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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
I enjoyed this book. It's fun and witty. I'm not overly convinced of their chemistry, and I'm not sure why.
It took me a little longer to get into this one than it did the previous two, but I still really enjoyed it. This series is charming, and I've got the second on ready to go on audiobook (which will be an interesting listening experience).
Read it a while ago. like the characters of course but it wasn't as good as her first in the series.
I've had this book on my reader for a while and for some reason didn't get to it. I'm glad that I finally did. Simon Blair and Leonie Noirot are a wonderful couple. Simon is bored and looking for a fling before he returns to his home in Europe. Leonie is a practical business woman running a dress shop now that her sisters have both married. She runs the business side of things and Simon is fascinated right from the start by her logic and aptitude with numbers.
There are some side plots involving Simon's cousin, a horribly bad poet, but the main story is Simon and Leonie's and I found it very enjoyable. Another fine book from Ms. Chase.
There are some side plots involving Simon's cousin, a horribly bad poet, but the main story is Simon and Leonie's and I found it very enjoyable. Another fine book from Ms. Chase.
L'intégralité de ma chronique ici: http://lune-et-plume.fr/chroniques-eclairs-3/
Juste après avoir commencé ma lecture j’ai bien compris qu’il ne s’agissant pas d’un livre unique mais bien du troisième tome d’une série sur les sœurs Noirot dont je n’avais pas lu les précédents. Tant pis pour moi, j’ai continué ma lecture et finalement j’ai passé un très bon moment, l’auteur laissant quelques indices sur ce qui s’est passé précédemment. Mais c’est dommage, ça enlève quelque chose à l’histoire de ne pas avoir toutes les cartes en mains. [...]
Juste après avoir commencé ma lecture j’ai bien compris qu’il ne s’agissant pas d’un livre unique mais bien du troisième tome d’une série sur les sœurs Noirot dont je n’avais pas lu les précédents. Tant pis pour moi, j’ai continué ma lecture et finalement j’ai passé un très bon moment, l’auteur laissant quelques indices sur ce qui s’est passé précédemment. Mais c’est dommage, ça enlève quelque chose à l’histoire de ne pas avoir toutes les cartes en mains. [...]
Rounding out the three sisters of Maison Noirot, this book tells of Leonie Noirot and her encounters with Simon Fairfax the Marquess of Lisburne. The final sister left to run the bustling fashion, Leonie is overworked and underestimated. When a chance encounter with Lisburne at an art exhibition they begin to engage in a battle of wills. The goal- to win a bet on the success of Lady Gladys’ season. While I think Leonie is a fine leading lady, Simon stole the show with his growth, looks, and dialogue. When a mysterious event draws these two even closer together Simon begins to appreciate Leonie’s mine as well as her body.
how does Loretta Chase manage to end all of her books in such a warm note? Vixen in Velvet doesn't fall short of the others I'm the series, it shines just as bright. This is Leonie's story and like her, the resolution of every conflict is framed by logic and clear thinking, following the steps and reaching the solution easily. I've said it before but I'm glad this series doesn't have high stakes or life and death situations, only beautiful people dressing beautifully and falling in love.
Speaking of high stakes, I love love that probably all the secondary characters have rounded personalities and stories. It's not common to see HR authors spending time on secondary characters that are not one to have their own book later. It's mostly the pair of the moment and one or two siblings that'll get the spotlight, but I have to give credit to LC for fully fleshing out the others like Lady Clara and Gladys and Swanton (sweet sensitive poet blonde man!) etc. It's nice to see them.
A word for the hero: Lisbourne might be my favorite of the series. He's very witty and poetical (and blonde!!!) and he pretty much gets turned one when Leonie orders him around, which is a plus.
one last thing: too bad we didn't see much of Lady Clara in this book, only when there was a scene with Lady Gladys. Maybe it is because the next book is hers? I really can't wait to read it.
Speaking of high stakes, I love love that probably all the secondary characters have rounded personalities and stories. It's not common to see HR authors spending time on secondary characters that are not one to have their own book later. It's mostly the pair of the moment and one or two siblings that'll get the spotlight, but I have to give credit to LC for fully fleshing out the others like Lady Clara and Gladys and Swanton (sweet sensitive poet blonde man!) etc. It's nice to see them.
A word for the hero: Lisbourne might be my favorite of the series. He's very witty and poetical (and blonde!!!) and he pretty much gets turned one when Leonie orders him around, which is a plus.
one last thing: too bad we didn't see much of Lady Clara in this book, only when there was a scene with Lady Gladys. Maybe it is because the next book is hers? I really can't wait to read it.
