Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
Quill was injured in a horse ridding accident a few years ago and still suffers terrible migranes from repetitive motions, like sexy time. The Viscout Dewland has accepted the debt he owes from an old friend as the dowery for Gabby to marry the Dewland heir; since Quill is unable to consumate a marriage, his younger brother, Peter, has been thrust into the groomdom. Although Peter had no plans to marry (maybe because he doesn't fancy women) he accepts this sacrafice, Gabby is a romantic and has fallen in love with Peter's picture, and Quill has reserved himself to a marriage-less life. However that all changes when Gabby shows up; She's clumsy, "plump," and unrefined everything Peter loathes, but Quill desires.
Although this novel is a romance, it really takes a backseat to more important themes, Honesty, Courage, Perseverance, True Love, and Bullying. Honesty is so important to Quill; however, Gabby frequently tells little white lies for everyone's "own good." This is a reoccuring argument in their relationship. However, even though Gabby and Quill finally work through the honesty issue and Gabby seemingly promises never to lie to Quill again, Gabby still has the Courage and Perseverance to do whatever it takes to help Quill with his "inner ear" problem even if he divorces her because of the lie.
Happily Ever After
The End.
Personally I really enjoyed the bullying theme throughout the story. East India Company vs Indian Provences/Prince, Gabby's Father vs Indian Provance/People, Gabby's Father vs Gabby, Viscout Dewland vs Peter/Quill. And how the small/little person overcomes the odds to win the day!
Although this novel is a romance, it really takes a backseat to more important themes, Honesty, Courage, Perseverance, True Love, and Bullying. Honesty is so important to Quill; however, Gabby frequently tells little white lies for everyone's "own good." This is a reoccuring argument in their relationship. However, even though Gabby and Quill finally work through the honesty issue and Gabby seemingly promises never to lie to Quill again, Gabby still has the Courage and Perseverance to do whatever it takes to help Quill with his "inner ear" problem even if he divorces her because of the lie.
Happily Ever After
The End.
Personally I really enjoyed the bullying theme throughout the story. East India Company vs Indian Provences/Prince, Gabby's Father vs Indian Provance/People, Gabby's Father vs Gabby, Viscout Dewland vs Peter/Quill. And how the small/little person overcomes the odds to win the day!
Wonderful story. I had so much fun reading it.
(Reread on date above, first read several years previous)
Eesh I don't think I've had to force myself through a book like that for a while.
Quite honestly I didn't like Gabby or Quill. Gabby grated on my nerves throughout the majority of the book. Quill was just an arrogant jerk most of the time.
I was more invested in the small romance between two side characters than the main couple.
The only reason I read to the end was because I was curious to see how Quinn would be cured. Whilst I found that bit interesting enough, the last few chapters had me eye rolling constantly.
Such a shame because I've enjoyed everything else I've read by Eloisa James, but this is definitely not for me.
Quite honestly I didn't like Gabby or Quill. Gabby grated on my nerves throughout the majority of the book. Quill was just an arrogant jerk most of the time.
I was more invested in the small romance between two side characters than the main couple.
The only reason I read to the end was because I was curious to see how Quinn would be cured. Whilst I found that bit interesting enough, the last few chapters had me eye rolling constantly.
Such a shame because I've enjoyed everything else I've read by Eloisa James, but this is definitely not for me.
I had some issues with the book but overall I was glued to the story. Loved both MCs.
This was a very fun book with some very likable characters. True, it does take some liberties with history, but I'm generally not reading romance novels for the historical accuracies.
Read this series out of order but really liked the book. The Hero's brother was obnoxious and I am glad that relationship didn't work out.
I am not sure that I would characterise this novel as an ‘Enchanting Pleasure’ but more of a ‘Prolonged Torture.’ Perhaps ‘Torture’ is a tad too strong, maybe ‘Anguish’ is more suitable. Either way, my sense of relief when I turned the final page was swift and all-consuming. I feel annoyed that I have a negative view of this novel, because I have read other Eloisa James novels which I have given such high ratings, so felt all the more disappointed with this novel.
In general I would say that the main failing of this novel was its length, there was not nearly enough ‘action’ to pad out 400+ pages, and I believe that I would have been far more favourable had a hundred or two pages been cut. There was just a lot of faff and repetition which just bored and frustrated me – how many times would Quill and Gabby misunderstand each other during conversation? How many times would they be in situations where the chaperone caught them or failed to do her job? How many times did Gabby have to have rational conversations about how sinful and disgusting sex was?
