Helpful Score: 3
Plot: the widowed country mouse (and sexually supressed) Deborah Percival goes to visit her sister in London - on the way, thanks to a rainstorm, she meets Anthony, an Earl with long-standing emotional issues concerning his father's suicide and mother's abandonment of him. It's mad, passionate lust at first sight (and it really is from first sight, they're in bed together within three hours of meeting).
I thought this book was a piece of fluff. I guess you could call it a beach read. Whether it's a good beach read, I don't think so. The love story was, frankly, blah, and predictable. Mean characters become nice; selfish characters become giving & protective, and Anthony's mother tells him she never meant to hurt him. Very sappy-style plot and characterization and way too historically lightweight for my tastes, too -it's one of those books where characters act the way they want, and all is forgiven & forgotten by the end, without regard for the real social behavior of the era. I did like that Anthony was NOT presented as a rake or a bounder, and his relationship with his old nurse - but that's the only original thing about this Regency-era romance.
I thought this book was a piece of fluff. I guess you could call it a beach read. Whether it's a good beach read, I don't think so. The love story was, frankly, blah, and predictable. Mean characters become nice; selfish characters become giving & protective, and Anthony's mother tells him she never meant to hurt him. Very sappy-style plot and characterization and way too historically lightweight for my tastes, too -it's one of those books where characters act the way they want, and all is forgiven & forgotten by the end, without regard for the real social behavior of the era. I did like that Anthony was NOT presented as a rake or a bounder, and his relationship with his old nurse - but that's the only original thing about this Regency-era romance.
Helpful Score: 3
This book was fantastic. The storyline was great. I loved the characters. Very romantic, well written book.
Helpful Score: 2
Good Book but not one of her best.
Helpful Score: 2
I'm relatively new to Maxwell and have liked her other stuff but I thought this one was weak. It wasn't horrible just not as good as expected.
I don't know anything historically about the Regency period which might be the reason I had a hard time liking Deb and Tony. I preferred Maxwell's outspoken, flaunting society type of characters rather than repressed martyrs like Deb. Tony was just a jerk. He wanted everything but would only sacrifice his money for it. He had loads of it so who cares? I dont see why Deb would fall for him other than he was good in bed. Outside of taking care of his childhood governess, Tony really didnt have any redeeming qualities: he cheats on his fiancée, he wants to buy Deb like a whore, he thinks his mother is a whore, he plans to just impregnate his wife he doesnt care for and then skip town with Deb but at least everyone will get paid. Not the best guy around.
It also bothered me that the love scene in the coach has been used in another book of hers. I think it was actually word for word. I have something against authors recycling their work.
So overall I found it a disappointment. It was frustrating because reading about myrtyrs can be that way and it lacked the humor I come to like in her books.
I don't know anything historically about the Regency period which might be the reason I had a hard time liking Deb and Tony. I preferred Maxwell's outspoken, flaunting society type of characters rather than repressed martyrs like Deb. Tony was just a jerk. He wanted everything but would only sacrifice his money for it. He had loads of it so who cares? I dont see why Deb would fall for him other than he was good in bed. Outside of taking care of his childhood governess, Tony really didnt have any redeeming qualities: he cheats on his fiancée, he wants to buy Deb like a whore, he thinks his mother is a whore, he plans to just impregnate his wife he doesnt care for and then skip town with Deb but at least everyone will get paid. Not the best guy around.
It also bothered me that the love scene in the coach has been used in another book of hers. I think it was actually word for word. I have something against authors recycling their work.
So overall I found it a disappointment. It was frustrating because reading about myrtyrs can be that way and it lacked the humor I come to like in her books.
