definitely falling down on the job.
Going back to the other plots, Esme’s story is more interesting than the others, including the main plot, but I was really disgusted with the way Simon actually sexually responds to her when her pregnant belly comes into contact with his body. And she is an adulteress, not matter how you tryo to dress it up as ‘romance’. It is just not consistent with the time period.
I also was appalled at the way that her hero lusts after all the other women quite openly-there is little focus on Henrietta apart from her pretty hair and nice smile. Really gross. I have no idea how the characters fall in love with each other, when they hardly know each other. And no woman in her right mind would wnat to know Simon.
I have to admit I read the books in the wrong order, Wild Pursuit and then Fool for Love. If you have not read this one, you will not care less about Wild Pursuit’s couple, and again, Rees and his wife. And the final resolution to Esme’s problems is in that book, but not really a problem at all, so there is little or no dramatic tension in any of the books.
All of these peoole are so selfish and care so little about Regency society with its strict dictates (yes it does seem a lot more Georgian than Regency in many respects, 18th century, as one reviewer said) that nothing is at stake for any of the couples-they thrive on scandal rather than avoid it.
The author set up the next books in her series, but failed miserably to write a single book in the series which we could classify as romance.
A romance is a hero and heroine falling in love. This is not a romance. Nor are the others.
Romeo and Juliet is a classic tale of star crossed lovers because events outside themselves stop them from being together as they would wish. These characters ride roughshod over everything, so there is no suspense or tension, just endless bad baby jokes.
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