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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
... I want to like this more than I did. Sherry Thomas is such a great writer, and her plots continue to draw me in and keep me riveted, but I felt like this wrapped up a bit too easily, which was frustrating after an entire book of obfuscation and misdirection on the part of both the hero and heroine.
I was not feeling this story. I appreciate the attempt at a unique hero--pretending to be an idiot but really an intelligent spy. The conflict was a bit confusing and not compelling, not enough angst, and the story was a bit disjointed. Previous books were great but we can't win them all.
3.5 stars
Elissande has been caring for her sick aunt for most of her life and her uncle has ensured she has no friends and very few if any pleasures in life, so when, while her uncle is away, her neighbor comes by begging a place to stay for herself and her house party for a few days because her home has been over run by rats she agrees. She also starts to plan to catch a husband so that someone will take her and her aunt away from this abusive situation.
Lord Vere works for the home office(or something like) but he does it by playing the part of an idiot, so when he sees the woman of his dreams he cringes that he has to stay in his roll, but then he figures out that she's husband hunting and is less excited but still can't keep away from her.
This was an interesting story but there is emotional and physical abuse in it.
Elissande has been caring for her sick aunt for most of her life and her uncle has ensured she has no friends and very few if any pleasures in life, so when, while her uncle is away, her neighbor comes by begging a place to stay for herself and her house party for a few days because her home has been over run by rats she agrees. She also starts to plan to catch a husband so that someone will take her and her aunt away from this abusive situation.
Lord Vere works for the home office(or something like) but he does it by playing the part of an idiot, so when he sees the woman of his dreams he cringes that he has to stay in his roll, but then he figures out that she's husband hunting and is less excited but still can't keep away from her.
This was an interesting story but there is emotional and physical abuse in it.
Soooo.
At first I thought this book was going to be downright fun. I should have known better, considering the author. I thoroughly enjoyed the hero acting like an idiot. However, I found his abrupt turnaround from his initial reaction/feelings to be too extreme and the was he treated Ellisande bizarre and beyond mean.
I still love Thomas’s writing though, and these complaints weren’t bad enough for me to rate it any lower.
At first I thought this book was going to be downright fun. I should have known better, considering the author. I thoroughly enjoyed the hero acting like an idiot. However, I found his abrupt turnaround from his initial reaction/feelings to be too extreme and the was he treated Ellisande bizarre and beyond mean.
I still love Thomas’s writing though, and these complaints weren’t bad enough for me to rate it any lower.
I was only looking for a quick, pass-the-time kind of romance, and I should've known that Sherry Thomas would've delivered more!
I know I'm a fickle romance reader. One trope that I love will be the one I hate in the next book because it's overdone. I just finished Duran's Written on Your Skin about both MCs hiding behind masks with intrigue and the heroine's family and background consisting of danger and physical abuse. I was less than impressed, sadly, and almost shut this book down when I realized it was very nearly the same premise...
I'm so glad I didn't!
Vere is a spy, but also a very public Marquess. In order to hide his spy ruse, he has adopted a sweetly dim-witted personality after a conveniently timed horse accident that supposedly knocked his brain around - 13 years ago. Talk about dedication to the craft.
Elissande (a mix of Eleanore and Cassandra, turns out, and is now my new favorite name) is trapped under her uncle's roof, mainly because her physically abusive uncle is keeping the aunt drugged up, and Ellie refuses to leave her aunt out of fear of what the uncle will do.
The uncle is the lure - he's potentially, probably, a criminal mastermind.. hence what brings in the spies. Once the spies infiltrate the house as supposed house guests, Elissande grabs for her chance at freedom and creates a typical caught-in-the-act scandal to induce marriage.
I picked this book after doing a Goodreads search for "aggressive heroines" or "alpha heroines" ... oddly, it doesn't fit those categories, but I still loved it.
Ellie isn't aggressive or alpha. She's desperate, which makes her appear emboldened and forthright. She creates the ruse to make Vere marry her. She pushes for marital sex. She seeks him out. She touches him first. She wants the marriage with all the goods. He is reluctant because he's perpetually alone due to spyhood, but also intensely lonely because of the same. I loved Elissande because her background was perfectly characterized by Vere - she's a survivor, even better than someone who just exists through pain; she lived through it and it didn't twist her. She still retains gratitude and hope and love. I found that powerful. A true alpha heroine of Thomas' would've been in her Not Quite a Husband novel...
Vere - sigh :-) some hated his idiot act because they felt it diminished him as a man. To me, that didn't bother me at all. I know that spies led double lives, and I had grown tired of the Batman thing where the double life is the Batman vs the hedonistic playboy. I saw this as kinda comical, really. I loved that Ellie figured it out before he told her :-) I loved that the author had her hero feeling emotion - most especially, tenderness and tears at certain parts.
There's a secondary romance in here that I also enjoyed! Secondary romances rarely detract from the storyline for me (UGH, Except you, Kleypas' Again the Magic...), so this one was sweet and spicy :-)
I know I'm a fickle romance reader. One trope that I love will be the one I hate in the next book because it's overdone. I just finished Duran's Written on Your Skin about both MCs hiding behind masks with intrigue and the heroine's family and background consisting of danger and physical abuse. I was less than impressed, sadly, and almost shut this book down when I realized it was very nearly the same premise...
