The Taming of the Rake (Blackthorn Brothers, Bk 1)
Author:
Genre: Romance
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
Author:
Genre: Romance
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
~ THE HEROINE DROVE ME ABSOLUTELY *INSANE* AND RUINED ANY POSSIBLE ENJOYMENT (1.5 stars) ~
I was really looking forward to reading this book, first in Michael's new Blackhorn Brothers Trilogy, because I had read the excerpt and the heroine at that time (however many years before the main story takes place) is an odd girl who apparently loves to read and isn't as beautiful as her sister. "Great," I thought, "just what I love! A bookish and smart odd-duck-out who is not drop-dead-gorgeous." Sadly, none of that describes the adult Chelsea. Adult Chelsea is one of the most annoying and selfish heroines I have ever had the displeasure to read. She made me want to turn violent. Towards a book. Not even a physical one - this was an ebook. Thankfully, my Nook survived the experience and remains unharmed. Proof of my admirable self-control.
The summary and basic plot reminded me of Amanda Quick's Reckless (4 stars), since both books are about younger sisters (the heroines) who end up seeking out the suitors their older sisters spurned years back who now want revenge as a result. In this instance, Chelsea is not in love with Oliver, or "Beau," but rather is trying to escape an extremely unpleasant arranged marriage her brother has set-up. Since she knows Oliver has been bent on revenge ever since being publicly humiliated by her older sister and brother, she figures he'll be happy to help her out since marrying her will be another nail in the coffin.
PRAISE:
There are things that worked with this book. This is the first in a trilogy about three brothers who are all bastards, born into a very odd situation. In this book we only briefly meet the middle brother, but the other one is heavily featured and is very, very funny, adding a lot of humor to the story. Their mother is a traveling actress, their father is an aristocrat, the two are in love with one another, but since the mother didn't want to have to give up acting they never married. Instead, the father and brothers grew up on the country estate and the mother would come every year during the off-season and stay with them.
It was a nice change from the normal aristocrat-seduced-or-raped-the-mother-then-abandoned-her and the hero is always full of rage for his sire. Here, the parents love one another, they both love their children and their children love them, and it's actually their father who is the more selfless and loving parent and their mother who was, in a sense, the parent doing the abandoning. All three of the brothers have left-over resentment regarding this, and understandably so.
I also did like the hero, who had a good sense of humor and was caring and intelligent. He was a little bland and not really that interesting or compelling, but I think that since I SO disliked the heroine, the comparison made him come out way far ahead, despite these failings.
There was not a mystery subplot, which I often appreciate (a mini-one is thrown in at the end, but ended up being more a ploy to meet another character than to add any type of subplot). The book is solely focused on Chelsea and Beau trying to get to Scotland to get married and to stay ahead of her brother, want-to-be-fiance, and sister, who are in hot pursuit. The siblings were pretty horrid and there were some points where I thought that Michaels was going to actually give some depth to the brother and make him an interesting - though very flawed - three-dimensional character, dealing with his internal struggles, but then he would slip back into being an ass again.
The dialogue was decent and there were several funny lines.
THE TATL HEROINE WHOM I WANTED TO SLAP UPSIDE THE HEAD:
(TATL = too annoying to live)
So none of those things are exactly glowing recommendations and maybe couldn't have saved the book even if the heroine had not been the most annoying, exasperating, self-centered heroine I have read in awhile. Oh. My. Lord. I could not stand that girl! I made 17 Goodreads status updates while reading this book and most of them are about her and my strong desire to do her violence.
The main personality trait that annoyed me, and that which really kicks the story off, is her utter disregard for what anyone else wants. She wants to escape this arranged marriage and that is completely understandable; the man she's engaged to is basically a crook, a religious man who pretends to be pious but really just milks her brother for money and entertains wildly archaic opinions regarding women, with a disturbing desire to punish and abuse them. Not nice. Agreed.