Dear Ms. Chase:
When I received the ARC to Vixen in Velvet, I was enormously not cool about it. I nearly choked when I saw the file in my inbox. I immediately downloaded it, flipped through the first few pages, which I’d already read on your website, and reached the new material. Evil glee filled my heart, I promise you. You are an auto-buy author for me. I have read fourteen of your novels before this one. The Carsington Brothers series is one of my favorite romance series. Peregrine and Olivia of Lord Perfect (and subsequently, Last Night’s Scandal) are the best children in any romance ever. If anyone says otherwise, I’ll kick them in the shin.
So if we’re done with curtseying and all the niceties, I’d like to move right into the thick of it: I didn’t like this book.
I tried to like it, because in parts, it was charming and full of witty lines and a few characters who were at turns hilarious and endearing. However, I was distracted by the superior secondary characters, who were more dynamic than both the leads, about whom the entire book was devoted. If this had been the Lady Gladys and Lord Swanton chronicles, I would have probably adored it. Instead, I had to suffer two-dimensional Lisburne, otherwise known repeatedly as the Roman god, and his annoying fixation on Leonie.
He wagers with her that she cannot turn his ugly duckling cousin, Lady Gladys, into a swan. His prize is two weeks of her time. He kisses her, making it clear the two weeks would involve lots of that. Essentially, to be his mistress for two weeks, though he claims he just wants to spend time with her and be her top priority instead of her business. And worst of all, he assumes she’s not a virgin, though she’s said she’s not experienced, and it’s a simple matter to ask, “How not experienced?” I’m never impressed with the old ‘she can’t possibly be a virgin’ device.
I don’t understand why Leonie would agree to this bet. Even if she thinks she’s going to win, would she seriously wager her own virginity on a silly bet? I’m all for historical romances that embrace female sexuality and present a heroine unafraid of her body and longings—in fact, it’s one thing I love about your novels—but that doesn’t mean I respect a heroine willing to wager her body on a bet, whether she’s a virgin or not.
Another contention is the utter lack of chemistry I felt between Leonie and Lisburne for half the book. Your characters’ chemistry usually burns through the pages. This time, I didn’t even do a cheating search to see where in the book the first sex scene would be (I find searching for “thrust” to be most useful) so I could readily anticipate the scene. I just didn’t care. They kissed for the first time, and my reaction was, “…?” I saw the words, most luscious and delectable words, but I didn’t feel them.
Maybe I’m overly critical of Lisburne, who is a Roman god, did you know? I did, because you mentioned it sixteen times. I counted. I don’t find anything to value about Lisburne besides his love for his family. And even then, he has no sense of how hurtful he is to Lady Gladys. He’s constructed a whole bet around his conviction that she will fail to attract suitors even with the right guidance and clothes. He’s downright rude about her incompetence to attract anyone. How can I fall in love with a man who is essentially bullying his cousin, a charming lady who is insecure? Whose side should I be on, do you think?
Shall I overlook all this because he beat up some bullies who were picking on his other cousin, Lord Swanton, twenty years ago? Because his eyes get teary at a workshop for indigent females? I’m trying to think of one more thing he’s done that’s at all likable and drawing a blank.
Well, once he made Leonie a sandwich after she had a bad day, and that was very nice, but that’s about all. She reacted to the sandwich-making as though God himself had come down from the heavens and made her a sandwich, and she [spoiler]immediately fell in love and surrendered her virginity.[/spoiler] My primary reaction: it must have been a very good sandwich. But besides making me hungry and lamenting my lack of bread, cheese, etc. in my kitchen, I wasn’t much affected.
Lady Gladys is a lovely character, very different from Leonie. She has almost no confidence, except in the utter conviction that she’s a failure in the marriage market. She is intelligent, and she reacts to her failure with anger and biting comments. Leonie sees the vulnerability, praises her good qualities, and works the proverbial magic to which we’re accustomed in an ugly duckling subplot.
I loved, flat-out loved, Lord Swanton. He was London’s favorite new poet, and his rise to popularity was fast. The only problem: his poems were sentimental tripe. Even he didn’t think much of them. He laughed off reviews that roasted him and at times, agreed with them. He was also excessively emotional and sentimental, choking up at the slightest prompting.
"Swanton blinked hard, but that trick rarely worked for him. Emotion won, nine times out of ten, and this wasn’t the tenth time. His Adam’s apple went up and down and his eyes filled."