I'm so glad I didn't!
Vere is a spy, but also a very public Marquess. In order to hide his spy ruse, he has adopted a sweetly dim-witted personality after a conveniently timed horse accident that supposedly knocked his brain around - 13 years ago. Talk about dedication to the craft.
Elissande (a mix of Eleanore and Cassandra, turns out, and is now my new favorite name) is trapped under her uncle's roof, mainly because her physically abusive uncle is keeping the aunt drugged up, and Ellie refuses to leave her aunt out of fear of what the uncle will do.
The uncle is the lure - he's potentially, probably, a criminal mastermind.. hence what brings in the spies. Once the spies infiltrate the house as supposed house guests, Elissande grabs for her chance at freedom and creates a typical caught-in-the-act scandal to induce marriage.
I picked this book after doing a Goodreads search for "aggressive heroines" or "alpha heroines" ... oddly, it doesn't fit those categories, but I still loved it.
Ellie isn't aggressive or alpha. She's desperate, which makes her appear emboldened and forthright. She creates the ruse to make Vere marry her. She pushes for marital sex. She seeks him out. She touches him first. She wants the marriage with all the goods. He is reluctant because he's perpetually alone due to spyhood, but also intensely lonely because of the same. I loved Elissande because her background was perfectly characterized by Vere - she's a survivor, even better than someone who just exists through pain; she lived through it and it didn't twist her. She still retains gratitude and hope and love. I found that powerful. A true alpha heroine of Thomas' would've been in her Not Quite a Husband novel...
Vere - sigh :-) some hated his idiot act because they felt it diminished him as a man. To me, that didn't bother me at all. I know that spies led double lives, and I had grown tired of the Batman thing where the double life is the Batman vs the hedonistic playboy. I saw this as kinda comical, really. I loved that Ellie figured it out before he told her :-) I loved that the author had her hero feeling emotion - most especially, tenderness and tears at certain parts.
There's a secondary romance in here that I also enjoyed! Secondary romances rarely detract from the storyline for me (UGH, Except you, Kleypas' Again the Magic...), so this one was sweet and spicy :-)
Pessoalmente considerei esta obra uma excelente fonte de entretenimento, uma janela perfeita para outras épocas, com laivos de sensualidade e bonitas descrições para a palavra amor.
Os personagens conquistaram-me pela sua inteligência e força psicológica sem no entanto, ao longo da narrativa, esconderem as suas fragilidades, o que me permitiu usufruir de um final brilhante.
A forma como os protagonistas inibiram o seu passado misterioso, permitiu-me uma compreensão total das suas atitudes e o desenrolar dos desenvolvimentos, que foi, na minha opinião, bastante audaz, transformou a união do casal principal em algo muito divertido mas que consegue manter presente a noção de seriedade que implica pertencer a elitista sociedade inglesa, muito rígida nos seus valores.
Tal como no livro anterior considerei a escrita da autora maravilhosa, transmitindo as emoções certas, dos sorrisos às lágrimas, do êxtase ao medo que nem a paixão consegue serenar. Em suma, tudo se conjuga na perfeição para as últimas 150 páginas do livro que são, simplesmente, arrebatadoras.
Opinião completa: http://historiasdeelphaba.blogspot.pt/2012/06/promessas-de-amor-sherry-thomas-opiniao.html
Os personagens conquistaram-me pela sua inteligência e força psicológica sem no entanto, ao longo da narrativa, esconderem as suas fragilidades, o que me permitiu usufruir de um final brilhante.
A forma como os protagonistas inibiram o seu passado misterioso, permitiu-me uma compreensão total das suas atitudes e o desenrolar dos desenvolvimentos, que foi, na minha opinião, bastante audaz, transformou a união do casal principal em algo muito divertido mas que consegue manter presente a noção de seriedade que implica pertencer a elitista sociedade inglesa, muito rígida nos seus valores.
Tal como no livro anterior considerei a escrita da autora maravilhosa, transmitindo as emoções certas, dos sorrisos às lágrimas, do êxtase ao medo que nem a paixão consegue serenar. Em suma, tudo se conjuga na perfeição para as últimas 150 páginas do livro que são, simplesmente, arrebatadoras.
Opinião completa: http://historiasdeelphaba.blogspot.pt/2012/06/promessas-de-amor-sherry-thomas-opiniao.html
Why Freddy and angelica too. Give them their own book. For that 6/10
Incredibly silly premise. Lying about your own intelligence to all of your acquaintances and loved ones for 13 years sounds exhausting. Feels like there are at least a dozen smarter and simpler ways to seem unassuming in order to spy effectively. The cartoonishly evil uncle was perfectly menacing and his threat always looming was really well done. You could really feel Elissande’s desperation to get out from under his thumb. I wasn’t too on board with their love connection until after Elissande and Vere were married. Before that, we’re pretty much just told that they think the other one is hot (we’re told Elissande looks like Vere’s dream girl), but they’re otherwise lying to and manipulating each other into getting what they want out of them. And even when after they’re married and it’s finally time to put their cards on the table and atone for the ways they’ve both screwed up with each other, that’s when the external drama re-emerges and shifts focus away from dealing with any of that satisfyingly.
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Alcohol
Moderate: Death of parent