Willy W. reviewed on 4/9/2011 + 503 more book reviews

Ugh. I have read worse books but this can't even hit the mid-level of quality historical romance. Go read Lisa Kleypas, Loretta Chase, Karen Raney, Lorainne Heath - so many good authors. This one - not so much.

The characters were so unlikeable. I thought the heroine, Juliana, was the most stupid and gullible character ever. She fell for every trick and game the "hero" played. Further not one female or other person Juliana knew suggested that maybe her behavior was inappropriate, or that his character was extremely questionable. There is no Love in this love story. Never do these characters learn anything about each other, no personal history, no facts of character or personality - just that they are attracted to each other and she gives it up for him like a cat in heat. The book was pretty long for a story that NEVER has the main couple having a conversation. Finally, the mother of the heroine essentially sells her daughter, twice, and ultimately both hero and heroine forgive her and actually seem to think maybe it was "clever". ICK ICK ICK.

Alexandra Hawkins apparently has never read Jane Austen or Charoltte Bronte or done any research on how people behaved in the early 19th century. The gentry were extremely uptight, to put it mildly. So why is a mother letting her young, virginal daughter ride alone in a carriage with an unmarried man, with not even a maid as chaperone? And then lets her daughter leave a ball with same man, to go off alone in his carriage and stay away all night? It makes no sense. And for heavens sake, a mother wouldn't let a strange man give her daughter a valuable string of pearls TODAY much less 200 years ago. The lack of faithfulness to the period of which Alexandra Hawkins writes is jarring and takes you out of the story to wonder what the heck she's thinking rather than care about the characters.

2 stars.

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