One of the subplots was a conspiracy with the bullies who used to torment Swanton. This didn’t interest me in the slightest. There’s no reason given for these bullies to hate Swanton his entire life, after puberty ended and people theoretically grew up, so they were cardboard to me.
Nothing stood out for me besides the characters Lady Gladys and Lord Swanton. It’s hard for anything to stand out when you keep over-using narrative to declare things are so, rather than showing me the story and letting me draw my own conclusions. For instance, to insist how witty Leonie was as she captivated the audience, when the words provided nothing specific and tangible to help me believe that claim:
"Not that Swanton could hold a candle to Leonie Noirot’s performance, in Lisburne’s opinion—and no doubt the opinions of all the other gentlemen in the audience. Following the devastating curtsey and smile, she had launched into her short, shockingly effective appeal, telling the audience at the outset that she knew they hadn’t come to hear her but Lord Swanton. Yet her five-minute speech had her listeners laughing and weeping by turns. Lisburne had even seen that cynic Crawford brush a tear from his eye."
I’m supposed to take your word on it, that the speech was hilarious and moving? Show me something hilarious and moving. Without specifics, it’s just cutting corners and robbing me of emotional payoff. I felt like the majority of the book’s interesting parts were either merely implied or happened off-stage and summarized later, and how can I emotionally connect to something that I don’t experience myself?
Lisburne’s valet was mentioned multiple times to great effect, and I would have loved to meet him, but in the few scenes he actually appeared, he said nothing and was described passively. That devalues everything awesome claimed about him when he’s not there, because he doesn’t deliver the goods himself. And a whole romantic subplot with secondary characters took place off-stage, when it would have been so satisfying to see them interact in any way at all before the epilogue.
I couldn’t understand why anyone loved each other, why they would fight for each other. No matter how much I tried, even as the book continued and I found myself not disliking the hero as much as previously (but not outright liking him), I couldn’t grasp the connection between hero and heroine. “He’s a beautiful Roman god and I love him; he made me a sandwich” is not the answer. Everything was superficial and predictable. Nothing dug deeply, and therefore, nothing reached me.
Best regards,
Suzanne
https://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/overall-c-reviews/c-minus-reviews/review-vixen-in-velvet-by-loretta-chase/
When I received the ARC to Vixen in Velvet, I was enormously not cool about it. I nearly choked when I saw the file in my inbox. I immediately downloaded it, flipped through the first few pages, which I’d already read on your website, and reached the new material. Evil glee filled my heart, I promise you. You are an auto-buy author for me. I have read fourteen of your novels before this one. The Carsington Brothers series is one of my favorite romance series. Peregrine and Olivia of Lord Perfect (and subsequently, Last Night’s Scandal) are the best children in any romance ever. If anyone says otherwise, I’ll kick them in the shin.
So if we’re done with curtseying and all the niceties, I’d like to move right into the thick of it: I didn’t like this book.
I tried to like it, because in parts, it was charming and full of witty lines and a few characters who were at turns hilarious and endearing. However, I was distracted by the superior secondary characters, who were more dynamic than both the leads, about whom the entire book was devoted. If this had been the Lady Gladys and Lord Swanton chronicles, I would have probably adored it. Instead, I had to suffer two-dimensional Lisburne, otherwise known repeatedly as the Roman god, and his annoying fixation on Leonie.
He wagers with her that she cannot turn his ugly duckling cousin, Lady Gladys, into a swan. His prize is two weeks of her time. He kisses her, making it clear the two weeks would involve lots of that. Essentially, to be his mistress for two weeks, though he claims he just wants to spend time with her and be her top priority instead of her business. And worst of all, he assumes she’s not a virgin, though she’s said she’s not experienced, and it’s a simple matter to ask, “How not experienced?” I’m never impressed with the old ‘she can’t possibly be a virgin’ device.
I don’t understand why Leonie would agree to this bet. Even if she thinks she’s going to win, would she seriously wager her own virginity on a silly bet? I’m all for historical romances that embrace female sexuality and present a heroine unafraid of her body and longings—in fact, it’s one thing I love about your novels—but that doesn’t mean I respect a heroine willing to wager her body on a bet, whether she’s a virgin or not.
Another contention is the utter lack of chemistry I felt between Leonie and Lisburne for half the book. Your characters’ chemistry usually burns through the pages. This time, I didn’t even do a cheating search to see where in the book the first sex scene would be (I find searching for “thrust” to be most useful) so I could readily anticipate the scene. I just didn’t care. They kissed for the first time, and my reaction was, “…?” I saw the words, most luscious and delectable words, but I didn’t feel them.