I did love Quill, I thought his story was unique and he was the perfect Regency Hero. Attractive, powerful, moody yet an utter sweetheart beneath the scowls… A man of means who was possessive and lusty and just… Lovely.
Then there was Gabby…
I can’t think of another Regency Heroine that I have hated more. She was irritating and I felt that she wasn’t properly characterised. At the start of the novel she was clumsy and unkempt, yet by the middle of the novel these traits were never mentioned again beyond her hair falling constantly out of her clips. (I mean honestly, if her hair fell out of its clips once, it fell out a thousand times, by the end I was picturing it as strands of jelly it was supposedly so slippery)
In one chapter Gabby would reel off important facts regarding Indian Politics and in the next she couldn’t take a hint that she was tubby or that Peter didn’t like her, or that she wasn’t quite acting like an English Lady. On one hand she was running round kissing Quill - without a thought for Peter who she supposedly loved - and throwing herself at poor Peter in public, and then spent the rest of the novel screeching about how sinful and disgusting sex was.
I couldn’t stand how easily she fell in love with Peter, then how resolutely she stuck to these emotions despite kissing Quill and forming a bond with him, and then she just as easily fell out of love with Peter and into love with Quill… Gabby as a character was up and down more than one of Madame Careme’s bodices.
In truth I view Quill as our lead narrator and hero - swoon - and Gabby as a minor inconvenience in the telling of his story.
All of this seems very negative, I know but honestly, can I say that it is the worst Regency Romance novel that I have read? No. Was it with a sense of relief that I closed the book for the final time? Perhaps. Will I continue to read Eloisa James? Absolutely.
In general I would say that the main failing of this novel was its length, there was not nearly enough ‘action’ to pad out 400+ pages, and I believe that I would have been far more favourable had a hundred or two pages been cut. There was just a lot of faff and repetition which just bored and frustrated me – how many times would Quill and Gabby misunderstand each other during conversation? How many times would they be in situations where the chaperone caught them or failed to do her job? How many times did Gabby have to have rational conversations about how sinful and disgusting sex was?
I did love Quill, I thought his story was unique and he was the perfect Regency Hero. Attractive, powerful, moody yet an utter sweetheart beneath the scowls… A man of means who was possessive and lusty and just… Lovely.
Then there was Gabby…
I can’t think of another Regency Heroine that I have hated more. She was irritating and I felt that she wasn’t properly characterised. At the start of the novel she was clumsy and unkempt, yet by the middle of the novel these traits were never mentioned again beyond her hair falling constantly out of her clips. (I mean honestly, if her hair fell out of its clips once, it fell out a thousand times, by the end I was picturing it as strands of jelly it was supposedly so slippery)
In one chapter Gabby would reel off important facts regarding Indian Politics and in the next she couldn’t take a hint that she was tubby or that Peter didn’t like her, or that she wasn’t quite acting like an English Lady. On one hand she was running round kissing Quill - without a thought for Peter who she supposedly loved - and throwing herself at poor Peter in public, and then spent the rest of the novel screeching about how sinful and disgusting sex was.
I couldn’t stand how easily she fell in love with Peter, then how resolutely she stuck to these emotions despite kissing Quill and forming a bond with him, and then she just as easily fell out of love with Peter and into love with Quill… Gabby as a character was up and down more than one of Madame Careme’s bodices.
In truth I view Quill as our lead narrator and hero - swoon - and Gabby as a minor inconvenience in the telling of his story.
All of this seems very negative, I know but honestly, can I say that it is the worst Regency Romance novel that I have read? No. Was it with a sense of relief that I closed the book for the final time? Perhaps. Will I continue to read Eloisa James? Absolutely.
Sigh - this book - it started off with such promise and went downhill .. so I averaged my enjoyment in the beginning with the disappointment and came to 1.5 stars in the end.
In this last book in the Pleasures Trilogy, we follow our heroine who is supposed to marry one brother but falls in love with another. She is an heiress from India which was interesting (which made me bump up some books on the East India Company up my TBR so win there) but her hero is pretty bland.
Quill, despite being the older brother, cannot marry our heroine because he is suffering from debilitating headaches following a riding accident.This premise and the promise of some generally strong writing from Ms. James was originally my interest in the book.
Even though the writing isn’t bad here the premise of Quill having a disability is wasted. His headaches hardly make an appearance in the first half which works as a pretty standard romance. He is attracted to Gabby from the beginning - “enchanted” by her spirit (or some such thing - I think he just liked that she was voluptuous) - but he never explains why he is not the prospective groom. It’s not like they don't spend time together or his disability is a state secret. It was just avoided for plot reasons.
