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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
This was an okay book that possibly suffered the loss of a star because I read Courtney Milan's "The Suffragette Scandal" around the same time and just clicked with the characters so much more.
Leonie Noirot is the last unmarried owner of her dressmaker's shop. It's all up to her (at least in her own mind) to keep the business running. Oh, and to rescue Lady Gladys from her own bad dress sense.
Simon Fairfax, the Marquess of Lisburne, has his own family issues to handle. But he's immediately attracted to Leonie and wants to further their acquaintance.
Can Leonie run the dress shop, run her family's charity, help Lady Gladys find true love all while finding a love for her own? (Major hint, this is a romance novel)
Leonie Noirot is the last unmarried owner of her dressmaker's shop. It's all up to her (at least in her own mind) to keep the business running. Oh, and to rescue Lady Gladys from her own bad dress sense.
Simon Fairfax, the Marquess of Lisburne, has his own family issues to handle. But he's immediately attracted to Leonie and wants to further their acquaintance.
Can Leonie run the dress shop, run her family's charity, help Lady Gladys find true love all while finding a love for her own? (Major hint, this is a romance novel)
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Finally it's Leonie's story. She and her two sisters own a dress shop - more of a high fashion modiste. Her sisters have both married well (read the first two books of the series - but, it isn't necessary to read them to understand this story). Leonie is more interested in increasing business than finding a titled husband. She has decided she needs to transform Lady Gladys as advertisement. But Lady Gladys' cousin, Simon, Marquess of Lisburne keeps getting in the way. Fun story.
Characters: Analytical heroine. Somewhat more emotional hero.
World Building: 19th century dressmaking.
Plot: Continues story arc.
Sex: Medium to hot.
Read another: Of course.
World Building: 19th century dressmaking.
Plot: Continues story arc.
Sex: Medium to hot.
Read another: Of course.
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Not bad, just doesn’t do anything the first two books didn’t do already and the dressmaker concept is wearing thin.
Lendo Volúpia de Veludo
Eu gostei dos dois primeiros livros da série, então já conhecia a escrita de Loretta. Gosto muito da dinâmica rápida dos diálogos, algo comum nos livros da autora. Os personagens de seus livros parecem sempre ter uma ótima química, principalmente na parte intelectual. Com Leonie e Simon, não foi diferente.
Eles se completam muito bem e a transição de uma atração física para algo mais é bem desenvolvida. Também gostei muito ao ver que Leonie é ótima em matemática e contabilidade, já que normalmente apenas personagens masculinos parecem ter essas características.
Meu maior problema com Volúpia de Veludo foi com Simon. Ele começa o livro d sendo bastante presunçoso em relação a Leonie, algo que não me agradou. Acho que demorou um pouco para que ele se tornasse digno de Leonie. Eventualmente, ele chegou lá, mas aí já tinha pego um pouco de implicância com o personagem.
Gostei de ver a história de Lady Gladys desenvolvida, também. No livro anterior, seu nome é bastante citado, mas ela não chega a aparecer. Porém, conhecer a personagem nesse livro foi algo muito bom. Decididamente, Gladys sai um pouco do padrão feminino da época: ela ri alto e não se importa muito em manter aparências. Isso, claro, lhe custa bastante a admiração e respeito das pessoas com as quais convive. Leonie tem a tarefa de enaltecer suas maiores qualidades, sem entretanto extinguir sua personalidade marcante.
Resenha no blog Pequenos Retalhos
Eu gostei dos dois primeiros livros da série, então já conhecia a escrita de Loretta. Gosto muito da dinâmica rápida dos diálogos, algo comum nos livros da autora. Os personagens de seus livros parecem sempre ter uma ótima química, principalmente na parte intelectual. Com Leonie e Simon, não foi diferente.
Eles se completam muito bem e a transição de uma atração física para algo mais é bem desenvolvida. Também gostei muito ao ver que Leonie é ótima em matemática e contabilidade, já que normalmente apenas personagens masculinos parecem ter essas características.
Meu maior problema com Volúpia de Veludo foi com Simon. Ele começa o livro d sendo bastante presunçoso em relação a Leonie, algo que não me agradou. Acho que demorou um pouco para que ele se tornasse digno de Leonie. Eventualmente, ele chegou lá, mas aí já tinha pego um pouco de implicância com o personagem.
Gostei de ver a história de Lady Gladys desenvolvida, também. No livro anterior, seu nome é bastante citado, mas ela não chega a aparecer. Porém, conhecer a personagem nesse livro foi algo muito bom. Decididamente, Gladys sai um pouco do padrão feminino da época: ela ri alto e não se importa muito em manter aparências. Isso, claro, lhe custa bastante a admiração e respeito das pessoas com as quais convive. Leonie tem a tarefa de enaltecer suas maiores qualidades, sem entretanto extinguir sua personalidade marcante.
