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sonny's review against another edition
3.0
oh, man, folks, this held such promise...I swear. If I do a run of Historical Romances, I am picking up stories with Rakes and Wallflowers, first and always. This one gave me everything I could have asked for and gotten without asking, just as a nice sidebar gift.
Except...it fell into that bottomless well that Contemporary Romances are the worst culprits of...the heroine who talks herself into sex or sexual release and then...grumps and bemoans when she gets exactly what she has been pushing out of her mouth...
...Never get involved in a land war with Asia--uh, no, wait...That's Princess Bride...
It's NEVER TRUST A RAKE. Or NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH A RAKE...Uh, because he is a rake and all he wants is some booty, not your heart.
What does she do...not only does Molly proposition him, using her body like coinage...which appalled him--THANK GOD!, but she allows him to take her to his bed-chamber, secretly, during a house party...and eh, while they didn't have penetrative sex, she still gave him every orgasm or orgasmic pleasure she never had with her dirty rotten husband.
Here is what never sits perfectly in my simple-minded brain. Heroines always start out on the good end...ya know...they talk so much shit in their own heads that even the sight of HIM disgusts them to a certain extent. And I mean, except when he does something that sheds light on how handsome and sexy he looks...clothed.
And Molly never says it as contemporary heroines do in romances, but she hasn't had good sex since before she got married. Well, wait, even that experience wasn't too great as she was a virgin and then the lover went off to war, leaving her with a baby. And then her parents finagle her a proper husband who doesn't mind about the baby, except he does.
And, well, this was what doesn't correlate with me and my brain...Molly has suffered not just tragedy but deep mental and emotional trauma...heavy abuse from her "husband" and the fact that him kicking her while she was down, on the ground, caused her to lose her baby...
What gives me confusion and causes me to cross-hairs of strange lightning bolts of wild wonder is...Molly talks a huge big talk...especially as she used that moment from an abusive husband and losing her baby to help other women down in life to change their life and get proper jobs so they can feed themselves and their children. Molly has a set of rules she abides by...and she finds herself being stricter with the women in her group home than she is within herself.
MEN ALWAYS HAVE AN AGENDA and women are last on their list. MEN WILL GET WHAT THEY WANT FROM WOMEN AND THEN THEY LEAVE or become completely shitty to you.
I mean, as I stated... she will discourage women in men pursuing and doing pursuing on their own, allowing single men to come to their home...even have protective guards around the estate to keep men O-U-T from sneaking in and getting these women they think are automatic "prostitutes". None of them are, they are all just down on their luck women who need a helping hand, and Molly and the women who help her run the group home give them that added boost.
But yet, Molly will start to push back from Beau Russington...the Hero, the Rake...who is often called "Russ". Molly watches him in action with women, so she knows who and what he is. And, sadly Russ will never deny it and man, can Molly sometimes be rather way-too honest with him and he takes the gut punches.
But at some point, I don't know why...inside Molly's head is a gradual shift where she devalues herself and her body. As I said before...she is so tired of fighting and struggling with her attraction to Russ...as she cannot seem to get away from him...which is a lie, as he seems to be everywhere, which is another lie, too.
See, because Molly is a widow, she returned to her brother's home who is the Vicar and she helps maintain the household for him until he gets a wife. The Vicar keeps being invited to way-too-many parties and he continues to keep dragging Molly to these parties...and this is ALWAYS where Russ, the Rake is located. All Molly has to do is NEVER GO OUT, which is apparently what she has done for far too long and everyone she knows wants her to change suddenly. Stop wearing her maudlin, widow's frocks, and wear some color...stop wearing severe hair-dos...and go out on the floor and dance, dance, dance at these frequent house parties...Molly complains to us she can never seem to rid herself of Russ's presence...well because she never tells her brother N-O.
Not only is her brother interested in the next-door neighbor's sister...two women from the group home she set-up have started flirtatious romances that grow into love and marriage. But at first, Molly assumes these men simply want to bed and not wed them, so she will not simply struggle with her own attraction to Russ, the Rake, but she will keep tabs on the other women's relationships and often offer her two worthless cents. Mainly because of that thing I told you she instantly does for some weird reason...she devalues herself. She thinks because her husband ruined her, with abuse and neglect, and whatnot that she is less than her own self. She is worth nothing except as offering her body as payment owed...O_O...I mean, this from the woman who has been pushing a Women's freedom movement since the first chapter scales down her own worth to just a mere sex object to hand over to a known Rake...to Russ.
