Catherine M. (Catherine1) reviewed on 3/23/2010 + 60 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

I really feel like a large chunk of this story was missing. The book reads more like an outline than an in depth exploration of two characters falling in love. The premise sounded like the movie Cruel Intentions, and since I enjoyed that I figured I'd give this a try. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this set up or the characters very much.

Alexius Sinclair, otherwise known as Sin, agrees to a plot his half sister, Belle, hatches. Sin is to seduce and then discard Juliana Ivers because she is heartless and is trying to steal Belle's beau. Sin is more than happy to help out his half sister, but is shocked to discover Juliana is a woman he had met previously and been intrigued by. Juliana's mother has brought her and her sisters to London in hope of arranging advantageous marriages for them. The family has fallen on hard times since their father died five years before. Juliana is not very interested in marriage but becomes intrigued by the rakish Sin after their first meeting together.

This story seemed like it was designed solely to make Juliana suffer in every possible way. Not only is Sin horrible toward her, but her own mother is even worse. It's bad enough to be betrayed by a man you're interested in, but it is so much worse to be betrayed by someone who loved and raised you. It wasn't a little betrayal either! It was a huge one that shocked and disgusted me. I couldn't understand why all the characters weren't more upset with the mother.

We get the lead up in Sin and Juliana's relationship and we get the conclusion of it, but the middle part where we would be expected to watch the characters grow to love each other was only told, not shown. Weeks were skipped over and mentioned briefly and by then they were in love. I really would have preferred to actually watch their feelings develop. Also, I never saw any real redeeming traits in either of the protagonists to actually make them interesting to me. They both seemed like weak, shallow people. Also, why was Sin so ok with what his sister did? When he finds out all the facts it doesn't really seem to impact him. Later in the book when one of the characters points out what role Sin plays for his sister I couldn't agree more with their assessment.

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