Maybe I’m overly critical of Lisburne, who is a Roman god, did you know? I did, because you mentioned it sixteen times. I counted. I don’t find anything to value about Lisburne besides his love for his family. And even then, he has no sense of how hurtful he is to Lady Gladys. He’s constructed a whole bet around his conviction that she will fail to attract suitors even with the right guidance and clothes. He’s downright rude about her incompetence to attract anyone. How can I fall in love with a man who is essentially bullying his cousin, a charming lady who is insecure? Whose side should I be on, do you think?
Shall I overlook all this because he beat up some bullies who were picking on his other cousin, Lord Swanton, twenty years ago? Because his eyes get teary at a workshop for indigent females? I’m trying to think of one more thing he’s done that’s at all likable and drawing a blank.
Well, once he made Leonie a sandwich after she had a bad day, and that was very nice, but that’s about all. She reacted to the sandwich-making as though God himself had come down from the heavens and made her a sandwich, and she [spoiler]immediately fell in love and surrendered her virginity.[/spoiler] My primary reaction: it must have been a very good sandwich. But besides making me hungry and lamenting my lack of bread, cheese, etc. in my kitchen, I wasn’t much affected.
Lady Gladys is a lovely character, very different from Leonie. She has almost no confidence, except in the utter conviction that she’s a failure in the marriage market. She is intelligent, and she reacts to her failure with anger and biting comments. Leonie sees the vulnerability, praises her good qualities, and works the proverbial magic to which we’re accustomed in an ugly duckling subplot.
I loved, flat-out loved, Lord Swanton. He was London’s favorite new poet, and his rise to popularity was fast. The only problem: his poems were sentimental tripe. Even he didn’t think much of them. He laughed off reviews that roasted him and at times, agreed with them. He was also excessively emotional and sentimental, choking up at the slightest prompting.
"Swanton blinked hard, but that trick rarely worked for him. Emotion won, nine times out of ten, and this wasn’t the tenth time. His Adam’s apple went up and down and his eyes filled."
One of the subplots was a conspiracy with the bullies who used to torment Swanton. This didn’t interest me in the slightest. There’s no reason given for these bullies to hate Swanton his entire life, after puberty ended and people theoretically grew up, so they were cardboard to me.
Nothing stood out for me besides the characters Lady Gladys and Lord Swanton. It’s hard for anything to stand out when you keep over-using narrative to declare things are so, rather than showing me the story and letting me draw my own conclusions. For instance, to insist how witty Leonie was as she captivated the audience, when the words provided nothing specific and tangible to help me believe that claim:
"Not that Swanton could hold a candle to Leonie Noirot’s performance, in Lisburne’s opinion—and no doubt the opinions of all the other gentlemen in the audience. Following the devastating curtsey and smile, she had launched into her short, shockingly effective appeal, telling the audience at the outset that she knew they hadn’t come to hear her but Lord Swanton. Yet her five-minute speech had her listeners laughing and weeping by turns. Lisburne had even seen that cynic Crawford brush a tear from his eye."
I’m supposed to take your word on it, that the speech was hilarious and moving? Show me something hilarious and moving. Without specifics, it’s just cutting corners and robbing me of emotional payoff. I felt like the majority of the book’s interesting parts were either merely implied or happened off-stage and summarized later, and how can I emotionally connect to something that I don’t experience myself?
Lisburne’s valet was mentioned multiple times to great effect, and I would have loved to meet him, but in the few scenes he actually appeared, he said nothing and was described passively. That devalues everything awesome claimed about him when he’s not there, because he doesn’t deliver the goods himself. And a whole romantic subplot with secondary characters took place off-stage, when it would have been so satisfying to see them interact in any way at all before the epilogue.
I couldn’t understand why anyone loved each other, why they would fight for each other. No matter how much I tried, even as the book continued and I found myself not disliking the hero as much as previously (but not outright liking him), I couldn’t grasp the connection between hero and heroine. “He’s a beautiful Roman god and I love him; he made me a sandwich” is not the answer. Everything was superficial and predictable. Nothing dug deeply, and therefore, nothing reached me.
Best regards,
Suzanne
https://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/overall-c-reviews/c-minus-reviews/review-vixen-in-velvet-by-loretta-chase/
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This book has my favourite hero of the series, I like this couple and again find it comforting that the couple are nice to each other and it’s their vulnerabilities in the way rather than idiocy.
An enjoyable read, looking forward to the final in the saga. Once again side characters shine!
An enjoyable read, looking forward to the final in the saga. Once again side characters shine!