Chelsea breaks out of her locked room and goes to Beau and forces him to elope with her. Forget that maybe he doesn't want to marry her. Forget that though he wants revenge, maybe he doesn't want to tie himself to her for life since they don't even know each other. Forget that maybe he's in love with someone else and she could be ruining everything, having now basically compromised herself and forced his hand. He's not, but she doesn't know this - nor does she even ever ask! She shows up and literally just tells him to pack so they can go. Luckily, they end up falling in love and getting a HEA (big surprise), but frankly, I'm not sure why that happens because how Beau could want to tie himself to this woman for the rest of his life is absolutely beyond me. It's inexplicable - unless he's a masochist.
Also annoying in her treatment of him was her consistent "I'm saying no, but please understand it as yes" attitude. She gets annoyed with Beau when she continuously tells him to not put the moves on her, not look at her when she's not completely dressed, and not touch her ... and he obeys! God forbid. I understand if she doesn't want to be forward and that's in keeping with the times, but you don't have to play unbelievably hard to get and adamantly tell him to back off and then be upset when he actually listens to you. Contrary, contrary woman - or rather girl, because no maturity whatsoever.
She is pushy, orders him around, guilt-trips him when he hasn't done anything wrong, and forces him to completely overhaul his life for her even though they barely have a passing acquaintance. She also giggles frequently, which is SUCH a pet peeve of mine; our heroines are not prepubescent, okay, they can laugh for god's sake, they don't have to giggle. She's supposedly strong, then he glimpses this vulnerability because her chin quivers or she tears-up or some other such nonsense, but then she gathers herself and oh how admirable, what a woman. Are you kidding?! What a woman?!?! She's a selfish witch on wheels. She should cry; if I were her I would want to cry also. So yes, I found her entirely unlikable and could not imagine why the hero fell in love with her. Not a great feeling to have for the heroine.
BOTTOM LINE:
Sorry to say it, but I wouldn't even recommend getting this book from the library, unless you're really into self-imposed torture or have a perverse fondness for TATL heroines. Chelsea was annoying and selfish; I was completely unable to like or respect her and could not begin to fathom why the hero would fall in love with her or want to bind himself for eternity to that shrew.
* This review is of an advance reading copy provided by Harlequin through NetGalley.
I was really looking forward to reading this book, first in Michael's new Blackhorn Brothers Trilogy, because I had read the excerpt and the heroine at that time (however many years before the main story takes place) is an odd girl who apparently loves to read and isn't as beautiful as her sister. "Great," I thought, "just what I love! A bookish and smart odd-duck-out who is not drop-dead-gorgeous." Sadly, none of that describes the adult Chelsea. Adult Chelsea is one of the most annoying and selfish heroines I have ever had the displeasure to read. She made me want to turn violent. Towards a book. Not even a physical one - this was an ebook. Thankfully, my Nook survived the experience and remains unharmed. Proof of my admirable self-control.
The summary and basic plot reminded me of Amanda Quick's Reckless (4 stars), since both books are about younger sisters (the heroines) who end up seeking out the suitors their older sisters spurned years back who now want revenge as a result. In this instance, Chelsea is not in love with Oliver, or "Beau," but rather is trying to escape an extremely unpleasant arranged marriage her brother has set-up. Since she knows Oliver has been bent on revenge ever since being publicly humiliated by her older sister and brother, she figures he'll be happy to help her out since marrying her will be another nail in the coffin.
PRAISE:
There are things that worked with this book. This is the first in a trilogy about three brothers who are all bastards, born into a very odd situation. In this book we only briefly meet the middle brother, but the other one is heavily featured and is very, very funny, adding a lot of humor to the story. Their mother is a traveling actress, their father is an aristocrat, the two are in love with one another, but since the mother didn't want to have to give up acting they never married. Instead, the father and brothers grew up on the country estate and the mother would come every year during the off-season and stay with them.
It was a nice change from the normal aristocrat-seduced-or-raped-the-mother-then-abandoned-her and the hero is always full of rage for his sire. Here, the parents love one another, they both love their children and their children love them, and it's actually their father who is the more selfless and loving parent and their mother who was, in a sense, the parent doing the abandoning. All three of the brothers have left-over resentment regarding this, and understandably so.