At first, Russ refuses, but then when he takes her offer, bringing her to his bedchamber...my mind simply falls off the cliff of ever appreciating this book's overall message. Whatever it tried to prove to me for the first 50-60% has just lost me forever and can never get me back. Not for nothing and no one. And it all boiled down to what was said and done during and after their sexual intimacy...because even by this time...Molly was over-reactive to Russ's deal with making shockingly hard grabs for her arms or shoulders. Not that she would beat on him to get away and struggle within his grasp just that she would overdramatize very simple unobtrusive moments with Russ. Molly would work herself to such an inner rage she would blow off for an unknown reason all over Russ, but he took, always asking why? what was so wrong? What did he do? And Molly would often storm off, like a dejected child, never giving away her secrets...because not many...well, wait, no one knew of her husband's physical abuse or that he was the cause of her miscarriage.
People who knew her, who cared for her, simply wanted her to GET OVER IT. TO MOVE ON from widowhood and mourning the loss of this great, fabulous husband and Molly would never confess, just take that stuff and do whatever anyone told her to do. She was always easily malleable...letting her Vicar brother drag her around...letting girlfriends dictate her "looks"...how she dressed and how she did her hair. It made it seem like Molly was making choices but then while she is at those parties...dressed in that new colorful garb and wearing her hair differently...she is complaining she doesn't want to dance or be there or do anything but return home and hide away.
Granted she is only a mere 24 but she acts much like a 60yr old widow...and she appeared fine in the first half of the book but then suddenly she wants this "change" being forced on her by Russ's half-sister, who she is being strong-armed to chaperon. I mean...if you DO NOT want to be around Russ, the Rake so badly...just don't allow the half-sister to live with you and Bro-the-Vicar...and then ya know... don't make a decision to chaperon her and take her under your wing, except she really puts herself under the sister's wing because this is really when serious changes start to come off of Molly and everybody around her is clamoring for her to STOP IT WITH ALL THIS MOURNING WIDOW BS!!
I just...I hated to see what happened to Russ and Molly after their intimacy...because it fully made this book drop to a solid 3-rating. Russ decides ONE NIGHT will be enough even though he has growing feelings for Molly. And Molly is feeling rejected so severely she has now become one of those downtrodden women she tries to protect at the group home...where she allowed a guy...remember the Rake--to use her body and NOW she suddenly finds morals again and then wants him to LOVE her and show feelings or emotions of some sort. She got exactly what she always knew he was...and he was exactly who he always said he was going to be...a Rake until the end. He is willing to let her go, move on, and watch her find and marry a good man for a good husband.
Well, lad-dee-freakin'-dah...I lost enjoyment from this point on which meant I suffered in the last 40%...where Russ & Molly avoid one another...and Russ learns he does love Molly and wishes to be a good husband to her. And Molly? She does this weird...turnaround, I suppose you could say...where she flirts and flounces her wares to any man she can...therbey making Russ utterly jealous and rageful...until the point when miscommunications abound and Russ never paying fucking attention to this "best friend's" personal life...AT ALL to know this guy was falling in love with someone NOT MOLLY. Russ thinks his friend, Sir Gerard...and Molly are off to Gretna Green or eloping or some dumb shit...when actually she is chaperoning her young charge from the group home, Fleur...and...uhm...there is a rather disparaging scene given to us of Russ thinking he is storming into a room where he will find Gerard and Molly compromised...and Russ says some rather abhorrent words to her in the heat-of-the-moment...basically calling her a trollop/whoreish...and maybe telling her to shut her disgusting mouth...and la-la...I mean, O_O...whut-the-eff?
Russ fucked that scene up to all hell and back, but yet Molly forgave him and jumped into his arms, both of them dumb enough to confess love finally and making a quickie proposal to be married in under 24hrs by special license since two other couples were about to be wed, too. I just...I couldn't anymore. Well, they got their HEAs, so, yay...and then a mini-Epilogue showed us an even deeper HEA with a baby about to be christened, so, double-yay...whatever...
Except...it fell into that bottomless well that Contemporary Romances are the worst culprits of...the heroine who talks herself into sex or sexual release and then...grumps and bemoans when she gets exactly what she has been pushing out of her mouth...
...Never get involved in a land war with Asia--uh, no, wait...That's Princess Bride...
It's NEVER TRUST A RAKE. Or NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH A RAKE...Uh, because he is a rake and all he wants is some booty, not your heart.