Resenha no blog Pequenos Retalhos
so. several things. its super clear loretta chase doesnt actually want to be writing historical romance. i mean she DOES but a lot of the historical research she did and all the poetry and all this stuff, and the bagginess of this book is so clearly her screaming 'let me write historical carte blanche'. please go do that so i can get my romance novels back. please. by GOD. also can we stop having girls cry during the love confession. with marcelline i was like okay. with sophy i rolled my eyes. with had numbers mercenary leonie i nearly quit reading in the last fucking chapter because it was iNSUFFERABLE and made NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. also like. if you are going to commit to something so ridiculous as shopkeepers marrying the upper nobility stop trying to find REASONABLE solutions and just run with how ridiculous that is. or have them marry lower obscenely wealthy gentry. OR THE BOURGEOUSIE. like. why do i have to sit through fake tears about a fake problem we all know you're going to solve. 'i want my shop!!!' yes we know. we all know you want your shop and youre going to keep your shop in the most ridiculous contrived way possible. anyway, i quoted the best bit of this book which is in the first 150 pages. will someone please tell loretta chase to stop writing about virgins and make her damn mind up about which genre she actually wants to write in.
Fun series with competent heroines and generally appealing heroes.
So after feeling bored at the first book in this series and mildly interested at the second, I've finally decided to go for the third. I can barely remember the first two, but I'm pretty sure that Loretta Chase can only write one type of hero: aristocratic, oblivious to feelings, employs self-deprecating humour to tone down the cockiness of his aristocratic demeanour. Which is fine! But also a bit trying. Anyway, here's me criticising everything, in an effort to seem witty.
Let's start with the more personal, nitpicking complaints first. This book opens with the line: 'He lay naked but for a cloth draped over his manly parts.' Later we find out that this is a description of a painting, but that doesn't matter. The line did not 'grab' my attention. It was met with a sigh and an irritated text to a friend.
Secondly, the writing is just plain weird at times. Chase is very fond of the phrase 'green gaze'. Or 'blue gaze', if you have blue eyes. Unfortunately her characters do not have laser eyes, so this seems like a misleading phrase. Also, she kept comparing Lisburne to a Roman god, which I guess works a bit with the aforementioned painting ('manly parts', in case you're confused) but is also just ridiculous. The title gets (uncomfortably?) recalled when Lisburne says something about Leonie's skin being velvety, which I suppose could have been unintentional, but to that I say she should be a more observant writer.
Thirdly, there's a lot of poetry quoted in this book, which I'm a fan of, but I'm slightly irritated that at the Big Moment when Lisburne realises that he loves Leonie, he thinks of that awful Byron poem 'She Walks In Beauty'.
Onto the more formal things to complain about. Mainly: not much happens. The romance proceeds pretty straightforwardly: instant attraction, they fall in love, she realises she loves him, he realises that he loves her. So Chase fills up the gaps with random plot stuff, but even that's a bit messy. The Gladys Fairfax subplot was underdeveloped and sort of confusingly intertwined with the Lord Swanton stuff. It's pretty easy to see that those two strands were going to meet, because romance novels are predictable, but they were written in detached ways until the very end when they did meet, so even though seasoned (!) readers would have guessed the resolution of both, it still felt a bit jarring. Also, Lady Clara became un-irritating and rather funny, which was another shock I wasn't prepared for.
So yeah, I really liked this one! Obviously the most important thing in a romance novel is the romance, which, despite being kind of stagnant, was funny and clever and good for both of them, I think. I particularly like the bit where Lisburne's quoting Romeo and Juliet and:
Let's start with the more personal, nitpicking complaints first. This book opens with the line: 'He lay naked but for a cloth draped over his manly parts.' Later we find out that this is a description of a painting, but that doesn't matter. The line did not 'grab' my attention. It was met with a sigh and an irritated text to a friend.
Secondly, the writing is just plain weird at times. Chase is very fond of the phrase 'green gaze'. Or 'blue gaze', if you have blue eyes. Unfortunately her characters do not have laser eyes, so this seems like a misleading phrase. Also, she kept comparing Lisburne to a Roman god, which I guess works a bit with the aforementioned painting ('manly parts', in case you're confused) but is also just ridiculous. The title gets (uncomfortably?) recalled when Lisburne says something about Leonie's skin being velvety, which I suppose could have been unintentional, but to that I say she should be a more observant writer.
Thirdly, there's a lot of poetry quoted in this book, which I'm a fan of, but I'm slightly irritated that at the Big Moment when Lisburne realises that he loves Leonie, he thinks of that awful Byron poem 'She Walks In Beauty'.
Onto the more formal things to complain about. Mainly: not much happens. The romance proceeds pretty straightforwardly: instant attraction, they fall in love, she realises she loves him, he realises that he loves her. So Chase fills up the gaps with random plot stuff, but even that's a bit messy. The Gladys Fairfax subplot was underdeveloped and sort of confusingly intertwined with the Lord Swanton stuff. It's pretty easy to see that those two strands were going to meet, because romance novels are predictable, but they were written in detached ways until the very end when they did meet, so even though seasoned (!) readers would have guessed the resolution of both, it still felt a bit jarring. Also, Lady Clara became un-irritating and rather funny, which was another shock I wasn't prepared for.
So yeah, I really liked this one! Obviously the most important thing in a romance novel is the romance, which, despite being kind of stagnant, was funny and clever and good for both of them, I think. I particularly like the bit where Lisburne's quoting Romeo and Juliet and:
"I'm sure it's beautiful," she said, "but Shakespeare speaks a version of English I find difficult to understand."In conclusion, there are so many more things I could say, like how there's minimal continuity with the other books in the series because the previous heroes and heroines barely appear, but I think I'll stop here. Clearly that last quote has just revealed me to be a sap.
"I'll teach you," he said softly.