I also did like the hero, who had a good sense of humor and was caring and intelligent. He was a little bland and not really that interesting or compelling, but I think that since I SO disliked the heroine, the comparison made him come out way far ahead, despite these failings.
There was not a mystery subplot, which I often appreciate (a mini-one is thrown in at the end, but ended up being more a ploy to meet another character than to add any type of subplot). The book is solely focused on Chelsea and Beau trying to get to Scotland to get married and to stay ahead of her brother, want-to-be-fiance, and sister, who are in hot pursuit. The siblings were pretty horrid and there were some points where I thought that Michaels was going to actually give some depth to the brother and make him an interesting - though very flawed - three-dimensional character, dealing with his internal struggles, but then he would slip back into being an ass again.
The dialogue was decent and there were several funny lines.
THE TATL HEROINE WHOM I WANTED TO SLAP UPSIDE THE HEAD:
(TATL = too annoying to live)
So none of those things are exactly glowing recommendations and maybe couldn't have saved the book even if the heroine had not been the most annoying, exasperating, self-centered heroine I have read in awhile. Oh. My. Lord. I could not stand that girl! I made 17 Goodreads status updates while reading this book and most of them are about her and my strong desire to do her violence.
The main personality trait that annoyed me, and that which really kicks the story off, is her utter disregard for what anyone else wants. She wants to escape this arranged marriage and that is completely understandable; the man she's engaged to is basically a crook, a religious man who pretends to be pious but really just milks her brother for money and entertains wildly archaic opinions regarding women, with a disturbing desire to punish and abuse them. Not nice. Agreed.
Chelsea breaks out of her locked room and goes to Beau and forces him to elope with her. Forget that maybe he doesn't want to marry her. Forget that though he wants revenge, maybe he doesn't want to tie himself to her for life since they don't even know each other. Forget that maybe he's in love with someone else and she could be ruining everything, having now basically compromised herself and forced his hand. He's not, but she doesn't know this - nor does she even ever ask! She shows up and literally just tells him to pack so they can go. Luckily, they end up falling in love and getting a HEA (big surprise), but frankly, I'm not sure why that happens because how Beau could want to tie himself to this woman for the rest of his life is absolutely beyond me. It's inexplicable - unless he's a masochist.
Also annoying in her treatment of him was her consistent "I'm saying no, but please understand it as yes" attitude. She gets annoyed with Beau when she continuously tells him to not put the moves on her, not look at her when she's not completely dressed, and not touch her ... and he obeys! God forbid. I understand if she doesn't want to be forward and that's in keeping with the times, but you don't have to play unbelievably hard to get and adamantly tell him to back off and then be upset when he actually listens to you. Contrary, contrary woman - or rather girl, because no maturity whatsoever.
She is pushy, orders him around, guilt-trips him when he hasn't done anything wrong, and forces him to completely overhaul his life for her even though they barely have a passing acquaintance. She also giggles frequently, which is SUCH a pet peeve of mine; our heroines are not prepubescent, okay, they can laugh for god's sake, they don't have to giggle. She's supposedly strong, then he glimpses this vulnerability because her chin quivers or she tears-up or some other such nonsense, but then she gathers herself and oh how admirable, what a woman. Are you kidding?! What a woman?!?! She's a selfish witch on wheels. She should cry; if I were her I would want to cry also. So yes, I found her entirely unlikable and could not imagine why the hero fell in love with her. Not a great feeling to have for the heroine.
BOTTOM LINE:
Sorry to say it, but I wouldn't even recommend getting this book from the library, unless you're really into self-imposed torture or have a perverse fondness for TATL heroines. Chelsea was annoying and selfish; I was completely unable to like or respect her and could not begin to fathom why the hero would fall in love with her or want to bind himself for eternity to that shrew.
* This review is of an advance reading copy provided by Harlequin through NetGalley.
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