What does she do...not only does Molly proposition him, using her body like coinage...which appalled him--THANK GOD!, but she allows him to take her to his bed-chamber, secretly, during a house party...and eh, while they didn't have penetrative sex, she still gave him every orgasm or orgasmic pleasure she never had with her dirty rotten husband.
Here is what never sits perfectly in my simple-minded brain. Heroines always start out on the good end...ya know...they talk so much shit in their own heads that even the sight of HIM disgusts them to a certain extent. And I mean, except when he does something that sheds light on how handsome and sexy he looks...clothed.
And Molly never says it as contemporary heroines do in romances, but she hasn't had good sex since before she got married. Well, wait, even that experience wasn't too great as she was a virgin and then the lover went off to war, leaving her with a baby. And then her parents finagle her a proper husband who doesn't mind about the baby, except he does.
And, well, this was what doesn't correlate with me and my brain...Molly has suffered not just tragedy but deep mental and emotional trauma...heavy abuse from her "husband" and the fact that him kicking her while she was down, on the ground, caused her to lose her baby...
What gives me confusion and causes me to cross-hairs of strange lightning bolts of wild wonder is...Molly talks a huge big talk...especially as she used that moment from an abusive husband and losing her baby to help other women down in life to change their life and get proper jobs so they can feed themselves and their children. Molly has a set of rules she abides by...and she finds herself being stricter with the women in her group home than she is within herself.
MEN ALWAYS HAVE AN AGENDA and women are last on their list. MEN WILL GET WHAT THEY WANT FROM WOMEN AND THEN THEY LEAVE or become completely shitty to you.
I mean, as I stated... she will discourage women in men pursuing and doing pursuing on their own, allowing single men to come to their home...even have protective guards around the estate to keep men O-U-T from sneaking in and getting these women they think are automatic "prostitutes". None of them are, they are all just down on their luck women who need a helping hand, and Molly and the women who help her run the group home give them that added boost.
But yet, Molly will start to push back from Beau Russington...the Hero, the Rake...who is often called "Russ". Molly watches him in action with women, so she knows who and what he is. And, sadly Russ will never deny it and man, can Molly sometimes be rather way-too honest with him and he takes the gut punches.
But at some point, I don't know why...inside Molly's head is a gradual shift where she devalues herself and her body. As I said before...she is so tired of fighting and struggling with her attraction to Russ...as she cannot seem to get away from him...which is a lie, as he seems to be everywhere, which is another lie, too.
See, because Molly is a widow, she returned to her brother's home who is the Vicar and she helps maintain the household for him until he gets a wife. The Vicar keeps being invited to way-too-many parties and he continues to keep dragging Molly to these parties...and this is ALWAYS where Russ, the Rake is located. All Molly has to do is NEVER GO OUT, which is apparently what she has done for far too long and everyone she knows wants her to change suddenly. Stop wearing her maudlin, widow's frocks, and wear some color...stop wearing severe hair-dos...and go out on the floor and dance, dance, dance at these frequent house parties...Molly complains to us she can never seem to rid herself of Russ's presence...well because she never tells her brother N-O.
Not only is her brother interested in the next-door neighbor's sister...two women from the group home she set-up have started flirtatious romances that grow into love and marriage. But at first, Molly assumes these men simply want to bed and not wed them, so she will not simply struggle with her own attraction to Russ, the Rake, but she will keep tabs on the other women's relationships and often offer her two worthless cents. Mainly because of that thing I told you she instantly does for some weird reason...she devalues herself. She thinks because her husband ruined her, with abuse and neglect, and whatnot that she is less than her own self. She is worth nothing except as offering her body as payment owed...O_O...I mean, this from the woman who has been pushing a Women's freedom movement since the first chapter scales down her own worth to just a mere sex object to hand over to a known Rake...to Russ.
At first, Russ refuses, but then when he takes her offer, bringing her to his bedchamber...my mind simply falls off the cliff of ever appreciating this book's overall message. Whatever it tried to prove to me for the first 50-60% has just lost me forever and can never get me back. Not for nothing and no one. And it all boiled down to what was said and done during and after their sexual intimacy...because even by this time...Molly was over-reactive to Russ's deal with making shockingly hard grabs for her arms or shoulders. Not that she would beat on him to get away and struggle within his grasp just that she would overdramatize very simple unobtrusive moments with Russ. Molly would work herself to such an inner rage she would blow off for an unknown reason all over Russ, but he took, always asking why? what was so wrong? What did he do? And Molly would often storm off, like a dejected child, never giving away her secrets...because not many...well, wait, no one knew of her husband's physical abuse or that he was the cause of her miscarriage.
