story. Another well crafted enjoyable book by Ann Lethbridge, Finished this one in March, Did not get posting done in awhile, so many books, so little time, This started strong or I should say the idea and set up was strong and intriguing, But it quickly veered in a direction that was convoluted, flat and miserable, I love marriage of convenience tropes, love it, It's the main reason I grabbed this, Given it's a Harlequin you have to expect some OTT drama or angsty tension that drags out too long, But the problem here was that the source of tension between the couple wasn't fully developed and became inconsistent and convoluted as the story progressed.
The hero Alistair, bids on the heroine Julia, in a brothel auction and marries her after finding out her desperate straits, It was actually unclear the reasons why exactly he married herbesides she's good in bedsince he clearly didn't know about her traumatic abusive first marriage.
But he quickly realizes he made a mistake given that his new beautiful wife is too tempting and sweet to resist, He thinks he doesn't deserve her but also he doesn't trust women because of his bad history of being betrayed by them and he is convinced his new wife probably will too Me: Yeah.
. . ok dude. . So he keeps acting like a boar around her and shutting her out thinking it's best for the both of them, And oh yeah . . because he already has an heir so he doesn't want another child, If you haven't already picked up on it let me be totally clear: the hero is a complete emotionally detached, cold, unlikable asshole, Never mind the fact that his illegitimate 'heir' is being raised by his brother who has raised the child and loved him as his own but the hero treats him and his supposedly own child like second rate citizens who are out to get him and his ducal title dear author: this didn't make a lick of sense.
And never mind the fact that the heroine really wants a child, He knows his rejection and refusal to have a child with her hurts her but he totally dismisses her feelings because of course his wishes matter more.
The reasons to why he shuts her out kept shifting and changing and at times made no fucking sense,
Was his need for his wife to be happy so out of control he was actually prepared to believe she wouldnt betray him at the first opportunityif it suited her needs Would he really risk his sons pride for the sake of her smiles
What His son's pride WTF does your lust for your wife have to do with your kid This felt like it was grasping at any straws to draw angst into the story when the reasons didn't make sense.
And of course the dastardly villain was so damn obvious that it made both the hero and heroine painfully dense and TSTL, The heroine in particular, her naiveté and her constant fretting, questioning and wounded looks just grates the nerves instead of draw sympathy, I wanted to root for her given what she went through but the author really over did it with this character's insecurity and self doubt with all the endless internal questioning and tip toeing around the hero.
It made me cringe. It was hammered home too much, And the hero didn't help matters at all,
We are married, There was no getting around it,
To your deep regret,
Julia, do not put words in my mouth,
I do not need to, I see them in your face, In what you do. Actions speak louder than words and right now they are shouting that you wish you had not married me,
I do wish it, If he had made her his mistress they could have been perfectly happy, Perhaps for the rest of their lives, because at least then hed be free to love her without this weight of guilt bearing down on his shoulders.
Seriously bro You'd rather have your wife be your mistress just so you can sleep restfully at night so it won't prick your wounded inflated ego conscience over some nonexistent convoluted guilt trip GTFO.
And for the love of guacamole what guilt What betrayal! This guy is hung up and obsessing over some deep dark secret and betrayal to his family that was never revealed.
The book is over and I'm still left wondering WTF he was talking about, This was seriously trying to do too much with little payoff, Either the author forgot the number of secrets she plugged in here and lost track or, yeah, I got nothing else, This seemed like a gaffe if nothing else, Which makes even less sense since it was played out so heavily
throughout the book,
And then there was the writing, It's filled with typos, weird punctuation and missing periods in suffix names ex: Mr Lewis and run on sentences that make no sense,
Hades, he was too close, . . He drew in a deep breath and rode out the pulses of pleasure until like ripples caused by a stone dropped in a pond they diminished at the edges of his consciousness.
And the ' single quotation marks used for the dialogue instead of the " double quotations I found really weird and hard to get used to.
This was my first Ann Lethbridge and it wasn't a great sample if the weak characters and shaky writing was anything to go by.
Surrender to desire
After one night of passion, the dissolute Duke of Dunstan made Julia his wife, but their honeymoon is far from blissful.
Alistair trusts no one with his shameful secret, and that means keeping his tempting new bride at a distance, . .
Julia longs for Alistair to yield to the powerful desire between them, But when the dark secrets of the marriage bed threaten their future, this new couple must overcome the past and surrender to their wildest passions to find a new, ohsodelicious beginning together! An enjoyable read with multiple suspects to eliminate and misunderstandings to deal with.
/.Both Alistair and Julia are regretting their hasty marriage, Alistair hopes that some time
away from London will help,
Julia is uncomfortable in her new surroundings, and suspects that someone is poisoning her chocolate
and tea,
The story has Alistair and Julia each slowly coming to terms with their painful past, while also
revealing the secrets they both hide.
very uneven
The heroine was a widow of an abusive man yet she's passionate and confident in bed, The hero hasn't much to recommend other than he's inconsistently kind, The firstof the book hints at secrets and a villain, The villain and the villain's motive were predictable, The secrets and the actions/motives of H and h were revealed in a clumsy, forced manner in the lastof the story, Pro: abused and insecure heroine, angst, misunderstandings
Cons: I didn't realize this isn't really a standalone, so I was a bit confused at times and missing a lot of backstory.
Also feel like the angst was sort of smoothed over without appropriate groveling, I liked this story, and it was fun, too, The male and female leads worked well together, "Lethbridge turns up the sexy in her newest tale of a deliciously naughty English lord and lady, The pair has to overcome their wounded souls and battered selfesteem in order to risk a chance at love" RT Book s, AKA sitelink Michèle Ann Young Goodreads AuthorAn army brat born in England and now living in Canada, Ann grew up loving history, but majored in business, with history on the side.
She has a husband and two lovely daughters and a Maltese Terrier called Teaser, who likes to sit on a chair beside the computer while she works.
Her love of the past and the stories in her imagination led her to write her first novel in, a never see the light of day effort, and after having her first book published in, she knew shed found her niche.
She loves the Georgian era, and within that, the period known as the long Regency, She also adores happy endings, You will find her books in bookstores in the month of issue, as well as on line at Mills and Boon or E AKA sitelink Michèle Ann Young Goodreads AuthorAn army brat born in England and now living in Canada, Ann grew up loving history, but majored in business, with history on the side.
She has a husband and two lovely daughters and a Maltese Terrier called Teaser, who likes to sit on a chair beside the computer while she works.
Her love of the past and the stories in her imagination led her to write her first novel in, a never see the light of day effort, and after having her first book published in, she knew she'd found her niche.
She loves the Georgian era, and within that, the period known as the long Regency, She also adores happy endings, You will find her books in bookstores in the month of issue, as well as on line at Mills and Boon or E harlequin.
sitelink.
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Ann Lethbridge