All in all I found him a pretty dull character with little personality.
Gabby was thankfully better - I liked her unaffected manners and even her clumsiness (though a little OTT) charmed me. I could see this being a fun romance - and then in the second half her character took a nose dive into imbecility.
Basically, there is an introduction of a miracle Indian cure which gets rid of Quill’s headaches. Ignoring the whole stereotype of mysterious eastern medicine here - Quill clearly doesn’t consent to the treatment - so of course, his loving wife doses him anyway.
Sigh ….
They have a fight and then she drinks the medicine herself and almost dies. And I was wondering if I could just stop reading during her coma because I wanted to kill her. This resolution to their legitimate right about consent and medical treatment was so ham fisted that I screamed - much to the displeasure of my family.
I was also thoroughly annoyed at the lost opportunity here - Ms. James does use this specific plot device to much greater success in her later books so I would chalk this up to her being a new writer. Still I was quite irked at this twist.
For a better historical romance hero with a disability caused by injury see [b:The Sum of All Kisses|15702268|The Sum of All Kisses (Smythe-Smith Quartet, #3)|Julia Quinn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356091342l/15702268._SY75_.jpg|21362590] instead (which has its own plotting issues but at least the hero’s injury didn’t get only lip service till it was needed to cause a fight between the couple).
There are also some other issues with the book which were so minor in irksome comparison that I am just listing them here:
- like the side plot with the Maratha prince which just disappeared,
- the fact that our couple were kissing when she was still betrothed to his brother - no no no
- a side romance which got too little page time in the end and was probably more interesting than the main plot
All in all - give this one a pass. Ms. James has done much better in her later works. .This is only for people who are interesting in seeing this author evolution of her craft.
----------
Sept 27 2019 update:
I just downloaded the audiobook from the library and could not get past 2 sentences. Public service announcement - avoid the audiobook.
I tried about 2% and I now have a headache. I think I'm going to switch to something else to get this out of my head.
In this last book in the Pleasures Trilogy, we follow our heroine who is supposed to marry one brother but falls in love with another. She is an heiress from India which was interesting (which made me bump up some books on the East India Company up my TBR so win there) but her hero is pretty bland.
Quill, despite being the older brother, cannot marry our heroine because he is suffering from debilitating headaches following a riding accident.This premise and the promise of some generally strong writing from Ms. James was originally my interest in the book.
Even though the writing isn’t bad here the premise of Quill having a disability is wasted. His headaches hardly make an appearance in the first half which works as a pretty standard romance. He is attracted to Gabby from the beginning - “enchanted” by her spirit (or some such thing - I think he just liked that she was voluptuous) - but he never explains why he is not the prospective groom. It’s not like they don't spend time together or his disability is a state secret. It was just avoided for plot reasons.
All in all I found him a pretty dull character with little personality.
Gabby was thankfully better - I liked her unaffected manners and even her clumsiness (though a little OTT) charmed me. I could see this being a fun romance - and then in the second half her character took a nose dive into imbecility.
Sigh ….
They have a fight and then she drinks the medicine herself and almost dies. And I was wondering if I could just stop reading during her coma because I wanted to kill her. This resolution to their legitimate right about consent and medical treatment was so ham fisted that I screamed - much to the displeasure of my family.
I was also thoroughly annoyed at the lost opportunity here - Ms. James does use this specific plot device to much greater success in her later books so I would chalk this up to her being a new writer. Still I was quite irked at this twist.
For a better historical romance hero with a disability caused by injury see [b:The Sum of All Kisses|15702268|The Sum of All Kisses (Smythe-Smith Quartet, #3)|Julia Quinn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356091342l/15702268._SY75_.jpg|21362590] instead (which has its own plotting issues but at least the hero’s injury didn’t get only lip service till it was needed to cause a fight between the couple).
There are also some other issues with the book which were so minor in irksome comparison that I am just listing them here:
- like the side plot with the Maratha prince which just disappeared,
- the fact that our couple were kissing when she was still betrothed to his brother - no no no
- a side romance which got too little page time in the end and was probably more interesting than the main plot
All in all - give this one a pass. Ms. James has done much better in her later works. .This is only for people who are interesting in seeing this author evolution of her craft.
----------
Sept 27 2019 update:
I just downloaded the audiobook from the library and could not get past 2 sentences. Public service announcement - avoid the audiobook.
I tried about 2% and I now have a headache. I think I'm going to switch to something else to get this out of my head.