People who knew her, who cared for her, simply wanted her to GET OVER IT. TO MOVE ON from widowhood and mourning the loss of this great, fabulous husband and Molly would never confess, just take that stuff and do whatever anyone told her to do. She was always easily malleable...letting her Vicar brother drag her around...letting girlfriends dictate her "looks"...how she dressed and how she did her hair. It made it seem like Molly was making choices but then while she is at those parties...dressed in that new colorful garb and wearing her hair differently...she is complaining she doesn't want to dance or be there or do anything but return home and hide away.
Granted she is only a mere 24 but she acts much like a 60yr old widow...and she appeared fine in the first half of the book but then suddenly she wants this "change" being forced on her by Russ's half-sister, who she is being strong-armed to chaperon. I mean...if you DO NOT want to be around Russ, the Rake so badly...just don't allow the half-sister to live with you and Bro-the-Vicar...and then ya know... don't make a decision to chaperon her and take her under your wing, except she really puts herself under the sister's wing because this is really when serious changes start to come off of Molly and everybody around her is clamoring for her to STOP IT WITH ALL THIS MOURNING WIDOW BS!!
I just...I hated to see what happened to Russ and Molly after their intimacy...because it fully made this book drop to a solid 3-rating. Russ decides ONE NIGHT will be enough even though he has growing feelings for Molly. And Molly is feeling rejected so severely she has now become one of those downtrodden women she tries to protect at the group home...where she allowed a guy...remember the Rake--to use her body and NOW she suddenly finds morals again and then wants him to LOVE her and show feelings or emotions of some sort. She got exactly what she always knew he was...and he was exactly who he always said he was going to be...a Rake until the end. He is willing to let her go, move on, and watch her find and marry a good man for a good husband.
Well, lad-dee-freakin'-dah...I lost enjoyment from this point on which meant I suffered in the last 40%...where Russ & Molly avoid one another...and Russ learns he does love Molly and wishes to be a good husband to her. And Molly? She does this weird...turnaround, I suppose you could say...where she flirts and flounces her wares to any man she can...therbey making Russ utterly jealous and rageful...until the point when miscommunications abound and Russ never paying fucking attention to this "best friend's" personal life...AT ALL to know this guy was falling in love with someone NOT MOLLY. Russ thinks his friend, Sir Gerard...and Molly are off to Gretna Green or eloping or some dumb shit...when actually she is chaperoning her young charge from the group home, Fleur...and...uhm...there is a rather disparaging scene given to us of Russ thinking he is storming into a room where he will find Gerard and Molly compromised...and Russ says some rather abhorrent words to her in the heat-of-the-moment...basically calling her a trollop/whoreish...and maybe telling her to shut her disgusting mouth...and la-la...I mean, O_O...whut-the-eff?
Russ fucked that scene up to all hell and back, but yet Molly forgave him and jumped into his arms, both of them dumb enough to confess love finally and making a quickie proposal to be married in under 24hrs by special license since two other couples were about to be wed, too. I just...I couldn't anymore. Well, they got their HEAs, so, yay...and then a mini-Epilogue showed us an even deeper HEA with a baby about to be christened, so, double-yay...whatever...
samnreader's review
2.0
I thought this book had good writing and character development if you can separate it from the awful, tragic pacing.
It's just...nothing happens. Until suddenly the hero reaches and kisses the "hinge" of Molly's thighs.
eh?
I liked the slow burn and back and forth between the two MCs, then it just froze in time until that particular scene, so not great. And also I thought this book was a bout 500 pages, so also not great.
It's just...nothing happens. Until suddenly the hero reaches and kisses the "hinge" of Molly's thighs.
eh?
I liked the slow burn and back and forth between the two MCs, then it just froze in time until that particular scene, so not great. And also I thought this book was a bout 500 pages, so also not great.
wyvernfriend's review
3.0
learning to trust is hard work Molly Morgan lives quietly with her brother in his vicarage, helping to run a house for "unfortunate" women when her life is disruped by Sir Gerald Kilburn and his house party, particularly Beau Russington who is everything she thinks she should despise, but how come he attracts her so much. Beau Russington is a renouned rake, well able to talk to women except for Molly who keeps him on his toes.
They're the core romance but ther are a few others and it's interesting to see the relationships build.
Entertaining and light.
They're the core romance but ther are a few others and it's interesting to see the relationships build.
Entertaining and light.
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